Awesome New Brazilian Music

August 7, 2006 8:53 PM

I need to update my Brazilian music collection. What recent albums (last two years) by Brazilian artists should I buy?

I'm currently spending a month in Rio and I want to update my Brazilian music collection. Any CDs that you can recommend, especially non-mainstream, that have come out recently would be very much appreciated. I like the greats of MPB (Caetano, Gil, Jorge Ben, Gal Costa), but I'm less knowledgeble about Brazilian rap, traditional samba, etc. I'm especially interested in recent Brazilian rap, but I'll give anything a chance. Obrigado!

posted by fdhidalgo to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

Is Bebel Gilberto too mainstream?
posted by tellurian at 9:00 PM on August 7, 2006 [1 favorite]

Best answer: my brazillian friend says:

"some suggestions: the new CD by Chico Buarque (Carioca), the two new CDs by Marisa Monte (Universo ao Meu Redor & Infinito Particular), the new CD by Adriana Calcanhoto (Partimpim), the "Ana Carolina & Seu Jorge" live recording, most "Seu Jorge" stuff. There is no new CD, but any Paulinho da Viola you find would be good. I don't know any rap, but they say that Marcelo D2 is reasonable, for those who like rap"
posted by rbs at 10:15 PM on August 7, 2006

I've been enjoying this. Obviously not recent, but currently trendy-ish, and pretty neat.
posted by dong_resin at 1:00 AM on August 8, 2006

Best answer: the São Paulo based Trama label is pretty consistent (though, i must admit, i haven't bought anything through them in about a year). I'd look out for records by artists like Otto, Max de Castro, Fernando Porto, Jair Oliveira, and Patricia Marx.
posted by tnai at 1:36 AM on August 8, 2006

also look out for mix CDs sold by street vendors of Baile Funk. That's the real sound of Rio at the moment.
posted by tnai at 1:43 AM on August 8, 2006

Have you checked out the recent Tom Ze album? He is still in his prime.
posted by Falconetti at 2:53 AM on August 8, 2006

If you don't have Natural by Celso Fonseca, I would recommend a listen - mainstream maybe, but very classy.
posted by funboytree at 4:57 AM on August 8, 2006

Since you said "especially non-mainstream" I thought I'd mention that Chico Buarque, Marisa Monte, and Adriana Calcanhoto are about as well-known, and thus presumably mainstream, as you can find. Chico and Marisa are also often extremely good, and Adriana's pleasant. Marisa's new disc "Universo ao meu Redor" is both (slow) samba and is excellent, so you get two wishes with one disc.
posted by dmo at 7:12 AM on August 8, 2006

Maybe I should have said "well-known and well-liked." And I think tnai might mean "FernandA Porto." Also, a couple of years ago in Rio I went in a pretty cool little used CD shop that had lots of used CDs up front and LOTS of used LPs in the back. It was on the first block (between 1 and 50 or so) of Rua Visconde de Piraja in Ipanema, on the side of the street opposite Praça General Osorio (but not on that block). Business being what it is in Brazil, I have no idea if that place still exists. But there's no shortage of sebos de disco (used cd shops) in Rio. I think you can listen to most anything at used CD shops, too. Have you asked at brazzil.com's forums? And one more thing! SubPop just signed São Paulo's Cansei de Ser Sexy. Not my thing, but I'm cranky.
posted by dmo at 7:42 AM on August 8, 2006

If you like garage rock, check out Thee Butcher's Orchestra.
posted by klangklangston at 7:45 AM on August 8, 2006

Best answer: Bebel Gilberto, Cibelle, Nicola Conte, and Rosalia de Souza are front-runners in the Bossa Nova renaissance.

Most of these are hybrids of traditional Bossa with electronica, just downtempo of what we know as club music today (house). Best classicication I've seen is "Future-bossa." But "bossa nova" itself means "new wave," so I guess it doesn't really matter.
posted by cowbellemoo at 8:15 AM on August 8, 2006

dmo: And I think tnai might mean "FernandA Porto."

heh. Yep, that's right. Sorry about that.
posted by tnai at 8:48 AM on August 8, 2006

Ooh, the Tribalistas!
posted by Rash at 9:34 AM on August 8, 2006