Naquêl Tempo Câ Tinha

Elísio Gomes & Papá de Betina hail from Santa Catarina on Cape Verde's island of Santiago. Both were in their mid-20s when they moved to Portugal from their home country. Needless to say, the music from Cape Verde left deep traces, but they were not averse to trying new things. This album, their first and probably only full collaboration, casts the net pretty wide, from the infallibly infectious rhythms of funaná (featured in ‘Tchica’ and the title-track), to music with clear Haitian overtones and ‘Quand Je Telephone’, which feels very much inspired by the Cameroonian makossa master San Fan Thomas, who was making waves at roughly the same time as these two.

This was recorded in 1989, and while it has all the charms of the time, it also has some of the drawbacks, most prominently among them the extensive use of truly cheesy keyboards. ‘Patron’ starts with one of those sounds and never recovers. These also disfigure an otherwise pretty credible morna (‘Flor’), almost halfway through the album. Papá de Betina passed away shortly after the news broke that he and Gomes were going to add their live presence to the album's revival. It would have been interesting to see how today's Cape Verdean public would have received this album live all these years later, especially within a contemporary music scene that has changed so much.