21 FREE Mp3s Worth Grabbing Now

Penrique - Polo

He describes his style as modern and composes using a midi keyboard and software, yet his sound has a nice layered Latin feel that percolates. Listening to Baion Media de Luna is reminisce of watching the hip swaying Brasilerias in the clubs of Sao Paulo after midnight, hypnotic !

Another track I've added to my iPod is Rencuentro. It has a haunting melody that's tender and simple but it's the percussion and keys accentuating a tight rhyhm that keeps this gem from being anything but bland.

With a nod toward the Nu Bossa sound, the track Itaparica captures the cool of Bossa yet it's steadily looking forward with an interesting musical lead voice. Is that a vocorder I hear, Penrique ? Either way, the smart intrumentation and use of counter melody play, makes this very listen-able track a standout.

I discoverred this instrumentalist last year cruising the web for free mp3s and hit a gold mine. Well, it looks like deja-vue, all over again. He's added several new tracks to Download.com, and the older ones are still available there, for a total of 21 FREE mp3s to download. Not all are brazilian-inspired but there's bound to be something for your musical taste here, techno, NuJazz, Rock, R&B, etc. Thank you, Penrique for sharing your creativity.

Forró & Mangue Beat: The Party Music of Northeast Brazil

Zabumbas (a drum), triangles and accordions, these are the instruments that make up Forró, the party music of the Northeast region of Brasil. Recife and Fortaleza are the major cities with crowded Forró clubs. The picture above is a common theme during the annual Festa Junia (June Festival), it's a time when the music can be heard for miles.

I captured this clip of a Forró band and the lively crowd enjoying the music into the wee hours of the morning. (Itacaré, Bahia).



Although not as popular outside of Brasil as Samba or Bossa Nova, Forró (pronounced fo-HO) is also the name of a dance. There are three different rhythms or paces to the dance, and it's really intriguing to watch skilled dancers. Featured in a 2006 New York Times article, with a great multimedia side piece, Forró is an infectious sounding music where the themes are often of love, passion and saudades (the Brazilian term for longing).

Although Forró has historically been tagged as music from the country side, the late Luiz Gonzaga, has been said to have expanded the form giving it a more urban context. My first exposure to Forró was the compilation, Brazil Classics: Forró, on the Luka Bop label. But I have to admit it took some time to appreciate the genre.

At times the music can be frantic and at other times very funky, yet it continued to honor the traditions of the past. Either way it kept the dancers moving and the next generation of artists, like Chico Science & Nação Zumbi combined influences of rock, funk, hip-hop and electronica created Mangue Beat (or Bit) which some suggest is based on Forró.

For more, check out this excellent audio introduction to popular Forró songs, for a steady stream of Forró music consider, WebRadio do Nordeste.

3 Nu Bossa Brasileiras Found on Mp3aim.com

This week’s artist search focuses on three top selling contemporary Brazilian artists, Rosalia de Souza, Sabrina Malheiros and Bebel Gilberto.

(want to know how mp3aim.com rates ?, see previous post)

Sabrina Malheiros CDs were filed under the Lo-Fi & Latin genres.

The daughter of Alex Malheiros of the Brazilian jazz group, Azymuth, Sabrina seems to have the vocal skills singers like Bebel Gilberto are still searching for. Her rhythms borrow from Nu Jazz no doubt given her father’s influence, but there’s shadings of hip-hop, R&B and electronica to give it that new feel. Which shows she's not content with living just off the family name. Her debut CD, Equilibria, is outstanding, favorite tracks are Love Sorte, Capoeira Vai, Saudade Rio, but the list can go on. For clubbers and house music thrill seekers the follow-up remix CD, Vibrasons (Vibrations) is simply a tour deforce. The list of remixers on this project includes some impressive new comers, Beatnix and highly respected craftsmen, Spiritual South, Kenny Dope and Nicola Conte. I really like this project. Mp3aim.com has a good selection of Sabrina’s CDs and remix singles.




Rosalia de Souza CDs were filed under the House, Samba & Lo-Fi genres.

The Modern and Different Girl
With strong songwriting skills and a top notch producer, Nicola Conte, Rosalia has made a very strong showing among the crowded field of female singers from Brasil. But judging from the rapid response to remix her debut CD, Garota Moderna (Modern Girl) and its success, it seems this attention and praise are well earned. mp3aim.com has the debut and follow up CD, Brasil Precisa Balancar, plus several of the remix singles. Unfortunately is their missing Garota Diferente (Different Girl), the real treat where the remix masters go to work on the well received debut. Notable tracks: The Rio de Janeiro remixes are excellent house standouts.




Bebel Gilberto CDs were filed under the House, Dance, Latin, Jazz, Samba, Beat & Other genres

Bebel’s Momento CD was named one of Amazon’s Best of 2007. Her first release Tanto Tempo, produced by the late DJ Suba, redefined the bossa nova sound with electronica to bring us Nu Bossa. Bebel was one of the first singers to make a big splash, although I attribute her success to the musical visionary Suba and his DJ and production skills. One need only listen to his monumental CD, Sao Paulo Confessions to see he was the creative force behind the Bebel phenomena. I’m sure many will take issue with that proposition but with the amount of success and Bebel product that has flooded the market, I would have a difficult time persuading others to my way of thinking. On mp3aim, you’ll find plenty of CDs, remixes and imports to satisfy your Bebel cravings. I enjoyed the debut CD because it was something new. The Tanto Tempo Remix CD reinvented these nice pop/electronica tunes, the standouts being Agangu (Latin Project Remix) and the hot August Day (Da Lata Remix). But was this success a fluke ? Perhaps song and production arrangements, on subsequent releases allowed the weakness in vocal clarity to dampen a strong debut.

Mp3aim, Considerable Brazil Music Download Selection

Summary

The mp3aim.com website has a simple design that's easy to navigate. Registration isn't required in order to conduct a search. This is a good thing. I like to conduct a few searches before I commit to joining a site. You can listen to a 30 second sample of a track without leaving your browser. Searching by genre has it's challenges. I found the selection for contemporary Brazilian artists and compilation CDs to be more than satisfactory, although there weren't any real surprises. Using mp3aim.com to build your Brazilian inspired music collection has its advantages and worth an investment in time.

The goal of each review is to share my experiences about using the site and to share contemporary Brazilian music suggestions that may be available on the respective music website. To gain the full impact of using the website, I've conducted several searches and share my impressions below.

Navigation and Searching

On mp3aim.com you can search the music catalogue (note: this is their spelling, RE: non-U.S. site), using standard website search features: alphabetically, free text search or by browsing the genres. Fortunately there are plenty of genres to choose from. However my experience has been, artists and music are usually never categorized where I would expect to find them. And this is certainly the case with mp3aim.com.

Focusing my search on the three artists, it didn't come as a big surprise that free text searching proved to be more efficient. Browsing by genre comes in a distance second. The problem with browsing is you have to wade through too many pages if the genre has a lot of artists. But the real issue is trying to guess how an artist or CD is categorized. On mp3aim.com, this is truly a guessing game. Below, I listed the genres for the singers profiled in this review, you can see how subjective genre placement can be. A lot has been written about the internet’s impact on reader attention span. Most times if we can’t find what we’re looking for fast, we move on. Why hasn’t someone thought about developing an interactive search feature where the user can select multiple genres ?

To get an idea of what's popular on the site and what other users are searching for, mp3aim offers a variety of lists you can consult for purchase suggestions.

1. Top Downloaded tracks
2. Latest MP3 - think New Releases
3. Top MP3 - think canned top artists search, Kanye West, Madonna, 50 Cent, etc.
4. Top Charts - US & UK Top 100 Albums, and Top 75 Singles, respectively.


Listening to Tracks

I like the fact that I can listen to the tracks right in my browser via the site's built-in flash player. Some websites download a small file that plays in the music application located on your hard drive. LegalSounds.com, I site I use frequently, uses this method but I find it a design distraction. Having to delete these files from my hard drive and/or music player is just a pain. For this reason I never use LegalSounds.com to listen to tracks, I pop out to another site for that. The disadvantage for the webmaster is I may even make the purchase at the other site, simply because I'm already there.

Another benefit of the flash player is that it automatically scrubs the track so you hear more of the entire track. Although the scrubbing is audible and may be disconcerting to some, it's helpful in gaining a sense of the entire song. If you’ve ever listened to a track with an unusually long intro, you’ll know what I mean. Downloaded tracks are in the MP3 format only with a bit rate of 192kbps and the audio quality was just fine.

As a serious music lover I prefer to have the complete ID3 tag information about my music. If you're like me, practically every track in your iTunes collection is complete with artist, album, year, genre, track number, notes, lyrics and most importantly cover art. Without this information I feel cheated. Mp3aim.com, like many online music sites needs to do a much better job in this area. Perhaps I've been spoiled by iTunes, but having to add metadata information, from different sources on the web, diminishes the user experience quite a bit. I'm also highly suspicious when I come across tracks on compilation CDs that are labeled as a "mix" when I know from personal experience the released CD contained un-mixed tracks. I've witness this on mp3aim.com few times on Brazilian Dance compilations.

Finally, CD cover art is practically non-existent on the site, and it isn't downloaded with your purchase when you do find it. How the webmasters missed this obvious sales opportunity is beyond me. It's also an added value experience that would encourage repeat purchases. Because I'm committed to iTunes as my desktop music player, 9 times out of 10, I have access to the cover art from Apple’s servers, provided the ID3 tag information is correct.

Pricing and Payments

Mp3aim uses a shopping cart method and you must have credits in your account to purchase tracks. Tracks average between .11 to .15 cents and most CDs are between $2.00 to $3.00. Sale items are specially marked. You gain discounts based on the prepaid package you select. Using most credit cards you can add to your balance via a secure webpage.

Some users may feel a bit squeamish about prepaid packages. My experience at other music download sites has been generally favorable but I have had occasions where I've had to repeatedly request a credit or to have my purchased tracks reactivated due to a server issue. Usually this takes more than a few emails (and keeping good records on my part) to get it resolved. Keep in mind you may need to add additional time to get issues resolved when the site is outside the U.S.

Mp3aim pays royalties and is licensed by the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS). The site offers 3 Free downloads of the day as an incentive to keep us coming back to the site.

Comments

Mp3aim claims that one of its distinct advantages over other music stores is that they have the largest music catalog and widest variety. I don't know about the largest but I was impressed with the CD titles I was able to locate as long as I searched across genres. I would recommend this music site to a friend. Actually it was a close friend and fellow music junkie that brought it to my attention. Navigation is intuitive, I was pleasantly surprised by the many Nu Samba titles and sale pricing. I was however disappointed with the "mix" tracks and lack of decent cover art which can be helpful in locating an elusive title.


Please feel free to share your comments. What has been your experience at this site ?

Brazil Music Download Mission

This blog is about online shopping for music downloads, with a focus on contemporary Brazilian and Brazil-inspired music.

Using a set criteria, I will conduct several searches and offer comments and opinions, as I examine the features of different pay and free music download websites. As an avid music collector, I’m always searching for websites that have an extensive selection of Brazilian music . The site should be easy to navigate, offer good pricing and purchasing should be hassle free. A good user experience is important, that's what keeps me returning to the site. Streaming and subscription based services may be mentioned, but not extensively reviewed, at this time. I hope the information in this blog will help you determine which websites best meet your music needs.

Like most people I listen to different types of music. I'm a baby-boomer that came of age listening and dancing to the music of Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and the Supremes, essentially the whole Motown sound. My parents exposed to Jazz and the likes of Thelonious Monk, Bird, Billie, Sarah Vaughan and others. Somewhere along the line I discovered contemporary gospel, jazz fusion and world music. I'm always searching for new (and old) music to add to my iPod collection.

I fell in love with Brasil in the early 1980's when I discovered the film Black Orpheus. I found my passion in the music as I learned more about the culture. I've traveled to Brazil eleven times so far and I've lived there for the Summer of 2007. This blog gives me the opportunity to combine my interests and share it with fellow music lovers. The goal of each review is (1) to share my experience of using music download websites and (2) offer music suggestions and discuss important Brazilian contemporary music and it's availability on the respective website.