Various Artists - Oi! A Nova Musica Brasileira!

Rio degenerates

 Forty-odd years on from Tropicália and Brazil’s singular talent for indiscriminately assimilating musical styles and cultural influences in order to reconfigure them with an idiosyncratic bent has led to its music boasting a mind-boggling array of sub-genres. By the early 90s, the country whose musical identity found definition through political rebellion and an arms-wide embrace of British Invasion influences – specifically Beatles – to create its heady, Latin-psych-pop stew, had a newer wave to celebrate: “mangue bit”, a digital revolution that, in the ensuing 20 years has seen hip-hop, dubstep and electro absorbed by Brazil’s love of consumption and mangled regurgitation.

Unlike Britain, whose overly-reverential end of the revivalist spectrum seems content with replicating past heroes’ glories, Brazilian musicians have always held onto the questing spirit. At 40 tracks, this compilation is roughly split down the middle, with singer-songwritery tracks on Disc One and the more modern, electro cuts on Disc Two. There’s far too much to try to describe here, but if the idea of Dick Dale backed by Paul Simonon on bass, or Gainsbourg Percussions remixed by a Gameboy appeals, then that’s just the tip of a deep-sunk iceberg you could spend the rest of the year marvelling at. It’s as near-perfect a snapshot of modern Brazil as you could hope for, and some of the most inventive music you’ll hear all year. (Meanwhile, for those interested in the late 60s genesis of Tropicália, Soul Jazz have just repackaged their pioneering 2006 Tropicália collection, covering pioneers the likes of Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes and Caetano Veloso…)

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Mais Um Discos | MAIS 01 (2-CD)

Reviewed by Jason Draper
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