Brazil Classics 7: What's Happ ening in Pernambuco

Product Description

In the 1980's, while urban centers of the Brazilian south like Sao Paulo, Braslia and Rio were inundated with homegrown rock movements, Pernambuco didn't have much of a music scene at all. Vowing to jump-start the local scene Fred Zero Four got together with Chico Science and a collective of local bands and visual artists to found the Mangue Beat movement - the most significant musical and aesthetic movement in Brazil since Tropicalia. The music is an explosion of punk-rock-funk-rap-electronic sound, infused with the maracatu, coco, ciranda and embolada rhythmic traditions of the rural northeast. "What's Happening in Pernambuco?" (volume 7 of Luaka Bop's influential Brazil Classics series) presents 13 amazing artists creating a new genre-defying party.

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Those with only a passing knowledge of Brazilian music probably assume that many of the country’s great artists comes from such major cities as Rio or Sao Paulo, but this is not always the case. Located in the country's northeastern corner, Pernambuco and its capitol of Recife have spawned such great cutting-edge musicians as Chico Science and Nação Zumbi as well as a long but little-known list of followers â€" of the 13 artists featured here, all but Zumbi have little to no reputation here in the States. This makes for a great crash course in the music of the area. Infused with such modern sounds as mellow funk, jittery electronic music, hip-hop scratching, rock and experimental production, Pernambuco music still has that warm earthy feel we've come to expect from Brazilians thanks to such rural traditional rhythms as cirada, coco, embolada and maracatu. As part of Luaka Bop's incredible Brazil Classics series, this hip collection easily measures up to the lofty watermark left by past must-haves. â€"-Tad Hendrickson