Latin | Brazil Vinyl 502 Items

Die nach der Veröffentlichung der CD Ende 2019 für die Folgejahre geplante „Fiesta Ancestral“-Tour durch Latein- und Nordamerika sowie Europa konnte aus bekannten Gründen nie stattfinden, nun werden die Konzerte nachgeholt, in 2023 auch in Deutschland.
Die Album-Songs „Sonido de tu Voz“, „Bailando con las Farolas (feat. El Kanka)“, „La Cumbia del Vino“ und „Si una Vez“ haben sich unterdessen zu veritablen Streaming- und Radio-Hits entwickelt.

Die Vinyl-Version des Albums erscheint nun mit den ebenfalls erstmals auf Vinyl erhältlichen Bonus-Tracks „Sin tus Estrellas“, „La Bruja“, das mexikanische Traditional in der ganz speziellen Mexicats-Version, und als absolute Neuveröffentlichung die englische Version des Hits „Labios.“

„Labios“ findet sich auch im Soundtrack des neuen Films von Erfolgsregisseurs Sönke Wortmann. „Der Nachname“ kommt am 20.10.22 in die Kinos, ist eine Art Fortsetzung des sehr erfolgreichen Wortmann-Films „Der Vorname“ und mit Christoph Maria Herbst, Caroline Peters, Justus von Dohnányi, Florian David Fitz. Janina Uhse und Iris Berben hervorragend besetzt.

Some records just stop you in your tracks. They resonate with you and feel instantly familiar like an old friend, even on the first listen. Soyuz's third album ‘Force of the Wind’ is one of those records. It holds all the trademarks, beauty, and eccentricities of classic Brazilian recordings, from the 60s and 70s, that we have come to love. Think artists such as Milton Nascimento, Lô Borges, Burnier e Cartier, Arthur Verocai et al. But this record wasn’t made in Brazil and is in fact a brand-new release. Soyuz (which translates as 'union') is a creative collective from Minsk, Belarus, led by composer, arranger, and singer, Alex Chumak, multi-instrumentalist, Mikita Arlou, and drummer, Anton Nemahai. Soyuz's previous albums explored and reimagined the legacy of jazz-oriented, non-English-language pop music of the 20th century. For their third album, there is a stronger focus, and it is influenced by 70s Música popular Brasileira and building bridges from it to present-day Belarus. Alex notes that from the moment he first encountered Brazilian music, he found in it a kind of concentrated emotion that felt as if it were familiar to him from his childhood. This non-verbal emotion and connection between the listener and musician echoes in the music, regardless of understanding of the language the album is recorded in. ‘Force of the Wind’ includes songs sung in Russian and Portuguese as well as instrumental compositions. Its musical palette is both acoustic and electroacoustic: rich warm Rhodes piano, soaring string arrangements, and a controlled drum swagger sounding both relaxed yet super tight. Alongside Alex's sublime vocals, that grace the majority of the tracks, the album features guest performances by multi-talented musician and vocalist Kate NV and rising Brazilian star, Sessa. Alex also recently arranged a number of tracks on Sessa's highly praised 2022 album 'Estrela Acesa'. On the album, the trio is joined by a cast of friends; NY-based musician of Turkish origin percussionist, Cem Mısırlıoğlu, classically trained composer, Simon Hanes, who aided with string arrangements and conducting the string players, Netherlands-based Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, Gabriel Milliet, on flutes. With the collaboration of these friends Soyuz have created nine songs/suites that are subtle and plenitude and like the best albums, leave you aching for more. ‘Force of the Wind’ is an enigma, Brazilian yet not Brazilian, vintage yet still contemporary, out of sync with modern culture yet completely relevant and necessary.

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.

Careful, “Let’s not get angry” suggests Spartaco Sax, the famed song accompanying French daily paper FRANCE-SOIR’s campaign against road violence: music isn’t that serious, often times really not. In any case, it is with this not so serious ear that one should listen to this selection of chachacha, mambo and other genres to twist and madison to, as music-lovers pinch their noses and block their ears. And yet, these breezy and light songs under their false airs of effortlessness draw out an astonishing analysis of late 1950s France with its partying baby boomers. Put on your dancing shoes, everyone on the dancefloor, let’s go baby.
The record starts out with an esoteric organ, a guitar straight out of a western, a vibey rhythm section, a speeding saxophone, a glamorous voice, a curious keyboard, a slightly panicky tempo… “Please Mr Hitchock!” calls out a voice from the unknown, on an arrangement that’s about to lose control.
The tone is set. Eins Zwei Drei, cries out Spartaco Andreoli, creator of the Chachacha for tunas, lyrics that are absurd accompanying music that isn’t so much so. And this is just the beginning. I can already see those making fun of it, and yes, I admit it does sound a bit comically-tragic, but more often than not, a persistent riff or melody will get stuck in your head, a chorus that you’ll start unintentionally humming, your foot that starts beating unbeknownst to you. “C’est bon ça dis donc !” (This is pretty good), suggest the Los Goragueros, at the start of their Mambo Miam Miam (Yum Yum). A smooth sax, a double bass that sways and shattering percussions, this song anonymously written by Alain Goraguer (there is often an “os” (bone), added to the band name for a little authenticity, i.e Los Chiquitos and Los Albinos) is actually quite tasty. This arranger and pianist who went on to write the indispensable Planète Sauvage (Wild Planet) is not the only one to have advanced half-masked in these tropical times. Just as Michel Legrand devoted himself to rock music, for better or worst.
Tropical music and France go way back. Indeed, this tropism for exotic music, not without the mannerisms that go with it, has been around. Just think of the period between both world wars, when the Paris of the roaring twenties fluttered to the sound of Latin-American orchestras. The influential Brazilian musician Pixinguinha came through in 1922, the charismatic Cuban singer Rita Montaner triumphed a few years later at the famed Palace and the brilliant clarinettist Stellio from Martinique had everyone dancing through the night to the beguine (a dance style from Martinique)… Seedy cabarets and fishy clubs mixing up different peoples and music until the early hours. From Montparnasse to Montmartre, dancing clubs bloomed throughout the capital while the World Exhibition sold a rather uncertain idea of the other tropics: a discounted and fantasized exotic dream of island life. It’s in bars like Jimmy’s, by La Coupole, or the Melody’s nestled in the heights of Pigalle, where Don Marino Barreto’s (Cuban pianist and singer who emigrated to Paris in the 1920s) orchestra made the heyday of a surreal and carefree Paris. Parisian Ray Ventura and his band Les Collégiens, quite the breeding ground for funny songs, at times almost delirious, were always a big part of the party.
And after the Second World War, it started all over again. Rico’s Creole Band was one of the great Creole orchestras to sway all of Paris, the Blomet Ball brought together the Afro-Caribbean communities, L’Escale became an essential dancing ground for lovers of Latin music, the pianist Eddie Warner was one of these pillars, accompanied by his “rhythms”, a “witty orchestra with 85% of French musicians, only the percussionists were South American”. Another jazzman, Henri Rossotti, also navigated in the warm waters of these gentle tropical shores. They covered sambas and mambos, adapting Benny Moré and Pérez Prado. Hot, like the hard-hitting Benny Bennett and his orchestra of Latin American music, which ended up being the training grounds of many apprentice improvisers. On the menu: calypso, merengue… and of course chachacha. Shortly after, the Los Machucambos, a South American band created in the Latin Quarter performed music between guajira and flamenco and its song Pepito marked the start of the trio’s success.
At the time, Latin-style combos were all the rage in France such as the chachacha which was officially invented in the early 1950s by Enrique Jorrin, soon followed by the pachanga, becoming a staple of black-and-white films. In the long run, this music has become a sort of French standard, adapted by many: Boris Vian oftentimes, Bourvil, Bob Azzam, Gainsbourg, Carlos (jokingly), Louis Chedid, Vanessa Paradis… Taking it a little far, you could even detect the beginnings of the french touch. This Chachacha affair is emblematic of the atypical history of popular music, that of back-alleys, far from the paths and furrows of glory. Music, raised from the grave and dusted off by the Born Bad record label. In terms of latin music, these records that were patiently found in flea markets are becoming a rarity, even if most are worth three euros and six cents: this low cost hobby is underestimated by licensed collectors, who run like lunatics towards triple-zero rarities.
Chachacha Transistor, predicted the unlikely Jacky Ary, known for his less digestible Mange des tomates (Eat tomatoes). With the approach of the 1960s, typical music styles were found all over the country, from the northern plains to the southern sea. Never failing to cheer up dances, nor to whet the appetite of a burgeoning industry, which often seized it by opportunism, not without a tinge of cynicism. After all, one must sell records to the desolate youth, at all costs and any price. These 7-inch vinyl records were therefore recorded at Barclay, Vogue and co. Low-consumption products intended to supply the shelves of budding suburban supermarkets. The idea was to convert a North-American trend in the studio, by summoning old geezers (Paul Mauriat under the pseudonym of Eduardo Ruo, at the top of the list…) who would play young and interpret these rhythms with a distorted vision. All for just one season and all this before summer hits were a thing. It was already the same idea though, but in more of a D.I.Y fashion. A quick fix, just enough time for the producers to get some juicy revenue, the same ones who recruited teams to perform these “inferior” works. Most were flops, but a few made it big such as Jean Yanne answering to Henri Salvador for Allo Brigitte, a classic of the “comic-musical” genre. It’s author Norma Maine went on to write quite a few of these quirky songs.
Most had improbable dialogue, as well as senseless adaptations such as the Marchand de melons (The Melon Merchant) distorting Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man, a result of automatic writing in order to come up with ridiculous lyrics. What can be said about Tarte à la nana (Girl Pie), and how about Ça c’est du poulet ? (This is Chicken?) Or the terrible Soukou Soukou, on the limit of bad taste, words of a colonist… When it comes to reappropriating foreign know-how, the results can turn out strange like a surreal shock of cultures. Improbable mixes, like chacha bebop, latino tempo and scat jazz… It all definitely swings and is sometimes even quite impressive. Because magical loose moments are to be found in these records made to order, records that were just trying to recreate a successful pre-existing North American formula. They recorded them on the line, in the original spirit, or inconspicuously modified them, not only for fun, but also for the pleasure of adding on a chorus which would take the song a little further, or a well adjusted rhyme that would denote a touch of derision, a French tradition that was to be repeated in rock as in punk, and even bossa nova. The key often being explosive arrangements, occasionally beautiful choruses, radiant mishaps, confusing mistakes, not necessarily off-topic, all in all some sweet musical trips that always have an effect on the dancefloor when it’s time to boogie. Try it out, you’ll see, it works every time, if you don’t abuse of it. Moderation is recommended for this music that should be served either at cocktail hour or after midnight…

“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

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.

Soundway Records presents the eponymous debut LP from in-demand Amsterdam five piece The Mauskovic Dance Band – fusing no-wave dance punk, Afro-Caribbean rhythms and space disco in a “controlled explosion” (The Quietus).
Entirely self-produced, the band has reiterated their favourite elements of the 70s and 80s legacy of the Afro-Latin psychedelic music of Colombia and Peru, interpreting it through the context of modern day Amsterdam. The output is a lo-fi No Wave groove all its own - rooted in a deep love of champeta, Palenque, psychedelic cumbia, chichi, classic afrobeat and picó soundsystem culture.
Since the release of their “Down In The Basement” EP on Soundway Records in early 2018, the band have found themselves on a hectic European touring schedule – not to mention being involved in other side projects. Following stints with Turkish psychedelic folk rock group Altin Gün, and touring with the re-formed 70s Zamrock outfit W.I.T.C.H., Nic Mauskovic also teamed up with Dutch neo-psychedelic artist Jacco Gardner to form the “cinematic Balearic disco” duo of Bruxas (released by Dutch institution Dekmantel) – and together, they mixed The Mauskovic Dance Band debut album in Lisbon.
Lead single Space Drum Machine encapsulates the band’s prototypical brand of busy rhythmic patterns interwoven with insistent synth stabs and vibrant disco toms, layered with an elastic guitar riff drawing inspiration from Kenyan kikuyu and benga styles. High-pitched vocals describe being on a flight together and inciting each other to press a button of unknown consequence with “push it, push it” - and push it they do, at breakneck pace. And of course, the undeniable influence of Amsterdam’s hotbed of underground dance producers shines through as it does on all tracks - with the vintage psychedelic swirl of synthesiser, lo-fi drum machines and tape recording.