The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Tejo-Instituto

(photo by uncleweed)

The song Ohhh! isn't nearly as pornographic as it's title suggests. We looked briefly at Instituto before, and this is Rica Amabis and Tejo Damasceno working on their own material this time (as opposed to the previous remix). So let's have a look at this song and see why the erotic exhalation of the title has been applied, shall we?

On first listen, this is another of those tracks which this cd is all about, cool percussion, female vocals, a bit of a samba. But listen a bit deeper and it's all a lot more involved than that. From the computer voices to the jostling vocal samples, from the repetitive, muted guitar motif to the synthed-up brass melodies. It's consistently interesting in a way that little of these days' electronica is: lots going on, all sorts of crazy different things happening, but set to an accessible backbeat and, as always, immediately evocative of the artistes' homeland. On close inspection, I'd go so far as to label it a highlight here, and the slightly breathless female vocalist clearly agrees. While, as I said, it's not so vividly erotic as you might imagine, there's enough sensual indulgence here to appeal to the most sordid mind, as long as that sordid mind was also willing to dance sexy on the beach.

So, not perverted at all, but a little bit of a surreptitious thrill - isn't that what you look for in music? Not to have the senses as the main, let's see, thrust of the piece, but certainly have them tickled. There's enough going on here to appeal to the individual that's looking for a pop song to dance to, or an electronica beat to analyse, or a sultry song to get them in the mood. Good job Amabis & Damasceno.

The Music
Tejo-Instituto - Ohhh!

The 'fo
Artist: Rica Amabis
Recommended: Colecao Nacional
Label: Trama
Buy: Amazon; Rough Guide
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Rica Amabis - Sambadelic
Tags: Brazil; Rough Guide; Rica Amabis; Tejo Damasceno; Instituto; electronica

Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Rica Amabis

(photo by alexdecarvalho)

Not too many of the artists on this CD borrow heavily from the Tropicalia movement that marked Brazilian music out as not only cool, but aware, active and exciting. That was of course almost 40 years ago, but given that such Tropicalismo titans as Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso and Tom Zé are still performing and are well respected, something can be said of the short-lived genre's lasting impact.

Rica Amabis, or at least his track on the Rough Guide CD (Mulata Assanhada), owes a lot to the movement without being unpleasantly derivative. There's the same samba/funk-based, highly eclectic backing with Amabis' slightly out-there vocal style cackling over the top, there's the sultry girl singer, the butt-shaking grooves so redolent of party time in Rio. Or how one would imagine it to be.

The song is taken from the 2000 album Sambadelic, apparently seen as something of a touchstone in modern Brazilian music. I have to confess to not having heard the album in it's entirety, but Amazon's handy pre-listen device can give you some sort of idea. It sounds a lot of fun, a real mixed bag of ideas, by no means operating entirely in an electronica field. Most of this album seems far too diverse to be considered in that category, but there are certainly moments which justify selecting Amabis to feature on the Rough Guide: Vozes De Seca is rough and beaty,

Elsewhere, Marcio Leonardo e Telmo features Brazilian soul legend Tim Maia, and A Falsa Baia is a classic MPB number from the late 60's. All in all, sounds worth investigating.

The Music
Rica Amabis - Mulata Assanhada

The 'fo
Artist: Rica Amabis
Website: Calabash
Recommended: Sambadelic
Label: Sterns
Buy: Amazon; Rough Guide
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Andrea Marquee - Zumbi
Tags: electronica; Brazil; Rica Amabis; Tropicalia

Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Luiz Macedo

(photo be henrie)

The next track in this is another Suba monster, and while I could easily harp on about Senor Subotic, I've already eulogised the late Master Of Colours before, so I'll skip the excellent Samba Do Gringo Paulista for now. That brings us to...

Luiz Macedo. Again, little info around about this feller, but it would seem that rather than go down the smooth chillout route, or the intellectual drum'n'bass, or whatever, he's just gone for happy Brazilian electro-pop. Bossa Nova, Né, today's track is all about the the Casio demo button bassline, the sharp organ, and the synthesised handclap percussion - little variation, little innovation, but when it's this much fun, really, who cares?

To bulk things out, it's worth mentioning Macedo's stint with Karnak, a Brazilian act named after the temple complex on the Nile. Karnak have also members now in Funk Como Le Gusta (remember them?), Pato Fu and Bojo, and featured one Luiz Macedo on electric guitar between 1992 and 1996. This is from the ever-reliable Wikipedia, who also credit one member as Sândalo's dog (1992/1999). This information doesn't really relate to today's track at all, but you can have too much useless Brazilian music trivia, can you? Tell you what, I'll give you a bonus track to keep you interested.

The Music
Luiz Macedo - Bossa Nova, Né
BONUS:
Karnak - Martim Parangolá

The 'fo
Artist: Luiz Macedo
Website: nope
Recommended: Bossa Electramagnetica
Label: Juke
Buy: Amazon
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Sergio Mendes
Tags: Rough Guide; Brazil; electronica; Luiz Macedo

PS - Betty fave Sergius Gregory has a new song up on MySpace, a typically gorgeous, sparse little number called No-One Gets Hurt. I recommend you try it on for size.

Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Superagua

(photo by hugo*)

What does the term 'surf movie' bring to mind? Blue Wednesday or Blue Crush? For me, depressingly enough, it's Point Break, The Busey's finest hour. For Pepé Cesar it's a chance to mix his loves of poetry, surfing and music into movie form, and soundtrack it with today's artists. Superagua's first record was released in 2002 as the soundtrack to Trocando as Bordas, and the group comprise DJ/producer Jonas Rocha and guitarist/composer Ulisses Cappelletti. Working with other notables - up-and-comers such as Sabrina Malheiros, stalwarts like Orlandivo - they've carried on past their original scope to become one of the more interesting acts on the Brazilian electronica scene these days. I mean check them out, they've got a myspace, most of the artists here would struggle to get out of bed on the right day given the amount of information I can find.

Anyway, they check all the boxes they claim to in their bio: funk for sure - there's some of the Sly Stone blissed-out kind of grooves in there; jazz - of course, Brazilian pop has jazz running through it irreversibly, from the ubiquitous funky acoustic guitar chords to the beautiful electric piano; and dub, the unusual one here. Dub is not really something I'd associate with the chilled-out, but still carefully crafted Brazilian electronica I've heard thus far. Dub is substance music; it's music for people who aren't so much interested in a careful craft so much as creating a vibration. But check, the monster bass is in there, the space-FX, it's all good.

At least, on the rest of Superagua's sound. Stylish itself is actually more of the chilled, cool, acoustica with that oh-so-Brazilian acoustic guitar. I kind of want to say that, well, it's quite similar to what the rest of the album is like, it doesn't feature enough of this dub influence that I want to hear. But the fact of the matter is it's really pretty, and another calming tune well worth listening to. So do so.

The Music
Superagua - Stylish

The 'fo
Artist: Superagua
Website: MySpace
Recommended: Superagua EP
Label: Reverberations
Buy: Amazon/The Rough Guide
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Fabio Fabuloso (2004)
Tags: Rough Guide; Brazil; Superagua; funk; jazz; dub

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Rebeca Matta

As promised, right? Today's offering is along different lines to both the chilled grooves and the more frenetic drum'n'bass we've looked at to date. The track is from Matta's 2000 album Garotas Boas Vão Pro Céu, Garotas Más Vão Pra Qualquer Lugar ("Good Girls go to Heaven, Bad Girls go Everywhere"), and is altogether more moody and tempestuous. You see? She looks like that bird from Evanescence.

Matta hails from the Tropicalia stronghold of Salvador, capital of Bahia, but there's little of the playful, chirpy psychedelia of the late 60's in this track. É Que A Vide É... kicks off with a brooding, disorientating sinewave kind of deal, before the loopy, high guitar riff kicks in. Then it's into the almost shouty chorus with it's big old guitars and crunch. It's still electronica really - it's a solo project for a start - but really, it's rooted in the nu-metal that was the thang back in those innocent days. Think System Of A Down influences maybe, think those acts that tried to incorporate tribal percussion in: Ill Nino, even some of Sepultura's efforts. It's pretty heavy at certain points, with the emphasis on an organic percussion style that's chopped up and processed. Much as distaste for nu-metal comes naturally these days, take it in context of 6 years ago and it's a decent track, well-produced and engaging, a lot more so than the fluff that it was competing with it at the time.

The Music

Rebeca Matta - É Que A Vide É...

BONUS: freebie mp3's from Lua Music's website:

Rebeca Matta - Garotas boas vão pro céu, garotas más vão pra qualquer lugar

Rebeca Matta - A mentira

Rebeca Matta - Na cadência do Samba

The 'fo

Artist: Rebeca Matta

Website: rebecamatta.com.br

Recommended: Garotas Boas Vão Pro Céu, Garotas Más Vão Pra Qualquer Lugar

Label: Lua Music

Buy: Amazon/The Rough Guide

More: Hype Machineelbo.ws

If you like this you might like: Ill Niño - Revolution Revolución

Tags: Rough Guide; Brazil; electronica; metal; nu-metal; Rebeca Matta

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Ramiro Musotto

(Ramiro Musotto at work)

Right, so having actually looked in the inlay of the Rough Guide album, there's actually a pile of information about each act on the cd. Curses. Here was me showing up Wikipedia's weaknesses and all along the 'fo was there. Never mind: it means I get to do a proper summary post at the end of the series. Lets get moving, today to Ramiro Musotto.

Background time: Ramiro Musotto is not Brazilian. He's from Patagonia, which according to my vast banks of knowledge is the most arid desert in the world, or something. Whichever, it covers vast tracts of Chile and Argentina, not really Brazil. However, on moving there at age 18, he became, as it were, the percussionist of choice to many of Brazil's top artistes; I'm not kidding, we're talking Marisa Monte, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and if you're providing percussion for some of the giants of Tropicalia, you ain't doing bad for yourself. In solo terms, today's track comes from Musotto's 2003 debut (making it bang up to date when the Rough Guide was released), Sudaka, on the not-for-profit Fast Horse Recordings. The record can be listened to in full (not downloaded though...) from Fast Horse's website, and is a slightly dizzying amalgamation of traditional South American and African music - plenty of rhythmic percussion of their own, and some great chanting to boot (there's a sentence I wouldn't find myself saying often) - with samples and found sound (e.g. Botellero's Bahian street vendor's crys), and more up-to-date electronic backing.

I say up-to-date, Musotto uses predominantly Roland 808's, that synth drum so favoured of the Second Summer of Love's acid house heroes. You wouldn't neccessarily know it though, as because of the traditional instrumentation melded with the beats it doesn't sound retro in the slightest.

I guess when you've got such a rich and diverse heritage as Brazil (not just the traditional Amerindian sounds, but the array of Iberian and Western influences), you'd be hard pushed to exhaust it, and Ramiro Musotto manages to trace a similar path to some of the other artists on the Rough Guide yet remain very much an independent, free-thinking spirit. Sudaka is a pretty fascinating record, and if you're interested in your world music (as I'm slowly becoming) but like it with a more contemporary, less ethno-hippie twist, maybe Musotto's a good place to start. Caminho, the opening track on Sudaka and the Rough Guide selection, is as indicative a song as can be plucked from the album, and features a gentleman by the name of Buziga wailing over berimbau and electronic beats. Good stuff, fella.

The Music
Ramiro Musotto - Caminho

The 'fo
Artist: Ramiro Musotto
Website: ramiromusotto.com
Recommended: Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica, Sudaka
Label: Rough Guide, Fast Horse
Buy: Amazon, Fast Horse
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws; PopMatters review
Tags: Brazil; electronica; Ramiro Musotto; world music; percussion

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Funk Como Le Gusta

(DJ Patife, photo by Gib546)

Funk Como Le Gusta appear to be one of the few acts on this cd sufficiently together enough to run a website. Damned if I can understand what's going on though, my Portuguese ain't so hot. ST2 records is, just about, in the altogether more navigable English, but it doesn't provide much help. To be fair, this remix is almost more about the remixers than the remixed, so let's hope practicalities don't get in the way.

Funk Como Le Gusta are, as to be expected, a funk band from Brazil. However, to qualify for inclusion on this album, their track has Meu Guarda Chuva has been given the drum'n'bass makeover by DJ Patife and Cosmonautics. Patife is best known - to me at least - for his work with Roni Size, and indeed accompanied him on his Mercury-winning New Forms back in ooh, the mists of time. 1997. He's gone on to have a pretty successful career back in Brazil (including soundtracking Cidade de Deus) and in Europe, especially the UK. In fact, given the propensity to d'n'b remixes on this album, it's no wonder he's played Rock In Rio and generally done quite well for himself. Cosmonautics prove a little harder to track down, but they've worked with Patife on more than one occasion.

Enough of the background blurb then, what of the track. Well, it's beat-heavy - what did you expect? - but still very much a Brazilian thing. It's amazing really; if you had to describe what sounds Brazilian, what would you say? Um, congos? That's about all I can think of without resorting to ridiculous, meaningless sentiments. But every track I've covered so far sounds distinctly, and undebatably Brazilian. It's not smothered with that familiar spasmodic jungle beat, but rather the drum'n'bass touch brings out an already iconic sound, the aggressive, but sultry female vocals adding the power. It's definitely dance music, which is actually what drum'n'bass lacks so often - the ability to dance to the music.

The Music

Funk Come Le Gusta - Meu Guarda Chuva (DJ Patife & Cosmonautics remix)

BONUS:

DJ Patife with more smooth d'n'b featuring one Max Vianna. This one's more in the samba/MPB tradition of Brazilian pop, but definitely worth a listen still.

Funk Como Le Gusta, as they more often sound - funky, jazzy and cool, but lacking the bite of the remix.

Cosmonautics - a bit cool, a bit dancey, a bit funky.

The Music

DJ Patife - Enigma (feat. Max Vianna)

Funk Como Le Gusta - SOS
Cosmonautics - So tinha que ser come voce

The 'fo

Artist: Funk Como Le Gusta/DJ Patife/Cosmonautics

Website: funkcomolegusta.com, djpatife.com, MySpace

Recommended: Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica

Label: Rough Guide, ST2

Buy: Amazon

More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws

Tags: Brazil; electronica; drum'n'bass; Funk Como Le Gusta; DJ Patife; Cosmonautics; Max Vianna; remix

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Fernanda Porta

("View from Pedra da Gávea", photo by Christian 3D)

In Europe, or North America, electronic musicians tend to be a fairly earnest bunch. Either they're in the RAM-heavy soft-everything league of using as many different sound effects to make minimal differences to their music, or they're in the see-who-can-use-the most-obscure-sample division, or whatever. Judging by this record, Brazilian's tend to take a more laidback approach, with less of the out-randoming and overthinking - see today's track, by Fernanda Porta. Although utilising drum'n'bass and particularly European electronic styles, the music is essentially samba/bossa nova (which is great for me, I'm listening to a lot of Bebel Gilberto and Celso Fonseca at the mo...), revealing none of the oneupmanship of elsewhere.

The track on the Rough Guide is De Costas Pro Mundo (the coasts pro world, according to Google, although that doesn't make any actual sense). It's a chilled, vocal-led piece with wonderfully subtle beaty touches, leading to a track that chills rather than energises. It's almost approaching the sort of thing you'll find on Balearic chill-out compilations, but without the overly familiar lack of anything approaching different that afflicts these. You have to admit that without the Ibiza-party-central connotations, the idea of sitting in a beach bar watching the sun come up with some mellow, sexy electronica/bossa nova in the background is remarkably appealing.

So: I present that guilt-free chillout track you've been waiting for, in De Costas Pro Mundo. Also available in bonus goodness is some more Porta, this time with some more of Brazil's great DJ's. Sambassim is a Porta signature tune, and is more upbeat and drum'n'bass-y. It was, I'm informed, the UK's biggest-selling drum'n'bass single of 2002. It's less chill-out, more go out, whereas So Tinha Que Ser Com Voce is a fun, funky but still relaxed version of the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic, somewhere between the two.

The Music
Fernanda Porta - De Costas Pro Mundo
Fernanda Porta - Sambassim (Madzoo Jazzy Remix)
DJ Marky & DJ Patife feat. Fernanda Porta - So Tinha Que Ser Com Voce

The 'fo
Artist: Fernanda Porta
Website: fernandaporto.com
Recommended: Fernanda Porta
Label: Trama
Buy: Rough Guide; Tunes
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
Tags: Brazil; electronica; Fernanda Porta; DJ Patife; DJ Marky; drum'n'bass

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Cila Do Coco

(Photo by Lucas Lima)

Time we got this moving. And, typically, it's another where I can find few details about the track or the artists. Taking another well-established singer (like with Claudia Telles), Dona Cila Do Coco, Instituto have remixed this song from it's more traditional routes to the funky, shifting electronica here. Pop Matters agrees with me that this is one of the highlights of the record.

This song is the first real time in the record that it has sounded really tribal, and I have to be careful how I phrase it: I don't want to be getting all colonial on you. But Cila Do Coco is a singer in the more traditional Latin vein, her voice a passionate shriek at times. There are moments (especially at the beginning, before the major remixing work kicks in) that this sounds like something recorded 60 years ago - in fact, when Dona Do Coco was a child. It has a grainy, sepia kind of sound, filtered of course through an almost animal cry. And that continues throughout, from the insistent congas to the chanted backing.

But there's some fascinatingly eclectic remixing here as well. The string sample is a recurring motif, and the vocals are chopped and changed and strung out and mutilated. The result is something that sounds, as I said, in some ways almost ancient, in some ways absolutely cutting edge.

Instituto are a five-man audio-visual unit founded by Rica Amabis, and this is maybe their most famous remix work. It takes the Do Coco track and chops and changes and adds and takes away, and features a notable contribution from Ninja Tune's turntablist Kid Koala. For me, it really sums up what this CD is all about, the fusion of styles matching Brazil's history, politics, culture, you name it, and is a great, funky, and downright cool song.

Cila Do Coco - Juntando Coco (Instituto remix)

Bonus material:
Elza Soares - Mandinguiera (Instituto remix)
This is a more laidback, bossa-y groove, but with the same cool electronica stylings.
Instituto - Cabeça De Nêgo (w/ Sabotage)
Hip-hoppy and hand-clappy
Kid Koala - listen on MySpace

<$>The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica/Cila Do Coco/Instituto/Elza Soares/Kid Koala<$>

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Suba; Macumbalada; Claudia Telles

Tags: Rough Guide; Brazil; electronica; Cila Do Coco; Instituto; Elza Soares; Kid Koala

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Claudia Telles

(Photo by eyecatcher)

Claudia Telles is not what you would call representative of the Brazilian electronica scene. As daughter of Sylvia Telles, one of Brazil's biggest bossa nova stars, she's inherited the baton of the cantaro, the pop singer, the Brazilian icon. Generally speaking, she's not particularly interesting, which sounds kind of harsh, but really her music is fairly ordinary pop with a little samba beat every now and then.

The track here though, is more interesting. Originally by Tom Jobin, Samba De Uma Nota Só (One-Note Samba) been performed by a host of others including Stan Getz, Al Jarreau, Charlie Byrd, Frank Sinatra and of course Sylvia Telles. Claudia Telles' version eschews the sultry samba beat for a more electro-poppy sound, with it's electric guitar breaks and synth drums over the top of the expected congas and acoustic guitar.

There's not a barrel-load of info floating in the ether, not in English at the least - Claudia has a website, and a blog if you read Portuguese, but if not, you'll have to make do with the song.

Claudia Telles - Samba De Uma Nota Só

Bonus: tracks from Claudia's mother Sylvia - one solo (a subtle, swinging bossa nova), one with Trio Irakitan and Nat 'King' Cole (A typically easy-going Cole number, almost like something from a 50's film).

Sylvia Telles - Fotografia
Nat 'King' Cole with Sylvia Telles and Trio Irakitan

<$>The Rough Guide/Claudia Telles/Sylvia Telles/Nat 'King' Cole<$>

Tags: Brazil; electronica; bossa nova; Claudia Telles; Samba De Uma Nota Só; Sylvia Telles; Trio Irakitan; Nat 'King' Cole

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Macumbalada

(Photo by Ana Carmen)

The name of this act rings a bell if only for the Tropicalia classic Bat Macumba. You see the resemblance? But what's a macumba when it's at home? Well, in the Brazilian context in which we dwell, macumba refers to any religion or ritual of African descent, broadened to include anything even remotely witchcraft or arcane-superstition-related. So where does that fit into the popular music canon? Well, Bat Macumba, originally by the heroically beardy Gilberto Gil and later covered magnificently by Os Mutantes apparently twisted a very Brazilian definition into Western pop culture (an approach very much in keeping with the tenets of Tropicalia), referencing Batman in there (see what they did?).

What Macumbalada means though, I've no idea. Answers on a postcard. What it means here is a fairly cool chill-out-y electro track, the kind you can imagine yourself grooving to on a Copacabana evening, sipping a caiparinha under a beach umbrella. As you can tell, I've never been to Brazil, but this sort of fantasy continues to abide - from The Girl From Ipanema onwards, Brazil has always managed to keep political coups and abject poverty out of the headlines, maintaining an effortlessly cool image that tracks like this only propogate.

Information on Macumbalada is scarce-to-none, but they appear to be a DJ collective including one DJ Mystical. Alternate tracks are pretty hard to come by, so again you've got the song from the album - I'm going to try and post different songs by the same groups, else the canny amongst you could get the entire album for free, and that's not the point. Samba Do Morro seems to have done the rounds of several of this kind of compilation though, so I guess it's a good starting point.

Thanks to the joy of t'internet though, I'm happy to present a couple more tracks by DJ Mystical - the first is Buscando A Luz, originally from the City Of God soundtrack (which I still haven't watched, fool that I am), remixed by Mystical. The second is called The Silence Of The Wolves, and it's a remix of an O Discurso song by DJ Mystical and Dave Revival. These names mean little to me, but both tracks are a lot harder edged than the almost Ibiza-comedown stylings of Macumbalada, more like rough-edged drum'n'bass. Worth a listen, but I guess not really appropriate for inclusion on the Rough Guide cd - neither play all that much on the Brazilian thing, which Samba Do Morro's trumpet loops and subtle cool do.

Macumbalada - Samba Do Morro
DJ Mystical - Buscando A Luz (City Of God Remixed)
O Discurso - The Silence Of Wolves (DJ Mystical & Dave Revival Classic Sessions)

Bonus Track:
Os Mutantes - Bat Macumba

Buy the Rough Guide/Macumbalada/DJ Mystical/City Of God

Tags: Brazil; electronica; Macumbalada; DJ Mystical; O Discurso; Dave Revival; City Of God; Tropicalia; Os Mutantes

The Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica: Suba

(Photo by médium)

We're kicking off the new series with something of a legend of the field. Mitar Subotic, aka Suba, died in 1999 trying (or so the legend has it - who are we to argue?) to rescue the tapes of Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo, an album he'd just completed production work on, in a studio fire. He'd just completed his own magnum opus, Sao Paulo Confessions, from which come the songs on the Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica, our latest exploratory series.

Incongruously enough, Subotic was actually Croatian, from Novi Sad, itself something of a melting pot kind of area, although not especially noted for it's Brazilian population. He moved to Brazil in the early nineties, where he first met João Parahyba, a Brazilian percussionist and kindred spirit. Subotic found an outlet in Brazilian music for his classical training and vast music knowledge, and his enthusiasm for experimentation with rhythms and electronics alike. This excellent article highlights some of his earlier, Yugoslavian work - he was one of the country's best-known acts in the 80's, mixing new wave, electronica and funk under the moniker Rex Ilusivi, and his musical exploits took in experiments in sound installations, minimalist art-electronica, jazz, music philosophy, and scores for theatre, ballet, fashion shows, film and TV. Listening to the work the pair did together, you can really highlight Parahyba's Brazilian roots, but not just that, his interest in pushing the envelope, that matched so well with Suba's.

They used to call Suba the Master of Colours, an interesting title for someone who produces his art entirely sonically. But it's appropriate - take a listen to Sereia, one of the best-known tracks from Sao Paulo Confessions and you'll understand why: the filtered, whirling sound creates an uneasy sensation at first listen; but persevere and it's a sound that will ingrain itself into your subconscious, a propulsive, eclectic piece which draws from bossa nova and samba, certainly, with it's frenetic, driving beat and muted organ, but also from a world of different electronic techniques. It seems Suba's driving purpose in life was not to make music to dance to, so much as to push the boundaries of what is considered listenable - not that this approaches noise in anyway, but it's at times an unsettling experience, not knowing quite what's round the bend.

If you're an electronic music maker, then you'll find much to impress you here, and that article includes glowing testimonials from collaborators such as Parahyba and Cibelle Cavalli (who's gaining a lot of fans herself, with her recent album, The Shine Of Dried Electric Leaves) about the processes and techniques used to create a unique sound.

Like the World Cup articles, I think pretty much all the artists on this album are brand new to me, which should be fun. It's started off well - Amazon is on the case already sending me Sao Paulo Confessions, as I'm really interested in how it turns out. Suba sounds like a fascinating character who approaches electronic music with real passion for music itself, something which can sometimes lack in the scramble to make the most out-there sounds. It's very Brazilian, and very exciting, so I look forward to the rest of the series.

The tracks here are the excellent Sereia and A Felicidade, both from Sao Paulo Confessions, and both featuring the breathy, exotic vocals of Cibelle Cavalli. Also featured is a track from Cibelle's solo debut, The Shine Of Dried Electric Leaves, a beautiful, sultry song with a real summer evening feel.

Suba - Sereia
Suba - A Felicidade
Cibelle - Green Grass

<$>Rough Guide To Brazilian Electronica/Suba/Cibelle/Bebel Gilberto/Joao Parahyba<$>

Tags: Brazil; electronica; Suba; Cibelle; Bebel Gilberto; Joao Parahyba; Sao Paulo