On The Margins

Hi, good to see you. An amazing selection of recordings this month, including some space-age pop, noisy forró, proggy post-punk, and newly unearthed cosmic electro-acoustic sounds. Something for everyone then.

Voluntários da Pátria – Voluntários da Pátria (Baratos Afins Records)

A lovely gatefold vinyl edition celebrates the 40th anniversary, remastered re-release of this seminal São Paulo post-punk classic (I know that seminal is so overused nowadays but the sole recording from this band does deserve the adjective). Voluntarios da Pátria were made up of key players in the 80s post-punk scene, among them Miguel Barella from Agentss, Nasi from Ira!, and Thomas Pappon from Fellini. The list of influences reflects the times: Gang of Four, The Cure, Talking Heads and Television. But what made them even more unorthodox were the touches of progressive rock they brought with them, clear traces of King Crimson, for example. “Cadê o Socialismo” (Where is Socialism), a song written during the dictatorship when there was no democracy in Brazil, was a dancefloor hit in the clubs like the legendary Madam Satã. “Iô Iô” is dadaist XTC and “Marcha” shows the influence of Robert Fripp and his “Frippertronics” guitar effects. To celebrate the re-release the band played a one-off gig in São Paulo, which I unfortunately missed. It would be a shame if they didn’t play any more.

PUSHER174 – Missão Suicida (Self-released)

Coming over like a Brazilian Sleaford Mods, this is angry punk-rock with laptop beats, raw chunky guitar and splenetic and furious vocals about how fucked-up everything is. They keep a low profile so I can’t give you too much information, but listen to a track like “18 dentes” and you’ll get a good idea of what they’re about and how good they can be. If I were 15 years old and pissed off at the world, this would be my soundtrack!

Rod Krieger – A Assembleia Extraordinária (Self-released)

Produced in solitude in the small village of Sobral do Parelhão, in the Portuguese countryside,  Krieger, a Brazilian expat,  works with an intriguing mix of Aphrodite’s Child, Beto Guedes, Arnaldo Baptista, Bob Dylan, The Pretty Things, and electronic beats. Krieger plays almost all the instruments on this his second album, though he’s been busy producing indigenous artist Owerá, and touring with the power trio Quebra Coco. There’s some nicely produced psychedelic space-age pop on this album, such as “Cai o Sol e Sobe a Lua”,  which has a baggy-inspired shuffle beat and infectious chorus. “Cabelos Longos”, with its sitar, sounds like an updated version of the psychedelic sertão folk-rock of Zé Ramalho, which is no bad thing at all.

Robinson Borba – Cauda da Galáxia (self-released/Dist. Tratore)

Probably the best way to introduce Robinson Borba would be to say that he’s the producer of Arrigo Barnabe’s Clara Crocodilo, a classic album from the Vanguarda Paulistana movement, which mixed atonalism and serialism with MPB. In the forty-year gap between his first album and this release, Borba has been working as an engineer in the field of urban planning in Londrina, Paraná, but with the help of Ricardo Prado and Tatá Aeroplano he recorded these compositions that he dug up from the 80s and 90s. Borba describes the music as a bit sertanejo with a neo-caipira sound. “Manhã de Sol” is a strummed country-ish tune, but with tales of “bombs in Copacabana”. “Marta Asterisco” sounds like it comes from the Vanguarda Paulistana, an itchy samba with chicken-scratch guitar, and “Pobre Garota” is a shuffling distortion of psychedelic MPB. 

Paal Nilsson-Love – NOR-BRA LOVE 3:3 (Selo SESC)

A live recording from 2023 of an improvised Norwegian/Brazilian collaboration featuring drummer Nilsson-Love, accordionist Kalle Moberg, Vanessa Ferreira on double bass, and percussionist Pablo Carvalho, among others. The basis for the playing was a type of Norwegian folk song, lydarslått, and an unfinished piece of music by Negro Leo. An excellent and quite accessible (at times) session transpires, taking in bouncing, restless improv-style percussion, wheezing horns, and noisy forró, bringing together two cultures which could not be more different. 

Fernando TRZ – Matrizes (Brasil Discos)

This is a well-produced collection of tracks by Fernando “TRZ” Falcoski where he seems to be flexing his playing and production skills. He began working in independent music at the end of the 1990s in the interior of São Paulo, as a member of the band Mercado de Peixe, and also as a producer for the Coletivo Samacô label. Later, he returned to the city of São Carlos, where he joined Os Caramelows, backing up the much acclaimed singer, Liniker. On this recording each track follows a specific musical aesthetic including Afrobeat, electronica, jazz, soul, and dub, the concept being sounds and influences from the Black Atlantic. For example “Nascente” is a heavy dub rocker, though the bass line is a bit too jazzy and complex for a simple pastiche, while “Aura” is a full-on 70s jazz fusion odyssey.

Displicina – As Núpcias Ósseas (Rubedo Discos)

Just as I finished reading the story of Some Bizarre Records, “Conform to Deform”, this release landed in my inbox. Sounding like it could have come from Stevo’s wildly variable label is this sample-filled post-punk oddity, full of esoteric secrets and snippets of occulture. It’s mainly put together by bassist Fernando Bones though heavily guided by former rock critic Alex Antunes, São Paulo’s answer to Charles Bukowski or maybe Richard Metzger. “Almoço nu” (Naked lunch) sounds like an 80s Foetus production with its clanging loop and overcharged chaotic chorus. “Os Bones de Ofício (que Mario)” has a popping bass line and a rattling percussive sample that recalls Antunes’ 80s project, Akira S e as Garotas Que Erraram, an under-appreciated addition to the São Paulo post-punk canon. There’s a host of contributors adding instruments, loops, texts, ideas, and voices, including a recording of now deceased Jhonn Balance from Coil on “Friedkin:Pasolini”, which further connects this to Some Bizarre. As with all of Antunes’ projects, well worth checking out if these sounds appeal to you.

Alphayatch meets Bernardo Pacheco – Cortes & Costura (Hominis Canidae Records)

This is made from recordings of Bernardo Pacheco improvising on the guitar at Tipitina, a bar in São Paulo. Bruno Abdala, from Goiás, dissected the recording, zooming in on the small riffs and motifs that emerged throughout the piece. This led to Cortes & Costura, the costura is the cortes (cuts) sewn together to make a patchwork collage piece, sampling from various sources and weaving them into Berna’s sound. So, you get two long pieces and then the individual “cuts” are the separated tracks within each set. Each long collage is a fidgety piece, jumping from infectious break beats to mechanical rhythms and non-fluid structures, but always keeping your attention.

Jorge Antunes – “Big Bang” (Xxtra discos)

Jorge Antunes is an absolute pioneer of electro-acoustic music in Brazil, exploring the intersections between sound, electronics and visual art. In 1961 Antunes founded the Centro de Pesquisas Cromo-Musicais, researching the link between sounds and colours. In 1962 he composed the renowned “Valsa Sideral”, the first Brazilian piece composed solely with electronics, which can be found on his extremely rare 1975 album Musica Eletronica, a fascinating contemporary classical recording of entirely wild electronic sounds. This is the debut release on this new label put together by y966, whom I reviewed last column. These are two unreleased pieces by Antunes, but representative of his electro-acoustic sound, it’s excitingly cosmic with celestial bodies colliding into each other followed by a calm as the space dust dissipates and the klangs turn into calming drones.

Maria Beraldo – Colinho (RISCO)

Beraldo, a singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Florianópolis, is a founding member of Quartabê, a strange and idiosyncratic quartet who released an album earlier this year interpreting the work of Dorival Caymmi. Here she mixes electronic and acoustic timbres to create music that walks the line between the experimental, contemporary classical, and pop. The title track which opens the album uses intense electronic glitches and dissonant piano chords to create an erotic, experimental funk. Drums and piano roll and clash on “Baleia”, originally by Juçara Marçal, from her Delta Estacio Blues. “Matagal” features the distinctive voice of Zélia Duncan accompanied by little more than an acoustic guitar. Negro Léo and Ana Frango Elétrico also make their obligatory appearances, and the album closes with a version of “Minha Missão,”  a straightforward samba by João Nogueira and Paulo César Pinheiro, featuring voice, cavaquinho and saxophone.

Bruno Schiavo –  A Vida Só Começou (QTV)

Originally released on RockIt! and now just re-released on the always reliable QTV, who have a knack for sniffing out the idiosyncratic in Brazilian pop, I must admit it completely passed me by when it came out in 2020. It’s a heady mix of new wave MPB and indie pop: I mean, just look at the line up of first rate contributors: Eduardo Manso, Thiago Nassif, Pedro Manso, and vocal contributions from Ava Rocha and Ana Frango Elétrico; pretty impressive. Musically it travels the Dutra highway between the music scenes of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, while poking its nose around Brazilian “metapop”. An example would be “Playback”, which reminds me of Teenage Fanclub, complete with (deliberately?) inane lyrics: I mean, “I love you, so whatcha gonna do?” is worthy of Oasis.

Also of interest:

Global Loss – Ekpyrosis (Ligo do Vento Divino)

The League of the Divine Wind from Rio de Janeiro are a mysterious lot, though I know that this is about to get a release from a UK label. The album plays a nice line in Gothic ambient and dungeon synths with a ritualistic feel like it’s being played on a broken down Fairlight sampler. I will be looking out for more from this label.

BIKE – “Cedro (Glue Trip Remix)” (BIKE records)

I saw Glue Trip play live recently and it was an excellent show of shoe-gazey psych. In lieu of a new release, they’ve just done this dubbed-out remix of fellow psychedelic troubadours, BIKE.

Thomas Simon Vortex – Live from Planet Earth (Self-released)

Vortex travels round the world finding musical partners to collaborate with. The first part of this album was recorded in Salvador, where he worked with percussionist Ícaro Sá, from Baiana System and candomblé practitioners Aguidavi do Jêje, to create a distorted version of North African desert blues. “In gandanken verloren” was recorded at underground club Audio Rebel in Rio de Janeiro and is a nicely wailing piece of doomy guitar-wrangling. 

Disstantes – “Sangre de Barrio Rebajada” (Self-released)

A drunken cumbia remix of this slice of underground political rap from upstart Rio experimental rappers that features Planet Hemp’s BNegão. Their debut album Apocalipto from 2020 was a great example of noisy musical disturbance putting the pandemic to good use and owed quite a bit to rap-rockers Defalla and the productions of Edu K. This single is a taster for a new album coming soon.

Cover photo of Voluntario de Patria courtesy of J.R. Duran.

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