Tag Archives: Brazil

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S&C Brazil on BBC Radio 6 Music

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Cerys Matthews now has a copy of Sounds and Colours Brazil, the book about contemporary Brazilian music and culture that I published and edited last year. On her show, Cerys On 6, she said:

“You need to get [it] if you’re a music lover or going to the football.”

So what more do you need to know? You can get Sounds and Colours Brazil from soundsandcolours.com/02-brazil

If you’d like to hear what Cerys had to say about the book in full you should listen to the show from 02:18:10. The link is bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03zjdbx

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Great Review of Sounds and Colours Brazil in God Is In The TV Zine

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God Is In The TV Zine have just published a quite amazing review of the Sounds and Colours Brazil book. Here is just one of the tasty extracts (which describe the book in more interesting ways than I’ve ever managed!)

An all-encompassing purview, with occasional focus on fringe activities, burgeoning scenes and the progenitors of Brazilian culture, this bit-size guidebook plots a loose course back and forth across the country’s vast and varied terrain.

Read the full review at godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2014/01/20/books-brazil-sounds-and-colours

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Sounds and Colours Brazil is Here!

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Things have been so busy over the past few weeks that I forgot to post here that Sounds and Colours Brazil, the Brazilian music and culture book and CD that I’ve been working on for most of 2013 has now been released. I will endeavour to talk more about it at another juncture, but for the moment I recommend simply heading over to the Sounds and Colours website and checking it out for yourself.

Here’s the page for the book: soundsandcolours.com/02-brazil

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Sound of the Underground: Lucas Santtana

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Sound of the Underground preview written for Lucas Santtana’s show in Sao Paulo. Printed in Time Out Sao Paulo November 2011.

Sound of the Underground
Lucas Santtana

If there’s one person that represents the “melting pot” culture of Brazilian music it’s Lucas Santtana – each of his four albums has focused on a different musical style, starting with a mix of African grooves and Brazilian percussion on his debut, before moving onto the electronic-based beats of Rio’s favelas and later dub music. His most recent album Sem Nostalgia was constructed just using guitar and vocals, yet sounded like the free-flowing electronica of Four Tet or Thom Yorke. It’s an album that has earnt him much praise in both the UK and USA, where he is applauded for both his ability to write a great melody and the sonic explorations that his albums normally involve.

Live, Santtana sticks to his more up-tempo numbers, mixing relentless rhythms with infectious melodies and a sound that is clearly influenced by African, Jamaican and international pop music yet still sounds quintessentially Brazilian.

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Sound of the Underground: Cérebro Eletrônico

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A preview of Cérebro Eletrônico’s show at Studio SP, part of my Sound of the Underground column, written for Time Out Sao Paulo August 2011.

Cérebro Eletrônico
Studio SP

In many ways Cérebro Eletrônico are the quintessential Sao Paulo indie band. Their lead singer Tato Aeroplano has been playing in bands in the city for years and has gradually built up a loyal following, yet it’s only in the last couple of years with Cerebro Eletronico that he’s started to get truly national success. Their music is a rhythmic blend of indie-rock with pleading vocals, plenty of hooks and sing-along choruses like on “Cama” and “Decência”. This is a great chance to catch a quality Brazilian indie band with the extra passion of a home crowd.

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Review: Chino – Moto Continuo

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Here’s my review of Moto Continuo by China, a Brazilian rapper-turned-pop-star. This was for Time Out Sao Paulo October 2011.

Album Review
China – Moto Continuo
Trama Records
****

Pernambuco, along with Sao Paulo, Bahia and Rio, is one of the musical epicentres of Brazilian music. Yet, it doesn’t currently have a musical icon in the way that the other have Céu, Seu Jorge or Carlinhos Brown. This could change with Moto Continuo, the new album from China that takes manguebit (a highly percussive mix of funk and rap from the region) and pumps it full of punk attitude, pop hooks and the occasional tender moment.

China has recently started as a VJ for MTV Brasil and it feels as if he has been absorbing the videos he has been watching on the channel. Opener “Boa Viagem” and “Nem Pensar” have the kind of crunchy synth lines that MGMT have become notorious for, “Só Serve Pra Dancer” is a surf-punk swagger though Tarantino-esque waters, and we also get the conventional strummed rocker “12 Queda” and melancholy duet “Terminei Indo.” The impressive thing is that China manages to pull off all the different styles that he embraces, and this is surely why if Pernambuco is to get it’s own national star it could well be him, especially if he can continue on this form.