Brazilian Explosion!
Spring 2008 = great Brazilian music. Why? Beats the heck out of me, but there it is. Something about feijoada and caiparinhas maybe? Whatever the reason, the meeting of classic Brazilian sounds with modern production and psychedelia is bearing the most fruit of any kind of music around, it seems. The overall direction of modern pop from that part of the world has already been somewhat established (not least of which by local label Six Degrees), but three new discs really exemplify what’s best about the modern Brazilian sound.
First up is Kassin+2 Futurismo, the third and last album in the +2 trilogy on Luaka Bop that includes a stellar album by Caetano Veloso’s son Moreno (Music Typewriter), and a strong yet chaotic album by Domenico Lancellotti, Sincerely Hot. The three school friends are really a band, but chose to put out each album highlighting the individual members’ songwriting and direction. So it’s finally Kassin’s turn, and he does not disappoint.
Although Kassin of late has been making a name for himself as more of an experimentalist, Futurismo is a pretty grounded rock/bossa album, tending towards the gentle side and never building up to even the weirdness that graces the middle and end of Music Typewriter. Instead, the songs present themselves relatively plainly, built out of a traditional guitar-bass-percussion kind of band. On a song-to-song basis other instruments appear (including a stellar guest appearance by the great Joao Donato on Rhodes as well as some contributions by the ubiquitous John McEntire from Tortoise and Sean O’Hagan of the High Llamas, not entirely the high point of the disc), but they function more as accessories to the core sound of the group.
Kassin claims to have written and recorded the basic tracks of the album all very quickly, as the ideas came, but you’d never know, because the songwriting is really strong. The arrangements are incredible as well, with some brilliant left field ideas that occasionally push things into a little more upbeat territory (the gritty “Punto Final” for example). Oh, and then there’s a very soukous arrangement for the tune “Agua,” with Kassin busting out some very tasty African-style guitar licks, alongside some Hawaiian slide guitar. Understated adventurousness. And yet, for the stylistic breadth of the disc, it feels very organic.
Taking a similarly mellow approach is the new disc from Brazil’s ambassador to downtown New York, Vinicius Cantuaria. Perhaps best known for his work with Bill Frisell and Caetano Veloso, Vinicius has had a steady stream of really strong albums under his own name, all exploring basically the same territory, the quiet side of bossa nova with a spooky edge. From the subtly ominous harmonic structures of his tunes to the production of the records, the quiet vibe doesn’t mean comforting, necessarily.
A really strong guitarist and percussionist in his own right, on Cymbals, Vinicius enlists a stunning band of New Yorkers: Marc Ribot, Jenny Scheinman, Brad Mehldau, David Binney on sax, Erik Friedlander on cello, Michael Leonhart on trumpet and Marivaldo Dos Santos on percussion. Each of the supporting players meld right into the mood, although not completely. You can recognize Ribot’s guitar from the get-go on “Galope” or Mehldau’s probing piano lines on “Voce e Eu.” That’s helped along by the production, which keeps most things floating in the background unless absolutely needed.
As he has before, Cantuaria throws a Jobim tune into the mix, making explicit his connection to the bossa tradition and its connection to jazz music. But for my money, Vinicius is one of the best people to do Jobim outside of Caetano himself or Joao Gilberto, of course. It works, and it blends seamlessly in (although perhaps more sunnily) with his own compositions.
As an antidote to the mellowness, you may need to pay a visit to the new self titled disc by 3 Na Massa, on Nublu, a more groovy, although still pretty psychedelic effort. Comprised of two members of the excellent rock group Nacao Zumbi, plus the producer behind the hip-hop collective Instituto and a host of guest female vocalists (including CeU), this Sao Paolo-based group is incredibly inventive. As with CeU’s own disc or Kassin+2, there is a great balance of real instrumentation with studio wizardry. But 3 Na Massa is definitely amped up on the grooves in a way that Kassin doesn’t worry about. Pupillo and Dengue are the bass and drums team from Nacao Zumbi, so perhaps that makes sense.
It also illustrates a difference between 3 Na Massa and other Brazilian electronic-ish projects, which is that everything is grounded in real drums (most of the time!). Dengue’s bass playing frequently stands out, driving things the way a classic Motown bass line would have done. Meanwhile Rica Amabis, who the other two describe as the “magic cook” layers subtle keys, winds and odd ambient sounds over the groove, creating an ever-evolving sonic texture.
Perhaps what ties these discs together is a certain taste for trippiness. Starting with Caetano et al, back in the 60s, Brazil has as strong a taste for the psychedelic as the US, if not more so. So here we have three artists taking relatively conventional song structures and using imaginative and off the wall instrumentation, arrangement and production to twist it into something else. It’s the sound of spring! That is, if your spring is slightly hallucinogenic.
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