Brazilian independent artists have seemingly given up the ghost with the record industry and are putting their latest albums for free on the internet, presumably with the intention of getting shows to create some sort of income. Cultural commentator Alexandre Matias feels that perhaps modern Brazilian artists understand the internet better than their international counterparts.

Whatever this means, in the last month there has been a spate of really interesting releases, all of which I intend to post here over the next few weeks. So, if you like free, legal brazilian contemporary pop music, stay tuned here.

The first release is by Passo Torto, who comprise of four major  indie players:Romulo Fróes, Rodrigo Campos, Kiko Dinucci and Marcelo Cabra who all have other projects but have collaborated together for this delightful project. It’s basically samba, but with touches of just about everything from Bossa to Chorinho. It’s beautifully arranged with no percussion, but still very rhythmic.

You can download it at the site. Put in your email, click “baixar” and bob’s your uncle. Highly recommended.

Passo Torto by passotorto

Check out the beautiful looking video above for Criolo’s single from his second album “Nó na orelha”, (knot in the ear) produced by Daniel Ganjaman. It is an astounding album where Criolo, originally a rap MC, has decided to branch out and take in samba, soul, reggae and even brega-bolero. A more accomplished Brazilian album, you won’t hear this year. In fact, it’s an album that manages to bridge generations as both me and my teenage son listen to it at home, the crucial difference being, I bought the CD while he downloaded it and put it on his  cell phone. You can download the album for free from Criolo’s site here.

We’ve got tickets to see his show tomorrow, I’m expecting great things.

Friend and latest signing to Man Recs, João Brasil, never tires. Parallely to working on his debut release single on Man Recordings – “L.O.V.E. Banana” feat. Lovefoxxx, out January 2011 – he is still churning out cool mashups on a daily basis. This one is a magic mashup of Brazilian indie rappers Inhumanos and Beck.

Pra mim chega, loser (João Brasil) by joaobrasil

This has certainly been the year that the Chicago Juke/Footwork sound has come to the fore, I’m not a huge fan, but being over forty I firmly believe it is not aimed at people like myself, in fact I think its primary intent is too annoy the hell out of anyone over 25. The pure repetition of Juke does lend it a minimalist charm and it does have functionality, as all the videos on youtube demonstrate. However, this is a great piece of Juke appropriation by Traxman, using that hoary old monster “The End”by the doors.  (via davequam.wordpress.com)

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this iz da end

and if you feel like investigating further here’s a Juke mix by Mike Paradinas:

Brazilian reggae leaves a lot to be desired, heavily influenced by the bob Marley school of peaceful vibes and sickly sweet melodies. There are some interesting strains of samba-reggae which has the reggae lilt but with pattering brazilian rhythms. It’s nice, but very laid back and Bahian (i.e unchallenging) with very little bass. I have liked friends of Man Recs, Digitaldubs rhythm albums for a while now and their Curimba riddim by now is a classic. I like the video above with its Rio homage to the Jamaican lifestyle, but what I really like is the fact that the riddim is distinctly Brazilian and the toasting is very Rio, mixing Baile funk MCing with a melodic Samba singing style.

Its a contrast to the track below with Ranking Joe, which is a more traditional (unoriginal) king tubby stylee dub bassline with standard toasting. I wonder if they did this because it was Ranking Joe and felt they had to deliver a more traditional sound.

This reminds of the time I read about  the Bug (Kevin Martin) who was  recording his first album “Pressure” and believed that the Jamaican MCs wouldn’t like his noisily overloaded rhythms and so sent them very basic rhythm tracks to toast over and then set to work on them afterwards