Bixarte, Traviarcado – Maybe it’s the northeastern rhythms and the commitment to place they represent. Or maybe she’s just better at making music, but Bixarte’s latest tops all the stars I recently summed up in my pop overview. Nine songs in 28 minutes never let up as beats and personality carry you along. Listen here. Grade: B+
Cabezadenego, Mbé and Leyblack, Mimosa – Performance artist Luiz Felipe Lucas (dba Cabezadenego) and producers Mbé and Leyblack worked on this celebration of Brazilian rhythm during a shared residency at the Etopia Centro de Arte e Tecnologia in Zaragoza, Spain. Fourteen tracks that go bang bang bang in all kinds of inventive ways as the three weave together music from choro to carioca funk into a postmodern homage that’s old and new, local and international. Speed and density make it hard to find something to grab onto at first, but pay attention and the blur of beats begins to take shape. My on ramp was “Hmm” which cannily replicates boom-chk-chk-(slight pause)-boom beat I hear on all kinds of recent tracks with traditional instruments over an addictive samba riff and hypnotic vocal sample that provided one of those moments when I had to stop everything I was doing to just listen. The album has enough of those dazzling moments to make pushing through the less immediate bits worthwhile. Sometimes I find myself wishing they’d sell out a little and use an actual vocalist rather than sampled voices to ground everything—hey music-makers, have you met Slipmami below?—but they construct their sounds so masterfully that they don’t need that touch to win you over. Listen and buy here. Grade: A-
Dossel, Ouvindo Vozes (2019) and Badoque – The press materials for Carioca musician Roberto Barrucho’s second album claim Afro-Brazilian, and that’s true enough, but on both his albums I hear the spiritual descendent of Pernambuco’s ’70s psychedelic scene, especially Lula Côrtes’ and Zé Ramalho’s blissed out, wandering Parêbirú (with an added dash of Gilberto Gil‘s twisty Expresso 2222). Barrucho has a fetching, unhurried way of exploring ideas. Yet he keeps the tracks brief. Only three tracks over the two albums go past the four minute mark, while seven are under three minutes. Ouvindo Vozes centers the guitar and sounds more directly influenced by that Pernambuco scene. Its songs are fine, but the sophomore album takes risks and pushes boundaries that are more interesting. Half-listened to, Badoque flows like a montage dream, its bubbling percussion blending songs together. Focus in and you can here the distinctions between the tracks, but half the fun in this music is letting it seep into your sound world to let it surprise you from some unexpected angle. The one potential barrier is Barrucho’s voice. Reedy, sometimes a bit warbly, it’s an acquired taste, but its strangeness serves the songs and atmosphere well. Listen to and buy both releases here. Grades: Ouvindo Vozes, B; Badoque, B+
Febem, Fleezus and CESRV, Brime! (Deluxe Edition) – Five-song expansion of the six-song 2020 EP that benefits from extra. Even if none of the new songs top the old ones, at the 40-minute running time you get a meal rather than a snack. Febem (the nasally one) and Fleezus (the gravelly one) have fun tag teaming, but the true star is CESRV’s music. Beaty, relentless and with enough local flavor to distinguish it from the international pop music norm, it makes claustrophobia sound fun as it manages to be both dense and spare at the same time. If not for one of the albums below, it would be Brazilian hip hop album of the year. Listen here. Grade: A-
Fleezus, Off Mode – Febem makes only one brief appearance (which beats his counterpart’s absence on Jovem OG), but Fleezus is smart enough to bring his most important collaborator, CESRV, as well as adding producer Iuri Rio Branco, who worked on both of Marina Sena’s terrific albums. It’s fun to try to guess which producer contributes what, but then CESRV throws in an R&B move that would have fit Sena well, and you realize the futility. So just settle in and enjoy two hot producers doing their thing, while Fleezus goes along for the ride. He needs to be hip hop? Fine. They want to move toward dance music? No problem. He’s ready for whatever tricks they throw him. Febem is missed, but Fleezus is more than able to take the spotlight while the music-makers shine behind him. Listen here. Grade: B+
Thiago França & A Espetacular do França, Baile Espetacular – Telling one of these brass band releases from another can be a task, so think of this one as the slow one. França and his street partiers enter the studio for one of their annual releases. As usual, it’s lots of fun, and, as usual, I bet it’s even more fun in person. And slow isn’t fair, but slower is. Less frenetic than the norm—compare the “Raggaxixe” here to the earlier version—that doesn’t mean it’s tame. But, love this side project as I do, the eighth release does raise questions about how much you can do with marching band music in the studio. Listen here. Grade: B
María Freitas & Jazz das Minas, Ayé Òrun – On her third album, pianist/singer Freitas gathers an all-woman jazz orchestra and enlists an assortment of allies, mostly female, to celebrate motherhood. But think musical theater rather than jazz, and that includes all the vices such a label entails: bombast, lack of subtlety or intimacy, an unnecessary neatness. Which makes it all the more impressive she manages to make something of it. Rhythms help escape the straightlaced bore of Broadway. So does the deep immersion in Brazilian blackness. As a result the show never feels merely showy. Instead if comes across as ebullient and moving and, despite the veneer of musical theater, smart. Listen here. Grade: A-
Anne Jezini, Em Fuga – Streaming makes so much music available that it’s not only impossible to keep up, but distinguishing between the OK that’s not worth your limited time and the good stuff depends so much on the margins: a little more personality in production or singing, a melody that jumps out from the norm, stuff like that. Jezini’s third album nearly disappeared into morass of the tolerable in that end-year rush when I’m trying to suss out what I need to write about and what I can skip, but her voice kept pulling her out of the background and into the contender’s folder. Good thing, because when I finally gave it full attention, it wasn’t just her strong singing, but production, melodies, and more that proved worth my ear time. Unlike most of the Brazilian R&B I heard this year, she managed to spike her music with plenty of nods to the local that helped her escape the bland out of the international pop music order. The music is rich in detail without ever crowding out the voice or melodies. But regardless of all those plusses, it really does come down to a voice. Her previous albums didn’t give a hint to how remarkable a singer she could be. She burns intensely cool, hinting breathy without ever losing her sensuousness. Despite music that holds its own interests, her voice commands your attention as she glides through the instrumentation with effortless virtuosity. A real find. Listen here. Grade: A-
Nei Lopes, Nei Lopes 80 – Old timer sambista/author celebrates his 80th birthday with five tracks guided by the great Thiago França. Respect your elders, at least when they can have this much fun. Listen here. Grade: B+
Carlos Lyra, Afeto – Although a lesser-known figure, Lyra was right at the heart of the bossa nova movement that would revolutionize Brazilian music. His own music was less austere and striking than João Gilberto’s, but he actually sounded more like what would become the bossa, and later MPB, norm. Here he celebrates his birthday with other luminaries (Gilberto Gil, Joyce Moreno, Fernanda Abreu, Ney Matogrosso, Caetano Veloso, and more) on one of those duet tribute albums that so easily misfire. But the affection is real as these artists run through a catalog that helped write the futures they would work out themselves. The music is old fashioned, of course. This isn’t a reinvention or radical exploration, but a nice party where everyone looks back fondly with nostalgia that doesn’t turn treacly, which is fitting for a final statement. Lyra died December 16, 2023. Listen here. Grade: B+
Nuven, Zero – São Paulo-based producer Gustavo Teixeira is a better than average sculptor of sound. Solid beats and flow that keep the music moving through the background enjoyably enough, but also dense layers and details if you want to focus in for more active listening. Nothing particularly innovative or new. Just really well done electronic music. Listen and buy here. Grade: B+
Ian Ramil, Tetein – With his father Vitor’s knack for melody and arrangement combined with his rock sonics, Ramil earns the overused sobriquet Beatles-esque. On his third album he finds himself pulled in two directions: entranced and grounded by his daughter’s birth, angry at the world she is entering. The back and forth between the moods could derail the album, but Ramil keep it in balance, not least because he knows how to put a song, even an album, together. He winds his instruments around his melodies so that even when those flag, which is rare, the arrangements can pick up the slack. And when those melodies maintain over those arrangements? I did say Beatles-esque, albeit more Paul than John for those who scorekeep these things. Or maybe it’s just his musical family, whose live album from last year under the Casa Ramil name sure sounded much stronger than that Veloso family album from a few years ago. Nature or nurture, Ramil’s got the goods, and his devotion of them to his own kid isn’t just sweet, but makes for good craft, too. Listen here. Grade: A-
Slipmami, Malvatrem – This side of Donald Trump, that punk rock in-your-face, I-don’t-care-how-offensive-you-find-me attitude is a lot harder for me to tolerate, but when someone nails it without being evil, the transgressive lure of the bad attitude is hard to resist. Meet Slipmami, a former Soundcloud rapper (of course), who broke through to more traditional media. With a flow like mercury—shimmery and mesmerizing even as her words poison everything they touch—she’s ready to take on all comers in this dog-eat-dog world. Get in her way and she’ll make a meal out of you. Main producer Leo Justi and his colleagues whip up the sonics to back her. Lots of sharp, foreshortened bits to cut your ears along with plenty of that window-rattling bass from the truck three cars behind you that half-exists to annoy everyone else. It’s party music that dares you to call the cops to complain. Yet if you are sucked in, it adds an n to her f u. In other words, she reminds me a lot of Azealia Banks. Let’s just hope she has more than one album in her. And that she’s not a Bolsonaro supporter. (The deluxe version adds five decent tracks that lessen the effect of the album.) Listen here. Grade: A-
Tasha & Tracie, Kyan and Rapper Gregory, Yin Yang – Track for track, stronger than Tasha & Tracie’s good debut even if it lacks a “Lui Lui” to dazzle you. The sisters’ team-up with Kyan and Rapper Gregory makes both sides look good over six tracks where they provide evidence that they might be in this for the long haul, at least by hip hop norms. Listen here. Grade: B+
Thrills & the Chase, Thrills After Dark – Rock band from São Paulo. Sings in English. Heck, plays in English. Utterly derivative throwback to a time when rock music seemed to be the only show in town, so of course it’s kind of silly, but it’s also lots of fun. They nail the homage so well it takes on a life of it’s own. Singer Calvin Kilvitz, sounding like a less histrionic Ian Gillan, stands athwart history yelling “RAWK” with his \m/ in the air while the band makes old tricks sound fresh. That this doesn’t descend into rank parody is a small miracle. Listen here. Grade: B+
Tietê, Buraco na Parede – Intriguing debut album from São Paulo band. Instruments include trombone, saxophone, clarinet, violins, guitar, bass and plenty of percussion. Very much in the post-Vanguarda Paulista vein of modern traditionalism you see with such similar constructed acts as Trupe Cha de Boldo and Filarmônica de Pasárgarda, although the Karina Buhr cameo hints at their northeastern interests as well. Listen here. Grade: B
Trupe Cha de Boldo, Rua Rio – Quality minor band comes off a six-year lull that shows they remain both minor and durable. Their covers album remains their best, but the team plugs along releasing good album after good album. Listen here. Grade: B
Brazil Beat 