Pernambuco's Modern Sound

Whenever I discover new music, it always seems to brighten my day. It reminds me of how important it is to try and remain open to all that life can bring. The child-like quality that satisfies when the simplest needs are met.

That's how I felt this morning as I was surfing Calbash's Tune Your World and discovered Bonsuccesso Samba Clube. This five member band combines reggae & ska rhythms with Samba and other world elements. Their sound, primarily from the Northeast of Brazil, utilizes more traditional rhythms in their music than the sounds coming out of Rio or Sao Paulo. But it still has a fresh and exciting feel. I've covered some of this before looking at Forro music. Luaka Bop's Brazil Classics 7: What's Happening in Pernambuco, released just last month, is a compilation CD that surveys artists of this region, including established acts like Chico Science and Nacao Zumbi and Otto.  Bright up your day with some new-fashioned sounds from another side of Brasil.

Bonsuccesso Samba Clube

Carnival Groups Reach Proves Successful

Trios eletricos and blocos, are electric trios and blocks or groups of people that parade in the same costume. These large street bands produce a big sound from their massive speakers that can be heard from the favelas (slums) to the top of Corcovado. Many of them play samba and a mix of traditional rhythms such as coco, ciranda, and xote. 

Some of the very popular blocos, like Monobloco, Timbalada and Olodum appeal to those looking for a hip and contemporary sound like samba-reggae, funk, hip-hop and the high energy of axé music. They're extremely popular in Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. During Carnaval (Carnival time) it's practically impossible to travel through certain parts of the city without running up against throngs of people laughing, singing dancing, making out, drinking beer and partying themselves into a wild and joyous frenzy. Since trios electricos are on wheels the crowds literally following the bands throughout the city.

Monobloco is perhaps one of the most famous blocos at this time, their popularity is so immense the city of Rio has asked them repeatedly to hold their post carnival concerts at 9:00 am, in hopes of drawing smaller crowds. But once again it backfired when 80,000 people crowded the streets of Copacabana. The bands 2002 CD, Monobloco may not be well known in the States but this import captures the excitement, pulsating batucada and the global appeal of this exciting bloco. Monobloco has multiple lead singers and their voices complement each other as if to sound like one whether they're singing in unison or solo. These fine male vocals are allowed to shine and hold their own against the superior rhythms of the batcuda (percussion section) and strong melodies in songs like Alagados, Maracatu Embolado and the hot samba funk of Immunização Racional (Que Beleza), featured on their CD.  If you're the type that loves being part of the energy of the music, you must experience the infectious sounds of Monobloco, Timbalada and others.

Monobloco - Que Beleza

Timbalada • feat. Carlinhos Brown & Daniela Mercury - Beija Flor

Samba Funk From Brazil

About two years ago, I went to Mexico City for the first time. Where ever I travel, I usually find time to shop for new music. It was here of all places that I discovered the Brazilian artist known as Curumin.

Some described him as a modern day Jorge Ben Jorge or a Jamiquori, but only more talented. Well, neither reference though well meaning, comes close to describing his very personal sound, in my opinion. Blending his stylist approach to R&B, Hip-Hop and Jazz with Samba and Bossa Nova,  has rightfully captured much attention north of the equator. 

His debut CD, Achados E Perdidos (Lost and Found) is highly listenable, its one of those laid back and shake your head kinda grooves. I hope we hear a lot from Curumin in the years to come. He does a fairly good cover of Stevie Wonder’s You Haven’t Done Nothin, (I'm a Stevie fanatic, so I tend to be critical here), but the standouts are Solidao Gasolina, Tudo Ben Malandro and Samba Japa. You can listen to 5 of Curumin's tracks and download free Mp3s. He’s been appearing at World Music festivals and similar clubs in promotion of the CD. 

DancetracksDigital is Tops in Brazilian Dance Music.

DancetracksDigital.com is one of my favorite music download websites because it features a section specifically devoted to contemporary Brazilian music. 

Given the central theme of my blog, its obvious to see why I feel that way. This is a great place to begin a search for electro samba in its many forms. Of all the music download websites I've ever searched, dancetracksdigital makes it a breeze to find the music I love. Brazilian music isn't the site's only strength, they're actually geared to all forms of dance music. 

Dance, club and house music labels seem to have the most creative CD artwork and DancetracksDigital makes good use of it. I like the fact that they include artist and label bios. Given that so much music is now available primarily online, I miss having linear notes that are bundled with jewel cases. That may be some what "old school" but it makes for a deeper appreciation of the artist and his/her work. However, I've noticed in the past year or so, booklets are available in iTunes with an entire CD purchase. 

DancetracksDigital, like mp3sparks.com offers performance quality encoding, usually at 320 kbps, some older tracks are at 256 kbps. Tracks are compatible with all media players and come without digital rights management (DRM) encoding. The per track pricing is bit steep at $1.89, but I imagine audiophiles and music lovers won't mind paying for quality.

Mp3sparks.com, by contrast, offers a range of bitrates and prices are adjusted accordingly. One makes out much better though by purchasing entire CDs from dancetracksdigital; here pricing is well in line with other leading online music sites, like iTunes, at around $9.99. You can sample 60 seconds of any track by placing it on your playlist with its built-in music player. The site boast almost 2,000 labels and 15,000 artists to choose from. There's a news section, which is essentially a blog,  but it has some very interesting music related events like a building in Detroit that went up in flames that housed a legendary vinyl record shop or the worlds largest record collection that was up for sale. DJ competitions, artist profiles and youTube videos are also available in the news section. 

If you're looking for purchasing suggestions, dancetracksdigital's charts are kind of limited compared to other sites, most noteworthy, mp3sparks. They seem to be based solely on their popularity within the site, as opposed to industry or world-wide activity. Although of limited use for the average music download person, DancetracksDigital offers DJs live ready tracks that can be used in performance. 

Conclusion: 

I've had nothing but a good experience using this site to augment my mp3 iPod and iTunes collection. Unlike some other sites, boxmp3.com comes to mind, I've never encountered any download or encoding errors. The site is very reliable and updated frequently. There are other sites with better pricing options but the selection more than makes up for it. I'm especially excited with dancetracksDigital because I've been able to find several remixes of contemporary Brazilian artists and label samplers that prior to discovering the site, I could only find in the now vanishing brick and mortar mega stores, like Virigin records or Towers records. Does anyone remember them ?