Latin | Brazil Sale 41 Items

Limited to 1000 copies for the European market.

Music by Madlib, arranged by Kieran Hebden, better known as Four Tet. Gil Evans to Miles Davis…. Holger Czukay to the ensemble known as Can….Jean Claude Vannier to Serge Gainsbourg on Histoire de Melody Nelson. That’s the only way to explain the specificity of Four Tet and Madlib’s collaboration, in this special album that showcases a two-decade long friendship that has resulted in an album that follows Madlib’s classics like Quasimoto’s The Unseen, Madvillainy and his Pinata and Bandana albums with Freddie Gibbs. “A few months ago I completed work on an album with my friend Madlib that we’d been making for the last few years. He is always making loads of music in all sorts of styles and I was listening to some of his new beats and studio sessions when I had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib solo album. Not made into beats for vocalists to use but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start to finish. I put this concept to him when we were hanging out eating some nice food one day and we decided to work on this together with him sending me tracks, loops, ideas and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that fitted with my vision.” - Kieren Hebden AKA Four Tet

Reissue of the 1988 zouk album Pa Flipé by Odissey.

Odissey is a group formed by the Adams brothers (Pascal and Richie), born in Paris to a mother from Guadeloupe and a father from Martinique. At the time, Pascal was a DJ and radio presenter and Richard was a guitarist, both being trained singers. They had been making demo's for some time when one day they met Jolème Narayadou who was a well-known producer in the country, specialized in charming music who wanted to produce something other than slow and bolero (very popular music at the time). The three ventured in the studio and this resulted in the album Pa flipé (which is a Creole expression which means don't be afraid).

The tune Marie Hélène was a hit and is one of the great successes of Zouk in Martinique. The song is about a man in love with an Indian girl and takes place in Martinique, a small island in the French West Indies which saw the birth of Aimé Césaire but also Jean-Philippe Marthély, Jocelyne Béroard, Jean-Claude Naimro from the Kassav group, the legendary band which was born in Guadeloupe and which has toured the world multiple times.

Check the stand out songs : "Viré Love" & "Songe"

This is one of Tito Puente’s best original albums released under the label of Tico in the 60s. The album features one of his best hits, “Oye Cómo Va,”. Tito Puente and his orchestra lay down a driving irresistible beat that moves from beginning to end in a pulsating performance and create an added appeal with their ensemble singing which lends an authenticity to the music. Pressed on 180g black vinyl with a tip-on-jacket. US Import.

Wilfred Trevor Woodley aka Woods (1934 - 2010) is certainly one of the best kept secrets in Caribbean jazz. A pianist composer from Point Fortin, Trinidad & Tobago, Woods was a fascinating man who lived an incredible life traveling to more than 70 countries. Even though he composed hundreds of songs he had never released an official album. Woods was a man who lived a fearless life. Even when faced with life's adversities he dealt with them with such courage and calmness that all who knew him could only remember him with admiration and respect. In july 1990 he was involved in an accident where a truck crushed one os his legs. facing the doctors, he replied with aplomb: "As long as I can play the pinao, everything is fine". This EP is the first project of a series to pay a tribute to his legend and to keep his music alive.

Mr Bongo is proud to present an official reissue of Zé Rodrix E A Agência De Mágicos ‘O Esquadrão Da Morte’. Written, arranged and composed by the genius of Zé Rodrix and performed by his band 'Agência de Mágicos’, this Brazilian library funk beauty is the soundtrack to Carlos Imperial's 1975 film of the same title. Echoing European soundtrack maestros such as Roy Budd and Ennio Morricone, but with a Brazilian swagger, Zé Rodrix's score is a sublime gem that needs rediscovery.

Rich in 70's soundtrack cool, the score is packed with orchestrated jazz, chase scene-funk, breaks, psychedelic freakouts and plenty of drama. The loose and quirky break-beat jazz-funk of 'Assalto' feels almost tailor-made for today's hip-hop production aesthetic. The opening drum break of 'Esconderijo' is a sampler’s dream and has already been reinterpreted by the Turkish Rapper Anıl Piyancı, as well as Brazil's DJ Caique.

Carlos Imperial was a jack of all trades. As a songwriter and music producer, he created a highly impressive back catalogue. It includes working with or writing songs for Tim Maia, Elza Soares, Brigitte Bardot, and Wilson Simonal. He also co-wrote the rare cult Brazilian 7" compacto 'Lindo Sonho Delirante (L. S. D') by Fábio. Carlos Imperial wrote liner notes and was an actor, filmmaker, television presenter, and media figure. His film 'O Esquadrão da Morte' is a violent heist movie starring Beto Bandeira, Claire Chevalier, and Baby Conceicao; in the vein of exploitation films and gritty, raw B-Movie cinema of the day. Both the film and album share striking, macabre artwork by artist Benicio.

The instrumentalist, arranger, and singer-songwriter Zé Rodrix has a musical achievements list that is also one to admire. He’s worked with the cream of Brazilian music, having written songs covered by the greats, including Quarteto Em Cy, Ronald Mesquita, Elis Regina, Karma, and Célia, to name just a few. His written arrangements have graced the music of Luli Lucinha E O Bando and Helio Matheus. He was a member of the iconic group Som Imaginário and played piano and synthesizer on Secos & Molhado's classic 1973 album.

We are super pleased to make this dusty treasure available again. It is a wonderful soundtrack score that more than holds its own with its European and American counterparts of the era.

(Classicos EM Vinyl, LP 180gr, Simple cover) Recorded live at "Maracanãzinho" (Rio de Janeiro) on the 23rd of February, 1974. Liner notes by Gerson Conrad.

DJ Tudo e sua Gente de Todo Lugar’s 7th album, breed from Brazilian field recordings and made between 2007 and 2019 in trips around the world - Brazil and 11 other countries. It is a project that should have come out in 2013, but the “Pancada Motor - Manifesto da festa” came out ahead, having as a sequel the two volumes of Gaia Music series. By early 2019, the album was finalized. Pancada Motor is a term derived from the Alagoas traditions like the Samba de Matuto, Cambinda, Baianá and Caboclinha, about their cultural make or their rhythms. Here this name has been expanded to other cultures and rhythms of Brazil. Transformation and Cure are urgent needs for humanity and our relation with the planet, we need to transform our relationship with each other and Mother Earth for our healing as a whole. Artists from many countries and different cultures contributed to this work. It is hard to place an order of greatness and importance but certainly the traditional Brazilian groups were the initial inspiration: Matutinhas do Pontal de Coruripe, Cambinda Palmeirense de Porto de Pedras, Maracatu Nação e Rural de Recife, Caceteira do Seu Rindu de São Cristóvão, Terno de Congo 13 de Maio de Goiânia, Reisado São Miguel de Juazeiro de Norte, Carimbó Raízes de Coremar de Salinas and Queen Dona Neta from Maracatu Cruzeiro do Forte do Recife. Equally fundamental is the contribution of Sérgio Ricardo, legend of MPB (Brazilian Popular Music), and Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux that features the track “Terra para todos (Land for all)”. From Belgium, Rolland Van Campenhout, Steven de Bruyn, Bart Maris, Tuur Florizoone and David Bovée. Alan Bryden and Stuart Brown, BigTad and duo Twelfth day Esther and Catriona from Scotland. From Paris, guitarist Stefane Goldman who has participated in several DJ Tudo’s albums. From London, the percussionist Crispin Robinson, Lopa Kotari and Mariana Pinho. From Rio de Janeiro, the keyboardists Sacha Amback and Marcos Lobato. Lu Dlamini from South Africa. American drummer Marque Gilmore, who was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden. From Istanbul the Zas Player Murat Ertel. Rajasthan musicians met unexpectedly at a casual ride in a hotel elevator in Durban, South Africa. Brasília singer Ana Soares. From Ljubljana, Slovenia, accordionist Uros and Beth. From São Paulo, my brothers and sisters in arms: Gente de Todo Lugar - drummer Gustavo Souza, percussionist and singer Rafaella Nepomuceno, guitarist Rafael Martinez, saxophonists Marcelo Monteiro and Filipe Nader and trumpeter Amílcar Rodrigues. Planetary voices in the track “Nietzsche era triste ....” recorded in several countries. Thank you so much for the music and the affection that you put in this work, the result is nine songs and nine seasons linked to life. Knowing and respecting cultures is an eternal path of transformation, that this work reaches each one as a transforming element, especially in this almost inexplicable moment that we live on the planet.

Debut album by the influential gaucho musician Gelson Oliveira, in partnership with the drummer Luiz Ewerling, released independently in 1983, with minimal resources. In spite of all this, they made a unique and very beautiful album, with a spectacular musicality, a mix of sounds, ranging from jazz, funk and fusion.

“Style, Style is the answer to everything, an original way to face a boring day, or a dangerous day, I'd rather do a boring job with style, than an exciting thing without style, style is pure art”. It is with these words that Rodrigo Brandão begins his poetic, spiritual journey and with high doses of “straight talk” without “eiras or borders”. A record that brings at its core a mixture of elements such as jazz, psychedelia, spoken word, synthesizers and afro futurism with Brazilian matrices. Brandão makes us reflect, bothers us and forces us to understand the other sides, questioning society's problems for the reality of life. The past, now and future in one direction, like a revolutionary celestial storm.

Twisting time and uniting spaces with words and sounds in “other states”. Rodrigo invokes in his narrative the subversion of the listeners. Mentioning that we can face life's difficulties and beauties through style, propagating love instead of hate. A transcendental journey that will undoubtedly transform many who will embark on this sidereal state.

Here and after the LP “Outros Espaço” alongside the mythical SUN RA Arkestra, Brandão arrives accompanied by musicians with a unique caliber from the spiritual jazz and international free jazz, such as the Brazilians Thiago França (meta Meta) and Guilherme Granado (Rob Mazurek Octet, São Paulo Underground ) the free jazz magicians Rodrigo Amado, Yedo Gibson, Hernâni Faustino and Carla Santana the Guinean Kora magician José Braima Galissa. Luxury cast that make Outros Estado an unavoidable work in current the current jazz scene.

“The truth is hard to hear. Even in music. But I can tell you that when you really listen to it, it's beautiful, like the sweetest sound you've ever heard. Brandão's poetry is like that. Lower your weapons. And listen with the same vulnerability it was created with. That's where you'll find beauty. “Brian Jackson” Felipe Portes Jornalista, Sociólogo, DJ e Escritor

Nada Escrito is Dorotheo’s third full-length album and a reflection of the band’s evolution through the years. The project’s progressive nature and their psychedelic rock foundation has blossomed to a different sonic direction, reminiscent of hauntology music, echoing the experimental spirit of bands like Broadcast, Stereo Lab or Silver Apples, yet landing ideas from latin-american and middle-eastern music among many other influences with their signature song-writing, channeled by the production hand of Hugo Quezada (Progreso Nacional, Exploded View) and the musical possibilities enabled by the new line-up.

This album is the follow-up to their celebrated Como Es (2021), which was conceived as a duo integrated by front-man, singer and guitarist Benjamín Zárate and Otto Malgesto on drums and vocals. However, the album release tour was performed as a quintet, introducing new songs with the return of co-founder bassist-singer Anton Cerda, the inclusion of Efraín Valadez on synthesizers and the extraordinary Cynthia Estévez adding a second lead vocal persona, spacey keyboards, hypnotic wind instruments and new lyrics. Together, they created Nada Escrito, expanding their music to a completely new form.

“A band with the hauntological cool of Broadcast and Stereolab." – NPR

“Dorotheo es integrado por elementos de antiguas agrupaciones que han decidido abrir un nuevo camino. Bases krautrock se pueden percibir de primera mano, planos llenos de psicodelia y tendencias al shoegaze terminan de forjar su arte, que sin duda corre haciendo transgresiones al tiempo, que nos invita a imaginar escenarios retóricos y ambiguos.” – Rolling Stone

From the rare and obscure to the unknown, producer Tee Cardaci mines eleven genre-spanning gems from the waning days of Brazil's military dictatorship, recorded by a new emerging class of artists operating outside of the major label system. Sonhos Secretos, or Secret Dreams in English, alludes to the quiet aspirations of those that made these independent and privately released seven-inches as well as to the fact that many of these records have long remained essentially a secret. It's also, to some extent, a reference to a certain dream-like quality that permeates this collection. These songs contain elements of jazz, soul, folk, prog, baroque rock and shimmering pop (housed under the blanket term Música Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian Popular Music). This unique compilation, presented by reissue specialists Org Music and online audio journal Aquarium Drunkard, includes a fold-out insert with artist interviews and additional liner notes by Brazilian music scholar Allen Thayer.

There are a million stories in a naked city. Fachada tells 16 of these stories instrumentally on their second full-length album, Cidade Da Selva. After departing the secret world of Mundos Secretos. Fachada sets new tones on Cidade Da Selva, delving deeper into the Afro-Noir diaspora, re-interpreting soul, funk, Afrobeat, Brazilian (mpb), and deep jazz. Each tune is a vignette—all together examining and submerging into a journey of retrospection through multicultural and site-specific sounds, evoking visions and the spirit of a time and place in a mysterious jungle city on the margins of imagination and magic.

Further adventures in psychedelic disco cumbia from one-man-band C.A.M.P.O.S. on the much-awaited second studio album

C.A.M.P.O.S. is a one-man tropical electronic psych band consisting of multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer Joshua Douglas Camp. Though C.A.M.P.O.S. stands for Cumbias And More Psychedelic Original Sounds, there are no limits to Camp’s musical creativity, with the project taking cues from everything from Americana and pop rock to Cuban son and German electronica. This is no surprise as Camp has been involved with many diverse groups over the years, including Latin-flavored outfits Chicha Libre, Locobeach and Los Crema Paraíso, but also his country band Westwork, the Eastern-European klezmer quintet Litvakus and literary rockers One Ring Zero.

Since releasing his debut double LP as C.A.M.P.O.S., Miracles & Criminals, on Peace & Rhythm in 2016, Camp has developed his repertoire into a live show that has garnered a devoted following, and which has also seen the live band he assembled evolving into its own distinct entity, Locobeach.

When the pandemic forced Camp into exile he used the time to once more focus on C.A.M.P.O.S. and his one-man-band skills. This initially resulted in two albums, Shake Up The World: Live In The Studio Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, both performed live and recorded in one take at his home studio (and both digitally released by Peace & Rhythm, in 2020 and 2021 respectively).

In addition, he continued to work on the long-awaited follow-up studio album to Miracles & Criminals, which had begun years prior and progressed in the fleeting moments when his other projects allowed. With time to once more concentrate on C.A.M.P.O.S., the album soon began to take shape, eventually coalescing into The Eighth Door. Though catalyzed by isolation, it is far from a solo effort, with Camp enlisting collaborators including pianist and arranger Marlysse Simmons (Bio Ritmo, Miramar), who had initially told Peace & Rhythm about Camp’s unreleased backlog of tropical tracks from back in the Chicha Libre days (which became Miracles & Criminals), to other Chicha Libre band mates Neil Ochoa and Karina Colis, as well as Gabo Tomasini (Yotoco), who was a founding member of Bio Ritmo and played in C.A.M.P.O.S.’s first live appearance in 2016.

As with all C.A.M.P.O.S. releases, The Eighth Door takes you on a cosmic trip to a multi-dimensional landscape of the mind where the body also knows the pleasures of dance and sensuality, but this time there is more focus, with fewer songs and a fuller sound. Yes there is a dark side to planet C.A.M.P.O.S., to which the album sometimes ventures, but ultimately the record is a voyage of self-discovery, making connections between sounds and sentiments that, on paper, appear unlikely companions. Yet, once bound together by the intimate circuitry of Joshua Camp’s creativity and serious songwriting skills, all elements gel in a gravity-defying way. Exotic-sounding electronic keyboards, jangly, fuzzy guitars and percolating percussion loops seamlessly carry the listener through two sides of galaxy-spanning mini epics, sometimes with vocals, sometimes instrumental, and often infused with the shuffling beat of Colombia’s cumbia rhythm with a few disco, rock or salsa accents thrown in for good measure.

Camp juxtaposes the raw and the smooth, destructive and redemptive, sweet and ominous, digital and analog, organic and synthetic, intimate and expansive, all of which combine into an apt metaphor for where we find ourselves today. On The Eighth Door C.A.M.P.O.S. pulls the great unknown to a realm just within our grasp.

Album cover art by Selina Josephs and photo of Joshua Camp by Julian Parker Burns. Released in conjunction with Calle de Campos, Hyperopia Records (Canada) and Sounds and Colours (uk). Digital album has five bonus tracks, which also come with download card for vinyl purchase.

A masterpiece of South American percussion, recorded in 1977 by worldwide legend and Gipsy Kings percussionist Jorge Trasante—and impossible to find for decades—finally reissued!

'In the mid-'70s I was struck by a young Uruguayan percussionist named Jorge Trasante. I met him accompanying Rada and Pippo Spera, in recordings in the Sondor Studio. He turned out to be an experienced percussionist and remarkable musical researcher, despite his young age, only 23 years old. At that time he invited me to a rehearsal with Eduardo Mateo, at his house in El Cordón. We decided to record the album 'Mateo y Trasante', which today is an iconic album of Uruguayan music. And at the same time, I suggested to Jorge, to record an LP of instrumental percussion, based on Afro Uruguay rhythms. It became his letter of introduction when a few months later he traveled to Europe, where he joined very good groups, including the Gipsy Kings, with whom he recorded 18 albums between 1987 and 2001, and also accompanied other great artists. Jorge Trasante settled in Paris, France, where he lived for more than 30 years. The album “Folklore Afro Uruguayo” was not a success of the moment, but is a sound document which maintains its validity through time.” —Enrique Abal Oliú


'I left (Uruguay) in early 1977. We were finishing a cycle with Mateo, Buscaglia, Yánez and Mariana Vigil. I studied technical drawing at the Universidad del Trabajo del Uruguay… and worked in a cigar and cigar factory—that was my mother's trade—which allowed me to buy the instruments that Emilio Acevedo made in Ansina 1036; he was the great teacher. The first drums I paid for in a thousand installments. He would lend me pailas, Ameijenda or Galletti would lend me a cymbal, I never had anything.

I left because here I was very “wounded' and the political thing got very hard with the dictatorship and the music weighed more than everything. I decided to jump to Europe, where there were great friends. And I went with 70 kilos of drums to Paris to Mario Aguerre, former bassist of Los Delfines. Knowing that I had arrived, Emilio Arteaga called me and he proposed to set up a group with Jorge Pinchevsky, a great Argentine violinist who had played in La Pesada del Rock & Roll. We set up an experimental group with Latin rhythms to play on the street, in clubs, where he would paint. I used to play a set of congas, timbales, and we made Andean music, very fashionable then… and that summer of 1977 in the south of France we did very well. There I crossed paths for the first time with the Gipsy Kings, who also played on the street doing 'the manga' with their gypsy rumba.” —Jorge Trasante

180g Vinyl Edition

Record Store day exclusive. For the first time on vinyl! The fabled extended recording.... from the unreleased 1977 Natureza album produced, arranged, and conducted by Claus Ogerman.

Limited heavy-weight 12" vinyl to 300 copies only. Azymuth drummer Ivan 'Mamao' Conti's forthcoming self-titled solo project, remixed by West London broken beat pioneer IG Culture for a scorching club monster, alongside three future-funk remixes from 22a records family Tenderlonious, Reginald Omas Mamode IV and Jeen Bassa.

For the second instalment in our Cuban Classics series, we proudly present this sought-after slice of sublime Afro-Cuban jazz from 1976. It comes courtesy of one of Cuba’s most influential acts, Grupo Irakere. Founded in 1973 by Chucho Valdés (son of the Cuban pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdés) the group was home to many of Cuba’s finest musicians over the years. With an electrifying style and sound, they mixed traditional Cuban music with jazz, funk, and rock.

This self-titled album includes the much-loved, dancefloor heavy-hitter 'Chequeré-Son’, a Latin-jazz funk masterpiece with Cubanized bebop-flavoured horn lines, lush keys, and ‘70s hip swagger. Though 'Chequeré-Son’ is the keystone of the record, the album is laced with brilliance at every turn, from the Carlos Santana-esque channelling ‘Iya’ with its percussive Latin power, to the sultry, slick and passionate '38 1/2’. Elsewhere, the absorbing, ever-building energy of 'Juana 1600’ and steamy vocal dancer ‘Xiomara’ are also highlights of this incredible album.

Pressed on Cuba’s state led Areito Records, the album was well received internationally, garnering distribution in Finland on Love Records, in Italy on Phase 6 Super Stereo, and also in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Venezuela.

A cherished Afro-Cuban triumph, this album has been crying out for a reissue and we’re delighted to make that happen.

Future Rootz has collaborated with Canal Sounds and Egrem to release this gem from bass player and producer Jorge Soler León.

Originally released in 1977 under Egrem, it has become one of the rarest and most wanted albums to come out of the Cuban music archives. While Jorge Soler recorded and produced many tracks for many artists from that period, Grupo Yoyi is his only known solo project. This album presents a fusion of traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms with jazz, funk and disco, and it is full of amazing horn solos and incredible synth work. This is a must have, bringing both chillness for lounging and energy to heat up the dance floor.

Jesús Gómez y su Grupo has been a vinyl jewel impossible to find for decades, a musical treasure ahead of its time with a prodigious voice. Jesús Gómez had not even reached the age of majority when he embarked on the adventure of recording and producing his own album, bringing together songs from the main Afro-Latin rhythms of the moment to which he contributed all his fantastic explosion of creativity. Not long ago, he had earned the epithet of "The Child Prodigy of the Song" which led him to explore and gain experiences in the paths of music since his youth, a passion, but also a craft, that his mother had instilled in him since his childhood and that he shared with other members of his family. Different rhythms, styles, and learnings hardened Jesús so that at only 17 years old he could deliver such a fantastic work, a clairvoyant sound of pure “Salsa” even before it became fashionable to call this type of music that way.

Mythical visits by artists and orchestras from the Caribbean were a catalyst for the appearance of national Venezuelan representatives with a higher professional level who had been working on Afro-Caribbean and Venezuelan rhythms since the 1930s, leaving an indelible mark such as Sonora Caracas, among others. Almost 40 years later, in 1967, as a result of this tradition, a modern and fierce work like this album would be possible, a direct, energetic, rhythmic declaration full of flavors of Guaguancó, Bolero, Descarga, Rumba, and even Guaracha. This base is the hyper fertile ground for the even more fantastic voice of Jesús, with high tones and extreme clarity, perfectly tuned and colorful, a characteristic that will accompany him throughout his life, a blessing, one could say.

Typical of the restless spirit that can be glimpsed on this album, he intertwines rhythms within rhythms, as happens in the singular and mythical “Loca ilusión” that goes from Bolero to Salsa Brava, a turn that leaves a reasonably psychedelic feeling. Let's not forget that we are in a period prior to what would be the canonical Salsa, even since then, this young Venezuelan, at the sound level, was already fluttering over the molasses of the trombones. A gem like “False Love” could get any dance floor on fire right now, a hot guaguancó that should be part of the vault of any Latin music DJ along with the greatest classics like “Tirándote Flores”.

Jesús Gómez is not one to fall short, neither in style nor in rhythm, a true artist from the beginning he also includes Surf and Bossanova pieces, taking his work to other territories without fear. Jesús Gómez y su Grupo was perhaps the definitive step that opened all the doors of a brilliant career for this young man, he would go on to collaborate almost from that moment with countless nationally and internationally renowned orchestras and artists, including Sonora Caracas itself, already historic and still standing at the moment.

If this album reaches your hands, you will have a treasure in it, since it is among the most sought-after in the history of Caribbean music, it has taken El Palmas Music more than 1 year of work to be able to reissue this jewel so that it can finally be accessible to the world while possible, a key piece in the history of salsa in Venezuela and a jewel for the world available maybe for a limited time.

From the rare and obscure to the unknown, producer Tee Cardaci mines eleven genre-spanning gems from the waning days of Brazil's military dictatorship, recorded by a new emerging class of artists operating outside of the major label system. Sonhos Secretos, or Secret Dreams in English, alludes to the quiet aspirations of those that made these independent and privately released seven-inches as well as to the fact that many of these records have long remained essentially a secret. It's also, to some extent, a reference to a certain dream-like quality that permeates this collection. These songs contain elements of jazz, soul, folk, prog, baroque rock and shimmering pop (housed under the blanket term Música Popular Brasileira, or Brazilian Popular Music). This unique compilation, presented by reissue specialists Org Music and online audio journal Aquarium Drunkard, includes a fold-out insert with artist interviews and additional liner notes by Brazilian music scholar Allen Thayer.

“Exposição Popular” is the new album from Rio de Janeiro based producer and composer Guerrinha, sonically orbits 80´s new wave & fusion jazz, imagine a lost ECM gem, layered in low-fi subterranean exoticism, that somehow conjures the soundtracks of Angelo Badalamenti. Here we find Guerrinha loosened up, the rhythm spilling out, playfully impossible to grasp as it floats over space-age ambient synth and organ work that takes references from Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Rita Lee. “The last LP, "Cidade Grande" was all about acceptance of the big city as a monolith, but here I wanted to focus on the exposition of the intimate as the most logical, obvious choice. Hence the name "Exposição Popular" (in english "Popular Exhibition"), which is wordplay, as all exhibitions should be inherently popular since they're all out about exhibiting yourself to everyone, but because of the nature of the art, it becomes the opposite of the "popular", it becomes niche.” - Guerrinha

EXCITING LATIN SOUNDS COMPILED BY GLADYS PALMERA

We introduce to you “Loca Ilusion: Exciting Latin Sounds Compiled By Gladys Palmera”, a unique compilation for its quality, selection, sound and taste.

You will hardly find another compilation album like this one, where the best of Gladys Palmera’s Colection is found and with the personal touch of Gladys herself, Alejandra Fierro Eleta.

Here you will find different versions of well-known songs, surprising displays of vocal mastery, crazy jam sessions to immediately dance to, instrumentals full of virtuosity, gatherings of great music stars unnoticed until now and rare songs by artists who can only be found in Gladys Palmera´s archive.

Gladys Palmera herself has spent hours and hours searching, listening to, choosing, selecting and refining each piece of music for all of us to enjoy. These are recordings from the 60s and 70s made in different cities in Latin America and with styles ranging from the most traditional Antillean folklore to mixes and combinations with jazz, swing, twist, exotic and bossa nova.

“Loca Ilusion: Exciting Latin Sounds Compiled by Glady Palmera” is a production of Discos Gladys Palmera and a small sample of what is considered the best and biggest Afrolatin collection in the world.

Pellegrino & Zodyaco, with their new single 'Malìa', continue the aesthetic and sonic journey of the project led by the Neapolitan producer, with a mixture of Neapolitan disco-funk and fusion steeped in Latin flavour that already explored the innermost corners of the soul with 'Quimere'. This new work captures the frenzy and vibrant character of Naples, with its rarefied atmospheres and infectious groove that evoke the beating heart of the city and take us on a journey through the wonder of life in search of the Mediterranean essence. The 'Malìa' is enchanting, it’s that mysterious force that hides deep inside, transforming itself into a vortex of emotions through the fusion of involving rhythms and reflections on inner battles, on the importance of finding the 'light' to overcome conflicts and difficulties that hinder the ability to choose, a dreamlike mirage that opens a window on human vulnerability, a hymn to authenticity, to self-acceptance.

The celebration of dance in the Caribbean Escapade version is also an exhortation to escape from everyday life; it takes us into a sonic imagery that plays with the Neapolitan musical tradition and the freshness of Caribbean and Latin sounds. This summer single becomes an ode to the vital energy of dance music: there is no more time for hesitation, one must let oneself be carried away by the enthralling embrace of 'Malìa', like a call to awareness and the search for authenticity in life. Malìa becomes the guiding thread, the mystery that urges us to go beyond the confines of everyday life, to explore and celebrate the complexity of existence.

Som Imaginário are the stuff of MPB mythos. Integral to Brazil’s Clube Da Esquina movement in the early 1970s, a heady blend of progressive rock, folk, psychedelia, jazz and traditional Brazilian rhythm flows through the three studio albums the band recorded between ‘70 and ‘73. Flying the countercultural freak-flag amid the context of military dictatorship, the Brazilian prog lords shared much of the sense of experimentation and bountiful fuzz bequeathed by their tropicalismo forbearers. But armed with genius composers, arrangers and stupendously high-level musicianship, Som Imaginário introduced a potent harmonic complexity to Brazilian popular music, which would inspire generations of artists to come.



On 4th October 1976, having finished a spell of recording and touring with Milton Nascimento, Som Imaginário performed a concert in celebration of Nature Day in Brasília. The recordings of the show would become “Banda Da Capital”, which, for the past half century, has laid dormant, waiting for its mystical power to be untapped.



In the band that day were original members Wagner Tiso and Fredera, joined by Nivaldo Ornelas, Paulinho Braga and Jamil Joanes. Operating within such a hugely creative and free-spirited scene meant line-up fluctuations were inevitable and former Som Imaginário members also include Laudir de Oliveira (who left to join Chicago), Nana Vasconcelos (who also moved to work in the US), Zé Rodrix, Robertinho Silva, Novelli and Toninho Horta.



Titled after the Belo Horizonte radio station where they would practice during their youth, the show opens with “Rádio Guarany”, an improvisation led by Paulinho Braga and Nivaldo Ornelas. The track morphs into Nivaldo Ornelas’ composition “Xa Mate”, which also opens Milton Nascimento’s Milagre dos Peixes ao Vivo album, featuring Som Imaginário and a 32 piece orchestra.



Having grown up together in Minas Gerais, composer, arranger and keyboard player Wagner Tiso had been another close musical partner of Milton Nascimento’s. Some of their work together includes many of Bituca’s most beloved albums, including Clube Da Esquina, Milton Nascimento (1970) and Maria Maria / Ultimo Trem, as well as Native Dancer: Nascimento’s album with Wayne Shorter.



Explaining the inspiration behind two of the tracks on Banda Da Capital “Igreja Majestosa” (written with Nivaldo Ornelas) and “Os Cafezais sem fim”, Tiso remincies:



“On Sundays I used to watch the coffee plantation workers entering the church. I´d see them working all week, in their humble, dirty clothes. But I was always enchanted by their immaculate dress on Sundays. Taken from a line in a poem by my father, which became the hymn of the city of Três Pontas, the song “the majestic church and the endless coffee plantations ” became sacred for me, because it came from something joyful, from the workers.”

One of the album's most tender moments is a beautiful rendition of the post-tropicalista folk-rock classic “Sabado”, written by Fredera for Som Imaginiaro’s debut album. The lyrics are typical of the “desbunde”: those on the Brazilian left whose response to authoritarianism was a politics of pacifist, often psychedelic, non-conformity (similar to that of “dropping out” in the US)...



“Eu quero o céu e vou com guizos nos sapatos / Minha roupa em farrapos coloridos vou rasgar / E vou dançar entre os cristais azuis do tempo e esquecer”

“I want the sky and will go with bells on my shoes / I will tear my clothes into colourful rags / And I will dance among the blue crystals of time to forget”.

Jamil Joanes, best known as a member of Banda Black Rio, is another Minas Gerais native. His composition for the album is “Imaginados”, a stunning unplugged guitar and vocal performance, highlighting Som Imaginário’s south-eastern home state’s influence on their sound.

Latin Freestyle was a dizzying, passionate, ultra-modern music. It was the aural equivalent of a can of thirst-quenching Quatro or a Spanish Harlem dance-off, and it became the electronically constructed bridge between disco and house.

Freestyle grew out of the electro sound of the early 80s, combined clean staccato rhythms with morse code synth hooks, and topped them off with emotive, usually female, frequently Latina vocals. There was plenty more going on besides: proto-house piano lines, Cuban percussion, high emotion and synth hooks to die for.

Put together and annotated by Bob Stanley (who also compiled the acclaimed “The Daisy Age” and “Fell From The Sun”), “Latin Freestyle” is the first compilation to cover the whole gamut of Freestyle from its early 80s breakthrough to its early 90s revival. So many classics… Lisa Lisa made the UK top ten with the 808 joy of ‘I Wonder If I Take You Home’. Stacey Q’s cosmically great ‘Two Of Hearts’ came out in 1986, while 1987 saw the likes of Company B’s ‘Fascinated’ and Exposé’s ‘Point Of No Return’ become huge UK club hits.

Today, Freestyle is a scene with a solid collector’s market, and rarities like Janelle’s ‘Don’t Be Shy’ sell for hundreds of dollars. It’s a classic summer soundtrack, finally condensed in one Ace Records compilation – “Latin Freestyle”.

In the late Congolese musician Lumingu Zorro, protégé of Kinshasa’s legendary 60s band leader Dr Nico, recorded Mosese, his only pre-2000 solo album, for the Tabansi label- and this is it.CHAMPETA STORM WARNING! The first-ever reissue of one of West Africa’s best-kept rumba-soukous secrets- as well as being one of the most in-demand titles on Colombia’s booming Champeta sound system scene, where a rare record is protected as fiercely as on the Northern Soul or Jamaican sound system scenes, the label scratched off, the record hidden from view when not on the turntable.Possibly one of the strongest and most consistent Congo dancefloor albums ever recorded perfectly balanced between voices, horns, guitars and percussion.Which is why original copies of this all-time rumba rarity almost never reach the open market, being traded between Colombia’s champeta picoteros (sound system selectors) instead.In Kinshasa they say ‘Miziki ezelaki eleng ndeko’- ‘Sweet music, brother!’. Roger that

Compiled by Sean Marquand and Greg Caz, 2 DJs well-known for their epic parties at Williamsburg’s legendary Black Betty club, that sadly closed in 2009. The duo played a deep variety of strictly vintage samba, samba-rock, Tropicalia, and Brazilian funk under the banner of ‘Brazilian Beats Brooklyn’.

Sean is known as half of Embassy Sound Productions. He took his team to Brazil to help resurrect Black Rio legends Uniao Black for a new release. Greg has DJ'd at some of the hottest Brazilian parties around the globe and presents a monthly radio show ‘Warm Wave’ on Soho Radio NYC.

Featuring Noriel Vilela’s singular “16 Toneladas,” a sublime cover of the Tennessee Ernie Ford smash “16 Tons” with a spare samba groove and unbelievable baritone vocals and hot jams from Tim Maia, Erasmo Carlos, Joao Bosco, Toni Tornado.

Included in this compilation of original 60's and 70's Brazilian gems are some of Greg and Sean's favourite tracks that have been filling dancefloors for years.

Agua Larga offre une immersion dans la culture Afro-Équatorienne de la province d'Esmeraldas. Les auteurs ont captés comment la musique s’inscrit dans la vie quotidienne des habitant.e.s et dialogue avec les autres éléments sonores qui l’entourent. La matière musicale est ainsi accompagnée de récits, de poèmes et de scènes du quotidien captés sur le vif, loin des studios aseptisés, dans l’espace public, sur la berge des fleuves ou en bord de mer.

La thématique de l’eau (“agua” en Espagnol), sous toutes ses formes, est le fil conducteur. La mer a amené les esclaves vers ce nouveau continent mais c’est elle qui fournit aujourd’hui en poissons les pêcheurs. Les fleuves et rivières, empruntés par les bateaux et pirogues, permettent de connecter les villages de cette forêt tropicale. L’eau est aussi devenue une denrée rare en ville, où son accès est encore difficile pour une partie de la population. Les scènes prises sur le vif marqueront cette omniprésence de l’eau, comme lieu de vie et ressource quotidienne nécessaire."

Global pointing Brazilian jazz trio will release a new album Agôra, that sparkles with electric funk and Herbie-esque eclecticism. It features a myriad of guest vocalists and musicians including Brazilians Xênia França and Zé Leônidas, Jembaa Groove's Ghanaian singer Eric Owusu and South African artists Bongani Givethanks & Mpho Nkuzo Re-wiring the concept of 'fusion' for 2023, Agôra is Brazilian trio Caixa Cubo’s resurgent new record with the title referring to 'now', based upon the intuitive and fluid nature of the trio’s method, and this inspired recording. With shoots to black music culture, from Brazil to Brooklyn, Ghana and South Africa, Agôra is the group’s ninth album yet is their first where they’ve invited guests, mainly singers, onto each track and follows their last, Angela from 2020, released on Heavenly Records, which won a BBC 6 Music Album of the Year (Huey Morgan’s selection) granting them much deserved international recognition.

The core musical elements of Caixa Cubo are Henrique Gomide (keys), João Fideles (drums) and Noa Stroeter (bass), all from São Paulo, Brazil and where they met as teenagers and would continue their friendship and musical bond at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. Now all in their mid thirties, João and Noa live back in the city where it all started but Henrique has settled in Cologne, Germany where the recording of Agôra took place, over the course of 3 days, at the home cum studio of Chris ‘Dusty’ Doepke, their friend and owner of the label they signed to, Jazz & Milk.

In line with all their creations where flow and energy provide the magic, allowing what the moment provides, the album shines not only for its virtuosity but for its minimalism, the depth of space, and for the first time, the ability to figure in and outside of the jazz fold, as the trio decided, for the first time, to bring in singers and add a new aesthetic to their sound.

“Agôra is a wake-up call to reality, a reminder that the infinite possibilities of technological progress should not disconnect us from the earth, from eye-to-eye relationships, and from moments lived in person” the band are keen to point out. “And that we must not be consumed by greed, for all we truly possess.... is the NOW.”

Turning hope and metaphor into music, the debut single Sábado, an electrified future- jazz-fizz reflects perfectly the spontaneity that permeated the entire recording of the album. “When we got to the studio, we had no idea what we were going to record. We started playing a groove, kind of inspired by Gilberto Gil's 80s albums, and our drummer João started singing this funny song 'Sábado Barrigudão' (Big Belly Saturday) alongside the bass groove and that was that”. Inspired by their city of birth, São Paulo, it features long time collaborator and vocalist Zé Leônidas, with cuicas, tamborim, agogo and shakers providing the most obvious Brazilian affect from the album.

Minas 'Num Dia Azul' is a sublime slice of private press bossa nova meets jazzy MPB perfection. Warm and bubbling with youthful spirit, the music is simultaneously loose in swagger, yet slick and tight. The album was originally released in 1983 and reflects the great music coming out of Rio at the time, yet 'Num Dia Azul' wasn't recorded in Rio, but actually in the USA.

Recorded in North Carolina just after Patricia and Orlando Haddad had graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts, the record was only released for the Brazilian market on their own Blueazul Records imprint. As with most private press labels, they could only afford to have it pressed in small quantities. To add to its later obscurity, hundreds of copies were also destroyed in a house fire. They say cream always rises to the top, and fast forward to the 2010s, the word amongst collectors and DJs was spreading about this mythical under-the-radar recording. People from across the globe were contacting Patricia and Orlando for more information, hoping to secure themselves a copy. Luckily the original tapes had remained with the artists and were in great condition, so in 2016 the pair ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to have it remastered and repressed.

For this Mr Bongo 2023 re-issue, we have tried to keep it as close to the original 1983 version as possible, both in the packaging and audio presentation. The CD version comes with bonus tracks. We are super proud to keep Patricia and Orlando's serene recordings in the circulation that they deserve to be. One for fans of Brazilian artists such as Burnier & Cartier, Edu Lobo and Joyce. We are sure those fans will lose themselves in the alluring textures of 'Num Dia Azul'.

Alex Figueira, the man behind Music With Soul, Fumaça Preta & Conjunto Papa Upa, has teamed up with Maxado, Brazil's leading rocksteady vocalist, to create another impossible crossover, connecting the dots of the vast tropical music map that have remained appart for far too long.
What if the now-legendary producer Lee Perry had recorded & produced the nascent Wailers trio of Neville Livingston, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, not in Kingston, the scorching hot Jamaican capital, but instead in Belém, an even hotter city, at the heart of the Brazilian Amazon.
Whilst Kingston's airwaves and street parties were dominated by the locally produced rocksteady, ska and reggae, Belém was dancing to it's own beat of carimbó and siriá.
Alex Figueira and Maxado, two avid fans of both musical traditions, entered the Barracão Sound Studio, Amsterdam's famed vintage recording studio, determined to find an answer to that hypothetical question. The result is not only tangible and unprecedented, but incredibly emotive & hypnotic too.
The chorus of "Quando Será" is unnervingly apt for our times tool, "Quando será que eu vou te ver?", or "When will I see you?" the song asks. Well until we see each other, Music With Soul offers some musical relief in the form of this collaborative song.
The B side offers a beautiful touching instrumental version, led by the impeccable flute rendition of Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Milliet, a prominent member of the Brazilian music scene in Amsterdam and Alex's long time collaborator having shared the stage countless times in the past 3 years. His delicate phrasing will give you goosebumps.
Alex Figueira is well known as the man behind experimental tropical rock-outfit, Fumaça Preta, and more recently the psychedelic tropical dance band, Conjunto Papa Upa. Meanwhile, he has become a staple of the Amsterdam scene, having either played with, recorded or produced everyone from Mauskovic Dance Band to Altin Gün. São Paulo-based musician & singer composer Maxado made his mark fronting Firebug, Brazil's leading, if not only, rocksteady band, also featuring influential musician, producer and mix engineer Victor Rice. The two musicians met during Alex's first trip to Brazil, when he was already a massive Firebug fan, and quickly formed a firm friendship. Finally over the course of Maxado's first visit to Amsterdam, the pair had a crack at writing & recording together, quickly discovering that their chemistry extended to the studio. Now you can hear the first fruits of their blossoming musical relationship.