2017, Part Three

Boogarins, Lá Vem a Morte – Alt-psychedelic band from Goiânia, so away from the main cultural centers. First album was competent, second a noted improvement and the third a breakthrough. Channelling the cosmic strum of the Moody Blues (without the tuneless warble or spoken word nonsense) and the textural moves of Spirit but with better songs, the band puts out an album with more tasty sounds than any American indie act this year. The secret is sonics you can dive into tied to melodies that keep you from getting lost or bored in soundscapes. Dinho Almeida’s fetching, androgynous singing floats above the guitars (himself and Benke Ferraz) which soar, soothe and chime while the rhythm section (Ynaiã Benthroldo on drums and Raphael Vaz on bass) drifts or drives as the situation requires. Translated, the album title is Here Comes Death, and in case you missed the point, “Onda Negra” (Black Wave) and “Elogio à Instituoção do Cinismo” (Praise for the Institution of Cynicism), let you know you’re in for a downer. But thanks to the language barrier, you can just enjoy some pretty, melancholy music without focusing on oblivion. Listen here. Grade: B+ (original grade = A-)

João Donato e Donatinho, Sintetizamor – Elder statesman Donato piggybacks on his son’s dance music career for some hip replacement. Donato’s been active since the 1950s and has worked across a variety of styles. His nickname could be the cheesemonger, albeit he deals mainly in the high class stuff, Brazilian jazz and bossa most notably. With son in tow, they put out an album of dinky early ’80s electrofunk with plenty of English language singing for the crossover potential. Individually some of these songs reward your attention, notably the lead single “Lei do Amor”, but back to back the mediocrity overwhelms. Not terrible, but neither has enough rhythm sense to lift the project out of the blandness that infects so much of Donato’s career. Listen here. Grade: C

Corte, Corte – Alzira E (a.k.a. Alzira Espíndola) (a.k.a. Iara Rennó‘s mom) joins with members of Bixiga 70 and coaxes a welcome racket out of the usually skillfully boring instrumental band. Espíndola began as a late arriver on the vanguarda paulista scene and initially worked the same funky, funny vibe as Itamar Assumpcão did. Eventually she dropped the “spíndola” and moved toward late career respectability. But, like Elza Soares and Ná Ozzetti, she decided not to go gently into the good night of her career and instead embraces the skronkier sounds of the current São Paulo indie scene. Leading off with what sounds like a drunken, mutated sea shanty, the band proceeds toward a kind of jazzy hard rock, especially on doomy tracks like “Desmonte” and “Não Existe”, in a manner that sometimes recalls the jazz-metal fusion of Free Nelson Mandoomjazz. The results aren’t quite as impressive as Soares’ or Ozzetti’s recent avant albums, which can probably be laid down to the difference between the clube da encruza they worked with and E’s team up with the squarer Bixiga 70, but it’s still an impressive album and the hardest, noisiest sounds either has ever produced. Download for free from the band here. Grade: B+

Mallu Magalhães, Vem – Self-made star of the digital age who launched her career via MySpace and released her first album in 2008, Magalhães sings in both English and Portuguese, and has specialized in a kind of cloying, universal indie acoustic pop with Latin touches decorating the songs. (Note the name of  her first compilation: Highly Sensitive.) In 2014 she teamed with husband Marcelo Camelo and drummer Fred Ferreira in Bando do Mar for a slightly more rock sound. And now she switches gears again. Channeling early, jazzy Jorge Ben, she puts out the most samba identified and Brazilian oriented album of her career. She can’t, or won’t, completely escape that indie pop past, with the execrable “Love You” the nadir. More problematic, her thin, wispy voice sometimes gets overwhelmed by the arrangements. But five or six of these 12 tunes fully connect (and all but “São Paulo” are on the first half) in a way her adept, if trivial, pop rarely has, and “Você Não Presta” will be a contender for single of the year. Listen here. Grade: B-

Simone Mazzer & Cotonete, Simone Mazzer & Cotonete – Theater/lounge belter Mazzer teams up with French cocktail funk band Cotonete, and if you want to stop reading here I understand. Yet Cotonete’s jazzy tricks and Mazzer’s showy style mesh smartly with the well chosen batch of songs. They lead off with Gal Costa’s classic “Se Você Pensa” (penned by Roberto Carlos and Erasmo Carlos) and wander through pop songs disguised as show tunes decked out for a night at an upscale club. Mazzer’s grown up, hear-me style keeps things firmly grounded in pre-rock adult pop, while the band manages to recall a past without being trapped by it and adds enough funky details to avoid slipping into parody. Not really my cup of tea, but the accomplishment is an impressive one, and if you’re at all fond of the style bump the grade up a notch or two. Listen here. Grade: B

Metá Metá, EP 3 – In the old days, this would be a single at two songs, but since only fetishists and old-timers flip music over any more, I guess it counts as an EP. First song, “Odara Elegbara” is closer in sound to Metal Metal rather than last year’s MM3, and it’s another winner from the best collective of the decade, but is unlikely to convert anyone. The second song, “Ajalaiyé” is a skronkfest with clashing instruments and wordless screams that even fans might merely admire. Both are outtakes from the Gira. Download gratis here. Grade: B-

Rincon Sapiência, Galanga Livre –São Paulo rapper had his first hit in 2009 and, eight years later, is only on his second album. Rooted in the toughness of the favela but avoiding the merely hard, he seems to have nice, humane political instincts and raps love songs, but Google translate doesn’t really help grasp more than a few shards of meaning. However, you don’t need language comprehension to notice how the production pops on this one. Starts with a terrific sample from Tom Zé’s “Jimmy, Renda-Se” on “Crime Bárbaro” then moves to swamp funk on “Vida Longa”, and just keeps pulling you in: the synthesized horn sample on “Moça Namoradeira”, the berimbau on “A Coisa Tá Preta”, the rock move on the title track. Still the language barrier is frustrating, because the garbled lyric translations hint at that magical meaning-music fusion that would lift the whole project. So English hearers are left with a really good album that might well be a great album if we understood better what Sapiência was rapping. You can listen here. If you are willing to part with an e-mail address, you can sign up for a free download here. Grade: B+