Prezident Markon’s New Singles Round-Up:

Imagine my shame and outright horror to discover that my previous round-up dates back to late September. That’s two months or so ago. As Sandy Denny once sang, “Who knows where the time goes?” (Incidentally, my First Lady once baby-sat for the prematurely departed songbird. Name-drop, moi?)

COLECTIVA: “EERO”

EPs are always a little troublesome: the shorter ones sit comfortably in a singles round-up, but the longer ones…? Single; album? In this case, I’ve taken the easy way out by focusing on the last single from a substantial and truly splendid eponymous EP by London’s pioneering all-female Latin jazz ensemble, available on all streaming platforms from the 12th of this month. This single will give you an idea of the quality to expect. “An ode to the universal experience of grief,” it’s big, bold, brassy and, moreover, like say Toronto’s Battle of Santiago, that little bit different. Roll on their first long-format release.

Nobat: “Antes de Kiev”

This new single from the Brazilian artist Nobat is supported by an arty video directed by film-maker Edu Donna, with movement directed by dancer, Ju Fachetti. Weighty stuff in other words, to support a song about the emotional tension of a relationship on the verge of collapse. Musically, there’s a certain latent drama to support the theme of imminent explosion.

Dorea: “Mais que Dois”

Here’s a Brazilian artist I’m rather more familiar with – thanks to his very promising album, Grande Coisa, for the Swedish label, ajabu! He’s still with the label and we can expect that sophomore album at the end of February. This purveyor of delicate, sensitive music from the Salvador region numbers Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso and Neil Young among his influences, and the single, with its lovely clarinet playing by Joana Queiroz, should whet your appetite for more.

Yilian Cañizares: “Maputo”

The new single from the classy Cuban-Swiss violinist, singer and composer is a tribute to Mozambique and it’s taken from her forthcoming album, Vitamina Y, which is due in early February. The violinist’s longtime collaborator Childo Tomás comes from Martinique and the track captures the rhythmic drive and communal spirit that define so much of the country’s cultural life. The album was recorded in Paris and, if this is anything to go by, promises to be rather sumptuous.

Grupo Um: “Absurdo Mudo”

Back to bygone Brazil now, courtesy of Far Out Recordings, who have long championed the left-field avant-jazz pioneers from the São Paulo scene. The single is the first track from the band’s sophomore album entitled Nineteen Seventy Seven in honour of the year in which it was recorded (when the military dictatorship was at its most repressive). It’s scheduled for reissue early next year. Due to constraints, they were forced to record everything without any overdubs and the title refers to the “absurd difficulty” for musicians performing it (perhaps something to do with the early, capricious synthesizers employed by keyboard artist, Lelo Nazario). Grupo Um don’t appear to have any great difficulty, nor does the track itself present too much challenge for ears unaccustomed to the band’s experimental musical aesthetic.

ZEBB: “O Ebó”

Here’s an absolute gem from a music producer, “sound artist”, record collector, DJ and researcher from Brazil’s North-East. In his research, he has developed the concept of Subgrave Nordestino, a reflection on electronic music being made in the Northeast region of Brazil from a counter-colonial perspective, the subject of ZEBB’s doctoral thesis in Ethnomusicology at the Federal University of Paraíba. This encounter between the traditions of Candomblé and electronics “affirms a new expression for traditional Brazilian music”. It could all have been a bit too academic for my jaundiced sensibility, but not at all. This is a living, breathing slice of exciting artistic creation.

Beto Cuevas: “¡Respira!”

The Chilean rocker, the voice of La Ley, is back from a triumphant acoustic tour across Latin America with a full-on electric single, a preview of his forthcoming studio album (slated for next year). It’s evidently a return to Cuevas’ rock roots, infused with renewed energy and a contemporary production that blends organic guitars, electronic ambience and powerful vocals. Not for the faint-hearted.

Pra Gira Girar: “Deixa a Gira Girar”

Anything from the Amor in Sound label is going to grab my attention, particularly if Álvaro Lancellotti is involved in the proceedings. Pra Gira Girar is the project he formed with Kassin and a host of notable others to reinterpret the repertoire of the Bahian trio, Os Tincoãs. This is the second single from a forthcoming album. Rooted in Afro-Brazilian traditions, its lyrics and title evoke the “gira” as a movement of body and spirit — a ritual of collective gathering and celebration of ancestry. Glorious stuff.

Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical: “Gitanita”

From the same epoch as Os Tincoãs comes the second of Analog Africa’s two-volume dig into the career of Ranil (Jorge Raúl Llerena Vásquez) and his brand of rambunctious Peruvian Cumbia Amazonica. The first volume came out five years ago and this deliriously off-kilter number is the first single from February’s Volume 2. According to Samy Ben Redjeb, Analog Africa’s founder and the album’s compiler, Ranil released over a dozen LPs during his time in the Amazonian spotlight, “though often in beautiful disorder. Mismatched covers, wrong labels, missing song titles, chaotic management.” The unpredictable and unrestrained sound that locals lovingly called “llullampeo” can be heard in all its glory in “Gitanita”. The second volume, I would suggest, is not to be missed.

Navaja Sur: “Bruxismo”

Another EP now, this one from the Mexican-born independent filmmaker José Permar now based in Belgium. His alter ego, Navaja Sur, references his native Baja California Sur, and he describes his music as “shifting between dancefloor intensity and cinematic introspection.” The film was shot on Super-8 in the Paraná jungle and the music blends trip-hop and global bass along with more indigenous cumbia and norteño. The second single from the EP, “Embruxo”, is as captivating aurally as it is visually.

Delírio Cabana: “Tempero”

And another EP. This is the first track from the foursome’s eponymous EP; the first of six in fact – which begs the question why they didn’t go all the way from “extended” to “long” player. Anyway, who am I to reason why? The important thing is that this is rather good. Given my limited grasp of written Portuguese, all I can tell you for sure is that the quartet is based in the northern Brazilian city of Manaus and these six songs are the first original compositions that they have released thus far. I hope to hear more about them in the fullness of time.

Nathy Peluso: “Malportada”

In for a penny, in for a pound. Here’s another six-track EP, this time some spicy salsa from an Argentine artist who ties with Mercedes Sosa for the most awards won by a female artist from Argentina. “Salsa is raw and passionate,” she affirms, ” it is the music of the untamed and the indestructible, and now it also belongs to the misfits. I have always been a rebel, a misfit. They’ve tried to tame me and correct me so many times, but my wild spirit has always led me down the best roads.” Fair enough, but I’m betting that the outrageous equestrian contortions in the video for the track “A Caballo” have something to do with Artificial Intelligence.

Marisa Monte: “Sua Onda”

I’m sure there’s not much I need to tell you about Marisa Monte that you don’t know already. But I have to bow my head in shame that this single from such an important artist came out in early October. It was written with her compatriots from Tribalistas, Carlinhos Brown and Arnaldo Antunes, and it finds her – musically speaking – in rude good health.

Master Plus feat. Nathalia Milan: “DILEMA”

It’s a bit of a dilemma for a pedant like me to know whether a title should really be capitalised or not. So often it seems to be a whim of either the artist, the publicist or the label. Anyway, that’s my problem. I’ll take it that this norteña/banda reinvention of Nelly and Kelly Rowland’s classic duet should rightly be CAPITALISED. The single features Ms. Milán in the company of producer, vocalist and creative soul of Master Plus, Alfredo “Comanche”, and it’s the first glimpse of a forthcoming album that fuses inventive covers with original songs.

João do Pife: “Garoto Do Pife”

Here’s another that I shouldn’t have overlooked, but I did. Back at the beginning of October, Mr. Bongo reissued this gem from the pífano maestro’s 1975 LP, Folclore Alagoano. The pífano or pife is a simple seven-hole woodwind instrument from the north-east of Brazil and, in conjunction with the percussion supplied by the Bandas de Pífanos groups, the result is something delicious and infectious. The two tracks chosen from that 1975 album, as the publicity claims, do indeed “exude a driving and joyous dancefloor energy”.

Tasha T, Mel Dubé and Kandice K*A*S*H: “Show Us The Way”

One more and I’m done, and what better way to call it a day than a bit of reggae (note the clever internal rhyme scheme of that clause). This righteous slice-of-nice comes from a trio of sistas based in Toronto. It was produced by the award-winning Eddie Bullen, “who wanted a sound that was at once classic and urgent. This track fuses elements of soulful reggae with a contemporary smoothness.” I wouldn’t disagree.

And there I shall leave you to ruminate on this latest and somewhat tardy selection of new sounds from the Latin sphere. If I manage to get my act together, there will be more early next year. Since my mother-in-law, bless her bed-socks, is already wishing me a merry Christmas and a happy new year in her daily calls to the prezidential palace, perhaps I should take a leaf out of her book. Happy Yuletide!

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