Glitterbeat (label)
11 September 2015 (released)
11 August 2015
Third album from this 10 piece Brazilian outfit and they are sounding ever stronger and more confident in their music and their ability to stretch out and jam.
Heavy horn sound coupled with pounding and insistent percussion – they take cues from Fela Kuti’s Afrika 70 – but versatile and fluid as well.
The playing is superb, probably not a weak link among them and I particularly enjoyed Cris Scabello’s guitar work – light and melodic and perfectly set against the heavy percussion and blasting horns. Marcelo Dworecki lays down wonderful sinuous bass lines that underpin the rhythm and Mauricio Fleury’s keyboards and guitar add yet more texture to the sound. But it is an album that is led by the horns and driven by the percussion and here it is in its element: Afrobeat meets Brazilian flair and leaves the listener gasping in admiration. The music also incorporates many other influences, not least cumbia and ethio-jazz but the album is also laden with funk, working with all the other styles.
When they stretch out – as on ‘100% 13’ they cross the styles and forms but a blaster such as ‘Lembe’ shows the whole power and melody of the band.
The entire album was put together by the band as a collective and you can clearly hear the musicians working together to produce music that has more flavours than a Heston Blumental breakfast but that coalesces into a wondrous whole. It was recorded live in the studio and once again you can hear the band structure working to create something that is unique but entirely of the musicians that created it.
At low levels of volume there is enough to grab the ear but it comes into its own when the sound is cranked up.
Stunning, exciting and standing proud.
