Guest post: Sixteen 21st century Brazilian albums

São Paulo samba gets belatedly dirty

Rod Taylor’s Brazil Beat Blog is, to me, the model of a specialist music blog, willing to comb through whole discographies in order to better understand an artist’s current work (which most of us generalists are far too lazy to do.) I know that writing about albums you’ve already written about, sometimes more than once, is extremely annoying, so thanks to Rod for the new words here while I bum about on vacation.

Mention Brazilian music, and the typical British-diaspora music fan imagines girls from Ipanema, lounge-y bossa or maybe theatrical tropicalistas. Like the equivalent of a classic rock message board, the tastes are all stuck in the past. Brazil never stopped making great music, but the past couple of decades have been a particularly fruitful time, with the English-speaking music press only providing occasional notice. So here are a few highlights of the last two decades of Brazilian music. (I avoided stuff I know Semipop Life has reviewed or that has received significant coverage in Anglophone contexts, which cut out some great stuff from Elza Soares, Tom Zé, Juçara Marçal and others.)

Tribalistas (2002)

Superstars from the ’80s/’90s get together to make an album. What could go wrong? Plenty, of course, but this supergroup soars where so many other such collaborations flop. Why? Well, Marisa Monte, Arnaldo Antunes and Carlinhos Brown had already worked together, frequently on Monte’s albums, so there were fewer kinks to iron out. More importantly, whatever the egos involved, Antunes and Brown are smart enough to know who’s the real star here, so they mostly slip into a supporting role and let Monte shine. Start with “Já Sei Namorar”, and if it doesn’t click get yourself to a hearing doctor stat.

More at BBB: Tribalistas; Marisa Monte

DonaZica: Composição (2003)

The children, spiritually as well as sometimes biologically, of ’80s Vanguarda Paulista movement decide it’s time for the kids to step up. Centered around Anelis Assumpção (daughter of Itamar), Iara Rennó (daughter of Carlos Rennó and Alzira Espínodola), and Andreia Dias (refugee from evangelical Christianity), the band’s debut is a riot of pleasure and confidence as the musicians explore the eternal idea that girls (and boys) just want to have fun, and maybe make some good art along the way. Dias is the main singer, but Rennó and Assumpção share enough vocal duties that she can’t really be considered the lead. Instead the three harmonize like the Beatles as they tag-team like Run-DMC, with Dias’ mischievous slink centering it all. The band only lasted two albums, but its members are still shaping Brazilian semipopular music to this day.

More at BBB: DonaZica

Romulo Fróes: Cão (2006)

He would go on to make better albums, but this is where Fróes, one of the main movers in São Paulo’s samba suja (dirty samba) scene, gave notice that he was aiming for, and would achieve, greatness. The samba is still a little traditional, but you can hear him piecing together music that is ancient and modern at the same time as he combines samba structures and instrumentation with the edgier sonics of alt-rock.

More at BBB: Romulo Fróes

Nação Zumbi: Fome de Tudo (2007)

The death of manguebeat pioneer Chico Science deprived Brazil of one of those voice-of-a-generation talents, but his band soldiered on. Jorge Du Peixe can’t match Chico’s charisma, but the band remains strong and they put together a solid career combining northeastern rhythms with trad rock sounds. Here guitar and percussion carry the day as the band puts together their most consistent album.

Duo Moviola: O Retrato do Artista quando Pede (2009)

Kiko Dinucci spent the ’90s playing hardcore punk metal and the ’00s exploring samba, and here figures out how to merge the two. Thickening those samba riffs into a chunkachunk that adds heaviness, he makes music that hits hard without losing the playful lightness of traditional samba.  He would deepen that sound with Metá Metá, Elza Soares and on solo albums, but even at this early stage he hits as hard as Jorge Ben but with the gleefully chaotic touch you expect from an ex-punk.

More at BBB: Kiko Dinucci

Criolo: Nó na Orelha (2011)

Criolo kicked off a run that established himself as one of Brazil’s premier rappers with this sophomore effort, but just as notable is the production of Daniel Ganjaman and Marcelo Cabral. Ganjaman’s legendary São Paulo parties in the late ’00s seeded the cross-pollination that made that city perhaps the most fruitful musical scene of the ’10s. Here the trio explores the African sonic diaspora, absorbs it into Brazil’s own Afro-Brazilian traditions, and spits out something that’s simultaneously deeply Brazilian and international at the same time.

More at BBB: Criolo

Metá Metá: Metá Metá (2011)
Passo Torto: Passo Torto (2011)

The Clube da Encruza collective—those musicians who drove the dirty samba movement in São Paulo—had been coalescing for several years, but with these two albums friendships and collaborations crystalized. Metá Metá brought together Kiko Dinucci, Juçara Marçal and Thiago França (with assists from Marcelo Cabral and Sérgio Machado), while Passo Torto combined the talents of Dinucci, Cabral, Romulo Fróes and Rodrigo Campos. Both albums largely excluded the electric sounds the artists would soon embrace with gusto, but they included the off-color notes, dissonances and hints of chaos that would mark the samba suja sound. If the manguebeat movement combined Brazilian musics with classic rock sensibilities, the Clube did the same for Brazil and post-punk. Riffs start to serrate rather than lilt and rhythms begin bashing as the Clube adds some rock to samba’s roll.

More at BBB: Metá Metá; Passo Torto

Rodrigo Campos: Bahia Fantástica (2012)

Where his Clube mates take the dirty part of their samba suja seriously, Campos prefers slicker sounds. But like Steely Dan, he hides plenty of twisted nuggets in his gorgeous, arty music in the words if you care to translate. If you don’t you can just bask in arrangements as beautiful as they are dense, which might not mean much if Campos weren’t also one of the finest songwriters of the current generation.

More at BBB: Rodrigo Campos

Tulipa Ruiz: Tudo Tanto (2012)

With a voice capable of being both big and weird, Ruiz is one of the more adventurous pop stars in Brazil. With brother Gustavo Ruiz, who was in DonaZica, in tow, she blends whatever strikes her current fancy. Here she mixes John Barry/Shirley Bassey with a dash of Yoko Ono, marinates in bossa nova, seasons with electric guitar and slathers on cheesy new wave keyboards. The results are striking, funny and out there, but also kind of beautiful.

More at BBB: Ava Rocha and Tulipa Ruiz

Filarmônica de Pasárgada: O Hábito da Força (2012)

Tom Zé fan Marcelo Segreto seeks to make his own bizarre art pop which, of course, isn’t as good but is still pretty funny and clever. It’s hard to tell where one song stops and the other begins because the tracks themselves, although all but one are under four minutes, twist and turn internally. The crack, seven-member band makes sure the ambitions don’t devolve into mere pretension, while melodies and vocals bring the beauty you expect, even in music styled after Tom Zé. This is Brazilian music, after all.

More at BBB: Friends of Zé

Lurdez da Luz: Gana Pelo Bang (2014)

With Mamelo Sound System, da Luz helped push Brazilian hip hop past its old school, but it’s on her second solo album where she makes her boldest statement because she takes the bang in that title seriously. Bam bam bam the beats go, and da Luz raps just as hard. Very little idea of what she’s saying, as online lyrics are scarce, but it doesn’t matter. Play loud in the car with the windows/top down and get everything you need from the music.

More at BBB: Mamelo Sound System

Fabiano do Nascimento: Dança dos Tempos (2015)

Prefer your Brazilian music in the more traditional high and clean manner? Listen no further as Nascimento picks up the mantle from Baden Powell and shreds in the Brazilian classical guitar style. [Editor’s note: known as Dança do Tempo on some streaming service.]

More at BBB: Fabiano do Nascimento

BaianaSystem: Duas Cidades (2016)

What if the Clash were Brazilian? At least that’s their ambition, and they get closer than you might guess. With Russo Passapusso’s charismatic front-man politics, Robert Barreto’s funky, snaky guitar, and bassist Marcelo Seco and a revolving host of percussionists providing the groove, these guys dig deep and will only get better on future releases [like OxeAxeExu!—ed.] Fans of the video game FIFA 2016 may recognize “Playsom”.

More at BBB: BaianaSystem

Carne Doce: T​ô​nus (2018)

Couple Salma Jô and Macloys Aquino assemble a band in Goiânia, far away from the big city scenes in Rio or São Paulo. They started out alt rock and then kept getting quieter and funkier until they found the kind of laid-back intensity of Fleetwood Mac after they added those two Californians. The guitars of Aquino and João Victor Santana lock into an intimate interplay as sexy as Jô’s singing with the rhythm section cradling the sound in the afterglow. The band’s name translates as sweet meat, in case you had any doubts.

More at BBB: Carne Doce

Ana Frango Elétrico: Mormaço Queima (2018)

Genuine oddball from Rio’s alt scene, which showed signs of heating up after spending a decade in the shadow of São Paulo. Frango’s debut showcases a songwriting sensibility that initially makes no sense, but whose internal logic reveals itself through immersion. Angular and awkward and falling apart, it shouldn’t work, but does. The guitar Frango provides is just as disorienting. The matter-of-fact singing is the touch of reality that anchors the noise and keeps it from spinning off in all kinds of directions. If you feel lost, start with “Loteria”, then let Frango start messing with your mind to hear in new ways.

More at BBB: Ana Frango Elétrico and Fémina