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The first time out for this buried treasure recorded in 1977 at Columbia Studios in New York with Claus Ogerman.
Featuring fellow Brazilians Mauricio Maestro, Nana Vasconcelos and Tutty Moreno, and in-demand statesiders including Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell and Buster Williams, it kicks off with a sensational eleven-minute version of her anthemic Feminina. Check out Descompassadamente, too. Lovely stuff.
Balmily sublime bossa nova from 1971, when Nara was living in Paris.
The first LP is spare and intimate acoustic recordings, a bit like demos, but exquisitely poignant, with killing-it-softly singing over delicate guitar accompaniment (and occasional simple piano); the second gives vocals and guitar an orchestral setting, with spacious, sensitively variegated arrangements by Roberto Menescal, Luiz Eça, and Rogério Duprat.
Gorgeous, warmly enveloping music; good for the soul.
An unassuming classic.
The unique and magical sound of Los Siquicos Litoraleños (The Littoral Psychics), as fermented in the rural north of Argentina, land of gauchos, mate tea, chamamé folk music and Psilocybe Cubensis.
‘The contemporary group you keep hoping exist, but can never find. If you were to reach for spiritual comparisons, you wouldn’t be forgetting the most spirited moments from Sun City Girls, Butthole Surfers, Faust, Os Mutantes, Captain Beefheart or The Residents’ (Mark Gergis).
From 1980, Recife, Brazil: ‘crazed ethno folkrock; magical, gentle, jungle folk psych zones; hard-hitting, coke-dusted fuzz rock; insane mutant disco dancefloor groove; tweaked Americana; acid vocal raga trance.’
Ace Brazilian funk from 1977, with a flagrant dose of the Herbies.
This is terrific.
Brazilian post-punk, art rock and DIY from 1988, released here for the first time, by the duo Celso Alves and Kodiak Bachine (whose records with the band Agentss are desperately sought-after nowadays).
Dubwise and rhythmic, percussive and synthy, with tangy Brazilian roots, and a droll humour to its reflections on embalming, LSD and zombies, the music freewheels roughly and vividly from the truffling, chattering, tropical atmospherics of the opener, through to the machine-funk, Romeroesque terrors of the Greenhouse Massacres, to close.
Sung in Portuguese and English, studded with Spanish, French and German, the lyrics are reproduced on an insert. Pressed at Pallas.
Ace. Check it out.
Their debut album from 1968 is fittingly the best way in.
A classic: musically kaleidoscopic, frolicsome, and revolutionary.
In the new Luminessence series of ECM’s vinyl-reissues: audiophile pressings in elegant, high-quality editions, with tip-on gatefold sleeves including new liner notes.
Deep, vibesing, rootical excursions in Brazilian percussion, especially berimbau; originally released by Saravah in 1973.
Newly remastered from the master tapes; gatefold sleeve.
Fabulous.
Music for a ballet telling the life of of a daughter of a black slave, recorded in 1974 by the likes of Nana Vasconcelos, Joao Donato, Paulinho Jobim, and members of Som Imaginario; and containing the definitive versions of some of MN’s most iconic songs, including Os Escravos De Jó and Maria Maria.
‘Sheer beauty’ (The Guardian). ‘You don’t need to understand a word to realise that this is awesome music’ (Time Out).