Latin | Brazil Vinyl 440 Items

Musica Macondo unearths eight contemporary Afro Brazilian tracks on the compilation Brasil Novo, disseminating the rich and percussive heritage of black Brazil and Samba De Coco. Selected by DJs Tahira (São Paulo) and Tim Garcia (London), the diversity and positivity of Brazil shines, featuring elements of samba, Candomblé, batuques, jazz, folk and beyond, designed with the esoteric dancefloor in mind. UK label Musica Macondo place their focus on contemporary Brazilian and African diaspora on Brasil Novo, an eight track compilation of discovery, snare and tamborim heavy, showcasing both celebrated and unfamiliar artists south of the equator from the cities of Recife, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. With the aim of presenting and thus preserving these moments in music - some tracks like Dona Celia's O Bar and Toró Instrumental's Dunas never been released before - DJs and co-curators Tahira (São Paulo) and Tim Garcia (London) dig deep into the troves, avoiding mainstream Brazilian popular music clichés, and also giving a sense of what fuels their dancefloors and radio sets. It was their joint passion for record collecting, Djing and 'the dance' which, not surprisingly, brought these two leading figures within their respective scenes and cities together. The selection also includes tracks by Grupo Bongar, Renata Rosa and women's Afro Bloco, Ilú Obá De Min. DJ Tahira is a massive Brazilian music fan and has been on a research journey for a number of years, dedicated to the preservation and archiving of music made or influenced by black and indigenous Brazilians. Based out of São Paulo he has a particular interest in the history of Samba de Coco, a folkloric musical form that was very popular in, (and probably originated from), the northeast of Brazil, by slaves and indiginous people from working class backgrounds who came together, making a rhythmical mesh of sounds dating back hundreds of years and allowing them to carve a unique cultural identity. Ignored or disregarded as inferior by Brazil's predominantly white faced recording industry, there are few existing original recordings of this music from the twentieth century, relying instead on oral tradition and carnivals like those in Recife or Pernambuco. In recent times, there has been a flux of contemporary proponents who mix Samba de Coco with other contemporary Brazilian musical forms. Brasil Novo features both the roots, and more divergent fusions. Perhaps the best example of the Samba De Coco of old is from Dona Celia Coquista or Dona Celia do Coco as some people called her. She was a singer from Pernambuco who released only one album Nasci Com Dois Dentes in 2007 despite being an enormously important proponent of Samba De Coco for many years. She sadly passed 4 years later in 2011. The track O Bar features a plethora of local and native percussion instruments and a call and answer harmony of uplifting choir, a cacophony of positivity.

We’d like to touch base on the launch of the vinyl of Voltaje Raizal the first album of the tropical futurist music project Rizomagic, an electronic music duo, that consists of Diego Manrique, director of the avant-garde cumbia orchestra Niño Pueblo, and Edgar Marun, director of the ethno-afrobeat ensemble Dorado Kandua; Two outstanding projects from Bogota's new thriving alternative psychedelic scene. Voltaje Raizal will be released on vinyl by the italian label Disaster by Choice on November 21 supported with a musical video for their song CumbiaAchiampong by the colombian visual artist Martin Sanchez. The sounds of the album are rooted in the Afro-Caribbean musical tradition, in the mixed ancestry that defines Colombian culture, and IDM. The melodic construction of the album takes inspiration from variouscultures, including Indigenous chants from Colombia’s Embera people, the traditional scales from Mali’s Bambara ethnic group, and the Ghanian palm wine guitar interpreted by a Caribbean millo flute. The mix and masterization carried out by Eblis Alvarez ( Meridian Brothers, Pirañas, Chupame el Dedo) and Camilo Manchego offered the final touches that make Voltaje Raizal a fresh proposal to Colombia’s futurist tropical scene. “ Rizomagic set our to recontextualize their sources. It’s no coincidence that their name comes from rhizomatic, the botanically derived term for a subterranean, horizontal network of roots”… File Under: Tropical Futurismo, Eletronic, IDM

'Mantra Moderne' is a stunning, contemporary masterpiece that fuses Anatolian Psychedelia, Brazilian Tropicalia, 60’s European pop and American jazz. A must for fans of Khruangbin, Portishead, Arthur Verocai, Goat, Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé, Os Mutantes, Cortex and co.

The duo is formed of Kit Martin, who lives between London and France and plays all instruments on the album, and Merve Erdem, vocalist and multi-disciplinary artist from Istanbul, now based in London. This is their debut album.

The album explores universal themes such as love, loss, decay, language and ideology, mixing three different languages: English, Turkish and French. Written and recorded by the duo - Kit composed all the songs and Merve wrote the lyrics - in rural France during 2018, each song was completed within a 12-hour window, pawning contemplation for spontaneity.

Dubbed by Kit and Merve as ‘lo-fi-hi-fi’ in reference to the high-end tube equipment that helped it find its way to 8-track cassette tape. The style owes its sound to narrow tape width, valve distortion, spring reverb, the mixture of high end gear with lo-fi equipment as well as a disregard to the norms of hi-fi studio techniques. All instruments were analogue and no samples were used. The instruments that are used range from tablas to darbukas, balalaikas to ouds, MS20 synths to Farfisa organs and a lot of cuica. The mixing techniques were done on-the-fly, tracking immediately to tape: compression, EQ, delay and reverb; meaning mixing could not be revisited!

Tropical Journey is an album on the border of musical genres such as: Afrobeat, Organic House and Oriental. The album was created in collaboration with artists such as Ayoub Houmanna, Hicham Bajjou, Amadou Fola, Radzi Attia, Becky Sangalo and Ethan Smith. Tropical Journey is a tropical musical journey through ethno-cultural corners of the world, the aim of which is to introduce the listener to an idyllic state.

Album in an edition of 300 vinyls produced in Germany. The cover was painted by the famous Krakow artist Ewa Szczekan. On the author's YT channel you can see how the graphic designer enlivened the cover by giving it animation elements. Work on the album lasted 2 years and is divided into 2 parts. The first side of the album is more Brazilian and Afrobeat with a large admixture of guitar and wind instruments, while the second side is more electronic, intended for clubs (here the synthesizers are already in motion). When working on the album, the artist closed it in a musical key, which means that when playing individual songs one by one, they will match each other in tone (a bonus for the DJ). The album's tempo also speeds up from 115 to 122 bpm. Chang's song is actually the outro of the album and a preview of subsequent releases with a more powerful sound. Neither side of the record exceeds the magic 20 minutes to obtain the best possible quality of pressing the record. Mastering was done by Marcin Kwazar (BazaRec).

First Naked Lunch release dedicated to the Afro-Cuban golden age. Machito was a seminal figure in the New York Afro-Cuban scene of the post World War II era, vastly responsible to deliver this new genre of music to happy-feet crowds populating the ballrooms of the time - in fact essentially creating the so-called Cubpop and contributing to the large adoption of Salsa as a new kind of dance for the American audience. An unmissable collection for the lovers of the truly vintage Afro Cuban sound.

The musician Roberto Enrique "Tito" Chicoma forged one of the most solid and constant career paths in Peruvian music. Self-taught, he started playing tenor saxophone in his father's orchestra, also playing the trumpet, piano or trombone when the occasion arose.In 1959, at the age of 23, Tito moved to Lima, where he soon joined ensembles such as the Koki Palacios and Armando Boza orchestras, which took him abroad for the first time on tour. A recognized musician in his own right, Tito would later decide to form his own orchestra, which was soon hired by América Televisión, starring on programs such as "El Show de Juan Silva", where he accompanied international artists that visited Lima.In 1966, Tito made his first record under his own name on the MAG label, performing two cumbias by the Colombian group Los Teen Agers. The praise the single received led to the recording of his first LP, "El ritmo de moda", where he continued to compile Colombian songs.At the end of 1967, he dedicated his new LP project to recording two fashionable rhythms at the time: cumbias y boogaloos. The Colombian cumbia became popular in Peru from 1964 onwards, when local orchestras like those of Andrés de Colbert, Mario Cavagnaro, Eulogio Molina and Lucho Macedo recorded cumbia hits, then the genre soared when groups like Los Pacharacos and Los Demonios del Mantaro mixed it with Andean music. Boogaloo in Peru was popularized chiefly by the record label MAG, which kept its listeners up to date with developments in tropical music in New York, releasing and distributing records by Alegre Records and recording versions of hit songs such as 'El pito' and 'Mamblues' with local musicians.The recording sessions for "Cumbias y boogaloos" began in December 1967, when Tito released one of his first compositions: 'Dale U'. He also recorded the instrumental track 'La cigüeña' and 'Plaza de toros', two compositions by the Venezuelan artist Hugo Blanco.At the beginning of 1968, Tito and his band traveled to Buenos Aires, hir...

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.

Number 94 in the Brazil45 series is one for the Brazilian boogie lovers out there.

The vocal and instrumental group Os Carbonos from São Paulo had a long career that straddled the 60s, 70s and 80s. 'Pássaro Selvagem' is taken from the latter years of their career. Its a bass driven, boogie-funk groove (with a bassline not too dissimilar to Queen 'Another One Bites The Dust') that is Brazilian boogie at its finest. Taken from the B-side to a 7" campacto released in 1981 on Copacabana records, its proven to be a favourite of Luke Una and we foresee it becoming a staple in your DJ box for years to come too.

The B-side comes from one of our all-time favourite artists, the mighty Sandra Sa. Sandra is a wonderful vocalist, her intense and recognisable style is one of THE voices of the Brazilian boogie golden era. Check out her classic album 'Vale Tudo' (mrblp230) on Mr Bongo for further proof of her credentials here. 'Palco Azul' is also taken off a 7" single from 1981 and is a feel-good dancefloor groover with punchy brass stabs, warm keys and uplifting chord changes. It contains all the right elements that we have come to associate with that knockout late 70s / early 80s Brazilian sound.

Wganda Kenya was a group formed by Discos Fuentes under the idea of developing an African and Caribbean sound in order to appeal to the Costeño Colombian market and also inject a little international exoticism into the label. - This 1976 album has become a collector's favorite waiting to be reissued, and it's not hard to understand why since it's full of so many Afro-Funk, Congolese rumba and Caribbean-flavored dance floor burners. - Special edition reissue containing two non-album bonus tracks from the same period that appeared on 45s and various artist compilations, as well as an insert with liner notes. Pressed on 180g vinyl. - First time reissue.More Info!According to Fruko, Wganda Kenya was formed at the request of José María Fuentes in 1974. Fuentes came to Fruko with the proposal to assemble a group with an African and Caribbean sound in order to appeal to the Costeño Colombian market and also inject a little international exoticism into the label.Fuentes wanted to create their own domestic version of the rare (and often unidentified) African and Antillean records played on the Colombian coast in the outdoor picó sound systems in cities like Barranquilla and Cartagena, as well as opening up their markets to international tastes.Fruko was happy to comply, becoming the bandleader and bassist while his pianist from Los Tesos, Luis "Tomate" Mesa, was recruited to play various electronic keyboards. Venezuelan singer Joe Rodríguez was tapped to play drums, Mariano Sepúlveda of Afrosound played guitar, José "Cholo" Gallardo of Los Diplomáticos played saxophone and several Tesos manned the percussion section. Various Fuentes regulars became the vocalists including Jaime Galé, Luis Carlos, and Joe Arroyo.In keeping with the exoticism and façade of foreignness, the vocalists often sang in made-up languages that approximated Indigenous Colombian, Haitian Creole, Papiamento from the Dutch Caribbean or Nigerian Yoruba; at other times they invented Spanish lyrics that mimicked th...

For number 92 in our Brazil45 series, we delve back to another all-time favourite track, 'Embalo Diferente' by Os Devaneios. This sublime funky Samba joint has always ignited the dancefloor for us. It featured on the band's 1978 album, 'O Conjunto Que Faz Você Vibrar’, which originally saw release on EMI. No crazy hype needed for this one, just a fantastic straight-up, no messing Samba Funk made for dancing.

We only know of four albums by Os Devaneios and for the A-side of this 45, we have selected one of our more recent discoveries with a track entitled 'A Beleza É Você Menina'. Taken from their 1979 album 'Raça Suor E Suingue’ (also originally released on Emi), it was recorded only a couple of years after 'Embalo Diferente’. Whilst it remains in that Samba mold, it has also taken on some of the vibe and characteristics of Soul, Brazilian Boogie and AOR from that late 70s and early 80s period. A feel-good and uplifting record, yet one which simultaneously has a hint of melancholy and is all the more beautiful for it. It's always good to discover a new song by an old favourite, and we hope you grow to love it too.

For number 90 in the Brazil45 series, we share a couple of lesser-known discoveries that have become recent favourites here at Bongo HQ.

First up we head to the north of Brazil with funky Forró / boogie hybrid monster, 'Vendedor De Mangaios' by Josan. Originally released in 1981 on the album 'Rio De Renovações’ on Copacabana Records. This addictive dancefloor gem is still relatively under the radar, but it has become a firm favourite at Bristol's Worm Disco Club parties and amongst the DJ's and collectors of Brazil's underground dance music scene.

Taken from the illustrious singer Bartô Galeno's self-titled 1977 album on Tapecar Records, 'Vou Tirar Você Daqui' is an unusual one. Not easily pigeon-holed, the song sits somewhere between MPB / funk and rock, yet isn't really any of them. Backed with a big orchestrated sound and tripped-out synths, the track has a truly unique feel.

We hope you dig these finds. Another testament to the diversity and depth of Brazil's rich musical heritage.

The latest release in the much loved Mr Bongo Record Club Series, Available on CD, 2LP Standard Vinyl & Special Edition 2LP Pink Translucent Vinyl. Curating the tracks for a Mr Bongo Record Club compilation is always such a pleasure. At a time when the expression "Music is My Sanctuary" has an even greater cathartic impact for many people, we set out to make this volume an extra special one - like an old favourite mixtape or playlist. For Volume 4 in this series we continue in the same mould as with previous editions, selecting current favorites and rare lost gems from the Brazilian, African, soul, funk, and disco genres. We present tracks from artists such as Azwon, Cindy & The Playmates, and Zé Roberto to name just a few. However, one main departure and progression to this edition is the first time inclusion of recordings by contemporary artists. These come from Matthew Tavares (of Badbadnotgood fame), Wax Machine, and DJ Format & The Simonsound, which were originally featured on either limited private press vinyl releases or were previously only available digitally. We felt their inclusion was important and wanted to share these wonderful discoveries with a wider audience. They also complement, enrich, and fit perfectly with the flow and journey of the compilation. Here at Mr Bongo we hope you will enjoy this selection of seventeen eclectic songs (in tempo and style) as much as we do, whether they make you move your feet, take you on a trip somewhere, or trigger a happy memory.