Amor (É Revolução)
Love is revolution. Such is the borderline philosophical title to producer, percussionist, DJ and global bass pioneer Maga Bo's latest full-length "Amor (É Revolução)" released on his own label Kaxambu Records a few weeks backs and presenting the emphatic outcome of a long-standing and ongoing exploration into Afro-Brazilian music. Marking his first solo album in a decade, Maga Bo does not hold back, presenting ten original compositions along with eleven multifarious remixes and collaborations.
Born in the US, Maga Bo became a naturalised citizen of Brazil in the late 1990s and garnered international acclaim as a producer on top tier labels such as Ninja Tune, Tru Thoughts, ZZK, Soundway and many more. On "Amor (É Revolução)", the world traveler and ethnomusicologist digs deep into the root system of Brazil's rich and complex musical heritage, unearthing and rephrasing contemporary interpretations of ancient traditions, their common ancestor being the drum.
Collaborating with an impressive "cast of singers, musicians and percussionists, contemporary and traditional, from [the country's] north and south, [...] Maga Bo reconnects with some of the artists he worked with on his 2012-released album 'Quilombo Do Futuro', [but also] forges new connections [with key modern-day protagonists]" on the Brazilian music circuit. Providing fertile breeding ground for a veritable onslaught of Afro-Brazilian rhythms and chants, his productions create a dense thicket of sounds that is nothing short of entrancing.
"Amor (É Revolução)" is all about channeling energy and building spiritual connections that transcend mundane dancefloor ambitions. And, as the title suggests, there is indeed more to it: "To love is an action and conscious decision that embraces the transitory nature of life and recognises that all is energy in transition, from micro to macrocosmic, always in revolution," Maga Bo explains. An approach that "could well serve as a conceptual veneer for both Brazil and the world's ills in this moment," the liner notes proceed to point out.
Either way, this 21-track collection of hyperrealistic yet equally metaphysical soundscapes is a true work of heart as well as musical force to be reckoned with. You can stream/buy the full release via the Bandcamp player below.
More posts
Kumoyo Island
Last call...all aboard...final destination "Kumoyo Island"! Envision yourself seated at a ferry terminal somewhere in Japan, tickets in hand, bags packed, provisions safely stowed inside, waiting for the vessel to embark on an eleven-stop journey to an imaginary island with Tokyo acid folk/psych rock explorers Kikagaku Moyo as your visionary tour guides. Well, best grab a window seat with some leg space, lean back and enjoy the ride. If you've been on one of [...]
Lowrider Kumbias
Just a quick newsflash that this new eight-track joyride of a release is out there and currently oozing through our stereo. Straight outta San Jose, California, the somewhat enigmatic producer, excavator and refurbisher of quality latin sounds Turbo Sonidero dropped his "Lowrider Kumbias" on limited cassette/vinyl via L.A.-based imprint Discos Rolas back in March and, thanks to a recent post on Instagram by Santa Ana's CUMBIAS, we too are now in the [...]
Curlew Sounds
Waking up at the crack of dawn to a chirpy chorus of bird song these past weeks has been a welcome though slightly discordant event, yet one we ought to be grateful for, especially us city dwellers. As nature continues to make itself heard amidst the perils of climate change and general human sprawl, one might wonder, if sometime in the near future, this will no longer be case. Reminding us of the precarious situation of modern-day fowl and one bird in [...]
Siempre Afro-Latino
Talk about the Swinging Sixties...Olindo Records sister label Música Infinita is currently working our speaker system with its second release, more than a year after dropping its inaugural reissue of Venezuelan jazz staple Gerry Weil's "The Message". This time, the label has dug up another masterpiece, presenting "the raw and uncompromising Afro-Latin sound" of late '60s Venezuelan salsa group Los Kenya and bandleader/pianist Ray Perez. "¡Siempre [...]
Brasil Novo
Like sun reflecting off water the reactions to this new compilation of Brazilian music – as undifferentiated a term as that may be – have been resplendent, prompting us to chime in and add our two cents to the enthusiastic chorus. Musica Macondo, "a community of like-minded people aiming to create a space for musical discovery," recently released an eight track collection of essential sounds from Brazil, "featuring elements of samba, candomblé, batuques, [...]
Roots
Aural enclaves have been a thing these days, as we try to regain our sanity amidst all this madness. We realised that we've had quite a few so-called ambient releases on the blog lately and the current onslaught of bad news might just be a reason. Either way, while looking for new musical grounds to cover, we stumbled on this multi-dimensional gem by Siberian multi-instrumentalist and producer Misha Sultan that recently surfaced on Brighton's Hive Mind Records [...]
Rusishe Krigshif
Meanwhile, as Russia continues to wreak havoc in Ukraine, our dear Berlin-based and Kharkiv-born friend Yuriy Gurzhy has been very busy organising the cultural resistance: Besides touring with his new book "Richard Wagner und die Klezmerband. Der neue jüdische Sound in Deutschland" on contemporary Jewish music in Germany, he has been sharing regular and personal insights into the war on Ukraine via his 'Kriegstagebuch' ('war diary') for German daily newspaper [...]
Almagre
Cinematic, symphonic, surreal? The words to describe the Rhabdomantic Orchestra's sophomore longplayer on Agogo Records are manifold, as are the ideas and influences intricately woven into the tell-tale arrangements. Six years after the group's acclaimed album "Albore", Turin-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Manuel Volpe leads the orchestral charge to the project's follow-up album "Almagre". Only this time, he is joined by Colombian singer Maria Mallol [...]
Bahia Com 'H'
"Ethereal, sensual, subtle," are the opening words of producer, journalist and"living jazz encyclopedia" Arnaldo DeSouteiro, who authored the extensive liner notes to this essential and first vinyl reissue of Brazilian singer Maria de Fátima's only solo album "Bahia com H". Originally recorded in Uruguay in 1981, "where she had settled with her then husband, the synthesizer wizard and producer Hugo Fattoruso, the album combines Maria's own compositions with [...]
Red Sands
At the start of a new week, we would like to point you in the direction of Melbourne-based artist and broadcaster Ajak Kwai, who released her powerful EP "Red Sands" on Music in Exile late last year. Well known to the Australian music community, she is a strong voice for "inclusion and the celebration of cultural diversity found throughout Australian society." Kwai herself hails from the historic city of Bor in South Sudan.
In her shows for both PBS and 3CR, [...]
Me Da A Onnda
Julien Lebrun and Djamel Hammadi's Paris-based afro-soul and tropical funk imprint Hot Casa Records is literally a hotbed of quality releases and reissues and always worth a visit. The label has apparently also managed to license many a rare hi-life and afro-funk album from the family of late Ghanaian singer and composer Alhaji Kwabena Frimpong, or simply K. Frimpong.
Born in 1939 in Ofoase in Ghana's Ashanti Akim district, K. Frimpong launched his musical [...]
Åland Islands
Islands themselves are a wonderful natural concept, come to think about it. Simply describing a piece of land surrounded entirely by water, the word itself evokes a world of imagery and sentiments, a metaphor, deeply ingrained in the human experience. Islands are vastly symbolic and often excite mixed feelings. They are ambiguous at best, representing both isolation and refuge, a welcome escape or even a place of no return. Though not all islands are [...]