Brazil Classics 7: What's Happening in Pernambuco

They Say...

Review by Jeff Tamarkin, All Music Guide

Although it is home to Recife, the coastal city that ranks as the fifth largest in Brazil, the eastern state of Permambuco has, until recent years, been overlooked as a source of musical innovation. That all changed in the late '90s with the now-deceased Chico Science, a forward-thinking musician who took the region's traditional maracatu, mixed it up with rock, reggae, hip-hop, funk, modern sampling and other electronics, and created something he called mangue beat. Following the death of Science in 1997, former members of his band Nação Zumbi continued on in Recife, and slowly but surely Permambuco attracted attention as a source for scene-watchers. The self-explanatory Brazil Classics, Vol. 7: What's Happening in Permambuco -- not surprisingly, on Brazil-loving David Byrne's Luaka Bop label -- aims to introduce some of the region's diverse artists, some cutting-edge moderns, and others more tied to the regional traditions. Nação Zumbi themselves are among the highlights, their "Carimbaeo" rocking out with reverby, surfy guitars, persistent percussion, and psychedelic phasing effects. But there's plenty more to discover: Cabruêra's funky jungle-fied beat rings with rapid-fire guitar and unexpected rhythmic switcheroos. Vates e Violas is modern Brazilian folk-rock, and Siba's "Vale de Juca" takes the local rural tradition and puts a fresh coat of paint on it. Otto's "Bob" is a dreamy pastiche of collected sounds while Junio Barreto's "Amigos Bons" offers perhaps the closest thing to the more samba-centric familiarity of Rio and São Paulo.