Brasil 2 Mil: The Soul Of Bass-O-Nova

Bebel Gilberto, Zuco 103, Suba,

Daъde, Fernanda Abreu, Lenine

(1999)

This decidedly different facet of Brazilian music keeps the soft sounds and rhythms of the samba, but puts them quite firmly in a '90s context, with the loops, beats, and samples of electronica, hip-hop, and R&B as integral parts of the song. In other words, unlike much Brazilian music, this music looks ahead, rather than behind--for example, Fernanda Abreu takes the bass line for Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" for a remix of her song, and it works perfectly within a sensual groove. Given that more than 30 years have passed since Tropicalia, Brazil's last musical revolution, the time seems to be very ripe for a new generation to have its say. And the people on this compilation are very articulate indeed. --Chris Nickson

Various Artists

The Now Sound Of Brazil (CD)

Bebel Gilberto, Zuco 103, Trio Mocotу,

Suba, Celso Fonseca, Bossacucanova

(2003)

Well if you have missed some of the efforts linked to the modern Brazil music scene than this puts a nice sampler together for you. If you are already familiar and have come by way of the late Suba's "Sao Paolo Confessions" or Bebel Gilberto's lovely "Tanto Tempo," both so good that they deserved tributes or remixes, than you will be plesantly surprised by some of the other offerings...The version Zuco 103 performs of "Outro Lado" is sweet, slightly funky, dreamy, trippy and like many of the tracks on this sampler, seductive. Zuco 103 also performs "Treasure" which is a bit more uptempo, bilingual(with interspersed English chorus) slightly edgy with a sprinkling of bossadelia that is not as good as the version featured on their CD but still very nice. Trio Mocoto's "Os Orixas" has a more carnival or futbol flavor where you can imagine the samba line grooving along. Bossacucanova fills in the dance lines on this sampler with jazz melodies for some soflty swinging atmospheric approches to create lounge Brazinujazz. All the songs contribute something tasty to the CD and is recommended for a point of departure or to just sit and watch your own Rio sunsets. --an Amazon.com reviewer