On The Margins

Greetings. This month I bring you a lot of head-rattling noise, from the outer fringes of baile funk to experimental avant-metal, but there’s also some beautiful acoustic singer-songwriting, eighties art-pop, in fact something for (just about) everyone.

Rés – Peba (Hominis Canidae REC)

If there’s an album that’s been criminally overlooked this year, it’s this gem of a release by Rés Cruzatto. It’s an elegant and introspective solo album from this non-binary singer which should be celebrated as much as the recent works of solo artists such as Bruno Berle and Lau Ro: artists that have a similar sensibility, writing from a gender queer perspective, giving them a more contemporary and complex angle. The album is a mix of falsetto vocals, finely plucked bossa nova lines with flourishes of almost classical guitar, entirely recorded at home in São Paulo. However, it still manages to sound remarkable. Opening track “Reviravolta” sets the tone, sprightly bossa nova with funky flute, and is likened to a “desperate cry for us to break free of the shackles that prevent us from organizing ourselves in a truly effective way … seeking a real sense of belonging, a community, a territory.” I feel that. The title track uses the northeastern coco rhythm with a touch of bass, “Peba” being an expression that means having no value or importance. “Elementar” refers to the four elements, and is influenced by the guitar of Elomar, the erudite composer of musica caipira. Rés uses this influence to create a pungent brew of pagan country music. The haunting “Piedra y Camino” is one of the covers on the album and was originally by Atahualpa Yupanqui, the legendary Argentine folk musician. Throw a few dollars his way so he can make a follow up to this excellent release.

Kombi – Alimento a Dor (Self Released)/Test & Deafkids – Sem Esperanças (All Music Matters/Rapid Eye Records)

This is a wonderful record to fully immerse yourself into. João Kombi is the guitarist in avant-metal duo Test, along with drummer, Barata. Alimento o Dor (feed the pain) is his solo effort where he luxuriates in a dense, rich, layered wall-of-sound of guitar effects, creating a buzzing earth-moving drone. “Sinais de Alerta” sounds like JK Flesh in his techno incarnation, but there’s no techno kick drum, just a loop and shimmering effects in the background. “Individuo” is the monolithic undertow of Earth 2 but on a miniscule budget, relishing the sustain of the guitar, the listener enveloped in its noise. 

Test team up with echo-abusing punk metallers Deafkids for a ferocious collaboration after playing more than one hundred live shows together. The result is an excellent combination of gruff death metal vocals, very heavy distorted riffing, electronic ambient textures and complex tribal drumming; they even manage to chuck in a bit of metallic berimbau.

Fronte Violeta – S/T (Other People)

Multidisciplinary artist Anelena Toku and composer, musician and producer Carla Boregas, from Ratka, work together to make Fronte Violeta. This album, released on a New York label, is a mixture of short electro-acoustic and electronic music compositions with a couple of longer pieces using the field recordings that Boregas recorded in Massaguaçu, on the coast of São Paulo, combined with fragments and sounds from their previous body of work. Nicholas Jaar had a hand in mixing the album, no doubt having to solve the issue of finding the right levels for the featured gong and feather. It actually works as one long piece and is quite audiovisual in parts with the delicate synth tones contrasting with the clattering found objects.

Bike – Noise Meditations (Self Released)

We premiered the lead single “Sucuri” back in July, as we in the music team at Sounds and Colours Towers endeavour to bring you worthwhile exclusives whenever we can. Here is the full album and it’s an excellent example of Brazilian psyche with its concept right there in the title. “The idea was to create a sound guided by noise and drones, accompanied by repetitive beats and percussion to evoke the feeling of music for meditating in chaos. We wrote short lyrics that stick in your head like small mantras,” Julio Cavalcante, vocalist and guitarist, explains. The droning guitar noise brings to mind the tanpura from Indian classical music, there are also motorik drums from Krautrock, elements of free jazz, the guitar clang of Sonic Youth, as well as the Brazilian influences of Pedro Santos’ cosmic indigenous album Krishnanda, and Paêbiru by Zé Ramalho and Lula Côrtes, both stone-cold classics from Brazilian psychedelic music.  

Congadar – Aprendi Com Meus Antepassados (Forestlab)

Congadar are formed from two groups, Ganga Bruta and the original Congadar. They play music with a pronounced Afro-Brazilian heritage using at the forefront the rhythmic traditions of Congado, a syncretic cultural and religious expression tied to African traditions and Catholicism, while looking to the future with elements of Afro-futurism. At times the combination of rock guitar and percussion could be Recife mangue-beat though filtered through the mountains of Minas Gerais, while “Promessa ao Gantois”, a homage to Candomblé originally by the highly melodic Os Tincoãs, innovators in combining Afro-Brazilian music and vocal harmonies, is accompanied by samba singer Teresa Cristina, who lends it a more gentle touch. It’s a fine example of Congado rhythms blended with other Brazilian styles, such as Milton Nascimento’s Clube da Esquina movement.

Various Artists – Dobs Vol. 1 (Doblado records)

A brand new label set on investigating the outer limits of Brazilian dub. This eight-track compilation features six Brazilian artists who have adapted the style to their work. Trajano’s “Vertical Dub” is like something straight out of ’90s Bristol, Rootsman style. There’s two dub techno tracks from “Unknown Artist”, though “Dub Tool 1.5” works better with its Chain Reaction click track and evolving repetition. And there’s a couple of unreleased and experimental pieces by Natkondo which are worth your time.

JLZ & GG – Medio Grave (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

JLZ is the DJ and producer behind this mixtape while the GG is journalist and cultural commentator GG Albuquerque, who runs the Embrazado site. I imagine he did the research and came up with the concept as he specialises in investigating the roots of popular music in Brazil and how they relate to the Afro-diaspora. Though what is on the mixtape may have originated from forró, this is a long way from the traditional northeastern style played on accordion, triangle and zabumba drum; this is more piseiro, a style derived from forró, where videos can be seen online of shuffling dancers raising dust in the backlands of the sertão. The role of presets on cheap keyboards cannot be understated in the development of popular music in Latin America, as demonstrated in the beats on display here. The distorted timbres all add to the charm, but remember what may be outsider music to western ears is a darn good Saturday night out to someone in the developing backlands.

Akira Umeda & Metal Preyers – Clube de Mariposa Mórbida (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

Just to say that this column has been on the case in regard to Akira Umeda for a while, whether it’s covering his extensive and constantly updating Bandcamp page, his superb double album set released by Lugar Alto or his mixtape Gueixa. Nyege Nyege Tapes, who have taken a sudden interest in all things Brazilian, have finally caught up with his talents and teamed him up with their regular artist Jesse Hackett to make this trans-global collage. Hackett sent snippets and concepts which Umeda translated and interpreted in his own manner. The sheets of electronic noise from the title track sound like shifting tectonic plates of sound, while elsewhere tablas, over-driven psych guitars, cryptic chimes and micro-tonal reed echoes are scattered around to create these creepily engaging collaborations.

Beiramaquina – Modus Ofengati de Beiramaquina (Self released)

The debut album of Ceará-based musician, composer, visual artist, and music producer Davi Serrano is a pleasant art-pop surprise. Sprinkled with sounds of train rides, streets, and other spaces of contemplation, it uses electronic sequences with processed vocals, guitars, piano, interfering noises, and whatever else comes that takes his fancy. The result is a very listenable album full of warm interesting sounds enveloped in poppy structures. It sounds like it’s influenced equally by Kraftwerk and Jõao Gilberto and everything that can be found in between.

DUPLA 02, Thalin, ENOW – Eterna Promessa Mixtape (Universal Music)

Last year Thalin was part of the collective of rappers and producers that released the remarkable Maria Esmeralda, a complex conceptual tapestry of story-telling, MPB and rap using laid-back beats and referential samples. While this new mixtape, his first release since the acclaim of Maria Esmeralda, doesn’t have the same conceptual heft, there are plenty of examples of the same imaginative production, though with a completely different feel to the boom-bap of ME. “Fake Kelly” is particularly busy with heavy drums and jazzy riffs, and there’s even room for a ballad. Thalin may be Brazil’s Tyler the Creator, a true original and ever evolving.

d.silvestre – Oque as Mulheres Querem (Self-released)

Yes, what do women want? I wonder if it’s this ball of noise. Baile funk, yet again, being pushed to extremes. Of course a funk album this confrontational could only come from São Paulo and he has an album from last year called Espanta Gringo – “scare off foreigner” – but I think he’s done the opposite of that by the look of the Pitchfork review this album received. There’s plenty of Euro-dance beats, for example on “Dona Brisa” which mixes high pitched tuin noise with quite a pedestrian house beat. But I was taken aback by tracks like “Ela Trava” where the minimalist down-tuned bass just buzzes as MC du Red spits his filthy rhymes. There’s no break to release the tension, just oscillating noise. “A Sacanagem Comecou” follows a similar formula, droning electro buzzing and looped nonsensical syllables.

Haroldo Bontempo – Voz e Violão (self-released)/Haroldo Bontempo – Santuario (self-released)

Because there’s a lot of noise in this month’s column, maybe you need something a little less taxing for your head. Voz e Violão is just that, a lone live recording of voice and acoustic guitar. Minimal, simply arranged songs just demonstrating the craft that Bontempo, from Belo Horizonte, has mastered.

The single “Santuario”, however, more elaborately arranged, with plucked harp and sitar textures, is a lovely moment. The always-great Paulo Santos provides percussion and “ambience”.

Zopelar – Call it Love (Apron Records)

In-demand São Paulo producer Pedro Zopelar knocks out yet another album, his follow up from last year’s Ritmo Freak. And, guess what, he can still produce effortlessly sounding commercial dance music that takes in the last 40 years of dance music production. “Pixta” sounds like the ’80s wrapped in a bag of spangles, all early house drum programming and infectious nostalgic sample stabs. “Je t’aime” with L’homme Statue is, as with all their collaborations, a joyous celebratory slice of house. One day this man will have a massive pop hit (maybe).

Delusis – Imerso (Carmen Records)

Dimetrius Ferreira, from Rio Grande do Norte and formerly known for his work with Mahmed, releases this solo debut. This short EP combines elements of atmospheric shoegaze and post-punk with ethereal guitars, poppy synthesizers, and quiet-quiet-loud structures, all effectively recorded at home.

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