
Prezident Markon’s New Singles Round-Up (Azymuth, Zé Ibarra, Orbital Ensemble, Juan Waters, Gabriel Da Rosa and many more)
18 May, 2025Things are hotting up – musically and meteologically. Newcomers, familiar faces and firm favourites are all vying for selection. So there’s nothing for it then but to start things rolling with something bang up to date from that trusty trio from Rio (oh dear, I sound like an announcer at the World Snooker Championships)…
Azymuth: “Fantasy 82”
The sound is familiar, but the line-up is much changed. For this new single from the new album for Far Out Recordings in early June, Marca Passo, founding member and bass player Alex Malheiros invited Marcos Valle collaborator Dudu Viana on keyboards and – a stroke of genetic continuity – Victor Bertrami on drums, son of the late, great José Roberto Bertrami. Clearly, they haven’t lost their touch, even if it all sounds a little familiar now.
Fernanda Coelho: “Clareia”
No relation I’m assuming to Flavia, Fernanda Coelho is a new name. The first report in the prezidential palace is that of a young Paulista who went to Japan and came back with an album and a video. She talks of wandering into a shopping mall while eating an ice cream and receiving a distinctly frosty reception: the polite people of Japan do not tolerate that kind of behaviour. Anyway… Fernanda has been playing piano since age 9 and then turned mainly to singing, including a gig in an Alanis Morissette cover band, the singer being one of her stated influences – as is the admirable Adriana Calcanhotto. It’s a rather lovely single that comes from her album, 5 Minutos. Spend three enjoying her musical travelogue.
Irene Amata: “Confined”
A long way from Japan, but not too far from Ms. Coelho’s music is this one by a singer based in France whose repertoire is Brazilian. The single is taken from an album scheduled for September, Sembianze. It starts off with a sparse duet with bass player Maurizio Congiu in the manner of the semi-legendary jazz singer, Sheila Jordan. Then the other members of her quartet, pianist Fady Farah and drummer J.B. Perraudin enter to complete a rather nice picture.
Juan Waters: “Dime Amiga”
The title of this single translates as “tell me friend”, the little girl is this expatriate Uruguyan singer-songwriter’s daughter and the rather bilious-looking confections come from Peter Pan Donuts of Brooklyn. Triggered by seeing his daughter cry, Waters “wanted the song to highlight life’s difficulties and how important it is to have a friend on your side if it ever gets hard.” It’s the second single from his seventh studio album MVD LUV (this one recorded in his native Montivideo), due out in June. It’s all very sweet and charming, but just a little disposable – rather like that doughnut.
Zé Ibarra: “Transe”
They’re all going temporarily solo, those loveable members of Rio’s Bala Desejo. First Dora Morelenbaum, then Julia Mestre and now Zé Ibarra – and all under the aegis of Mr. Bongo. And really, it’s hardly surprising in the light of the music they seem capable of producing in a solo capacity. The single comes from the singer’s scheduled second album. Based on this, it should delight all Bala Desejo fans.- like me.
Julia Mestre: “Vampira”
Forgive the obvious link, but since we’re on the subject of Bala Desejo… Julia Mestre’s single (described by one YouTube commentator as “the most beautiful love song I’ve ever heard”, which is perhaps a little strong) comes from her delicious second solo album, Maravilhosamente Bem, which has just been released. Great production values, lovely vocals and a thoroughly beguiling song. All together now in your best Birmingham accent, Oil give it foive.
La Retreta Mayor: “La Torta de Pan”
OK, let’s get right away from Brazil… to Venezuela, and don’t spare the horses. This funky gem recorded originally for the Discomoda label in 1976 is part of a double-A single re-released by Vampisoul, along with Pablo Schneider’s disco-drastic “La Venganza” on the other side of those seven inches of vinyl.
New Regency Orchestra: “Pregon (The Process with J Scienide – Out in the World Remix)”
Time for a remix – and another fine offering from the estimable Mr. Bongo. Chico O’Farrill’s “Pregon”, a track from the orchestra’s recent eponymous debut album, has been remixed as a slice of classic Latin hip-hop by The Process, Jonny Cuba and Ollie Teeba, in conjunction with the Washington D.C. M.C., J Scienide. Like special agent Cooper’s regular coffee in Twin Peaks, it’s “damn fine”.
Abelardo Carbono/Quantic: “La Piña Madura (Voilaaa Remix)”
And here’s another fine remix you’ve got me into… This time the remixer is that most ubiquitous of producers, DJs, remixers, Bruno “Patchworks” Hovart. He takes the Abelardo Carbona interpretation of a number written by Will Holland, better known to Colombiaphiles as Quantic, and renders it smooth, groovy and downright irresistible. It’s the second single from the long-awaited AfroColombia Remix Vol. 3, a joint production between Colombian labels Galletas Calientes Records and Palenque Records, celebrating their 20+ years of activism and, in this particular case, Abelardo Carbono, the deceased maestro of Caribbean psychedelic grooves.
Carolina Oliveros: “Pide”
Here’s something else from Colombia (via New York), but from a very different angle. This dramatic single from the Barranquilla-born and Brooklyn-based singer is apparently a tribute to the power of manifestation. The singer has featured in these pages on a solo basis and as part of Combo Chimbita (if my memory serves me well) and this is a powerful addition to the cannon. Co-produced with Jacob Plasse of Orquesta Akokán fame, the accompanying video was filmed in a church in Bogotá.
Tagua Tagua: “Let It Go”
Inevitably, we head back to Brazil for more nourishment. Felipe Puperi, Tagua Tagua to his close friends, featured last time, but here he is again with another single from his album, Raio, which is out about now. I haven’t heard it yet, but it would appear to be a treat in store.
Gabriel Da Rosa: “Pê Patu Pá”
This one came out in April and I still can’t understand how come I missed it. Take your eye off the ball for one moment… You’ll divine from the name that this is another Brazilian singer-songwriter, who works with artists like Rodrigo Amarante and David Byrne on his sophomore album, Cacofonia, out in early June on L.A.’s Stones Throw label. This first single from the album is inspired by the Sabiá, Brazil’s national songbird, alas urgently in need of conservation. I shan’t overlook the album, that’s for sure.
Satanique Samba Trio: “Lambaphomet”
Before we leave for pastures new, here’s something by way of stark contrast. It’s one that’s surely right up the street of my colleague, Andy Cumming. The song has been around for some considerable time, but seems to have been released – flog me if I’m wrong – as a single to mark the release of this avant garde non-trio’s Cursed Brazilian Beats vol. 1 back in March. It’s rather good in a kind of sardonic and deliberately iconoclastic way.
Edna Vazquez: “Te Esperaba”
Whither now? Why, Mexico of course. Many will know Edna Vazquez as a member of Pink Martini. This single, the title track of a forthcoming album, composed with her brother is, she reflects, “the most emotional song off the album… The themes synchronized perfectly: me waiting to record with mariachi and the Mexican folk genre after being in an all male mariachi ensemble for almost twenty years, and him waiting for his son to be born.” It’s always good to have it straight from the horse’s mouth.
Calle Mambo: “Retumba La Tierra”
The title track from the Chilean quintet’s third album, due in early June, represents another solid single from a group that has just embarked on an extensive European tour. Full of their customary exuberance and sheer joy in the music they create, it blends contemporary beats with traditional sounds and exhorts us to take care of what we can still save in this vanishing earth. Amen to that sentiment.
El Dusty: “The Phoenix ft. Drty Tropix”
The Southern Texas-born-and-raised pioneer of nu-cumbia seems to garner lots of flame emojis on YouTube with this one, and the video has been described as “cult-level weird”. Well, let me tell you, we had an illegal rave in these profoundly rural parts the other weekend, which disrupted the little branch line between Brive and Rodez. It was the talk of the local supermarket and just goes to show that you never can tell… Where was I? Oh yes, El Dusty. Here he is in the company of the Miami-based duo, Drty Tropix, or Clips Ahoy and Hype Turner to their loving mothers. Rather good it all is, too – despite the shenanigans in the desert.
F.A.V., Tino Amor & Barzo: “Mi Barrio”
Never let it be said that I don’t try to find complementary cuts of music. Here’s some more nu-cumbia, this time from the Costa Rican duo who join forces with the renowned producer, Barzo. The lyrics, I’m reliably informed, “paint an honest and colourful portrait of life in Latin American neighborhoods—from their warmth and cultural richness to the political and economic tensions that plague them daily.” Great single, great video.
La Ruka: “Historias”
Buenaventura comes to London. The Colombian vocalist takes her tropical rhythms to the metropolis where the innovative British duo, Village Cuts, manage to conserve just enough of La Ruka’s indigenous Pacific-coast sounds to lift the single clear of the rather anonymous reggaeton norm. A “celebration of life and the strength that comes from overcoming failures”, the single is the third from the Colombian Singles Series Vol. 4.
Samantha Schmütz and Adrian Younge: “Depois do Amor”
Back to Brazil for the final time. Actress and singer Samatha Schmütz has hooked up with surely the hardest working man in show business, Adrian Younge, for an album appropriately entitled Samantha & Adrian, which promises to capture the sounds of 1970s Brazil and Los Angeles soul. If this first single is anything to go by, it does just that, with the singer’s soulful voice swept along in a string arrangement redolent of both classic MPB and Marvin Gaye, Bobby Womack et al. The album by these two evident soul mates comes out at the back end of July.
Orbital Ensemble: “Daydreams”
Talking of ’70s MPB, this Toronto-based jazz fusion outfit is very much under the influence. It comes from their debut album in June, Orbital. Leader and multi-instrumentalist, Felipe Sena, grew up in São Paulo and played guitar with bands in the city’s underground punk scene. The music presumably would have been rather more strident than the type of music we’re likely to hear on Orbital, which seems to reflect an expatriate’s sense of nostalgia for family and the homeland. “My dad’s classic records were from the ’70s,” this former radio-show host explains, “and it continues to be some of my favourite stuff and a great foundation to explore more things.”
Kayatibu: “Nai Basa Masheri”
Anything involving LUIZGA, whose beautiful album with Edgar Valente is still “gentle on my mind”, will get me to prick up my ears. This collaboration with young artists from the the Huni Kuin community from the Brazilian Amazon is no exception. This single came out in early April as a prelude to the album, NI Hui – Voices of the Forest, just released in the UK on Da Lata Music. Meaning “colourful monkey”, “Nai Basa Masheri” is sung by Yaka, a visual artist and “forest apprentice”, and rooted in the indigenous poetry and chants that praise the enchanted beings of this forest on the border with Peru.
Thanks to Alexander Gay for his cover photo of Gabriel da Rosa.
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