Five years
after their inception, the Sao Paulo based Brazilian group Bixiga 70 continues
to travel musically forward, only to find themselves more and more at home.
The band’s
aptly named third album, “III”, is a luminescent and energized admixture of
Atlantic cultures. The album’s hyper-contemporary dialogue journeys between the
sounds and rhythms of Brazil and Africa, and between the band’s ten musicians
and their distinctive musical identities. Their collective influences include
jazz, funk and Afro-Brazilian music, and stretch further afield into dub and
reggae, electronics, cumbia and carimbó, ethio-jazz and samba.
Bixiga 70’s
“III” is a breathtaking rhythmic storm where inspired solos, harmony and
dynamics, beats and improvisation all mesh together in vital and unpredictable
ways. Spanning between a joyous danceability, a sharp sense of humor and
committed political reflections, the life-blood of this ten-piece unit is
instrumental music, but it is an instrumental music that speaks profoundly.
Self-produced
by the band in their own studio in Sao Paulo (and mixed by Victor Rice) all the
compositions on “III” are written and arranged by the entire Bixiga 70
collective. There are no liner note details: the process of creation is
decentralized and acknowledges the importance of each musician in the room. The
album was recorded live in the studio to further assure the depth of this
collaborative spirit and to accentuate the intensity of the band’s sonic
experiments.
Following
the global attention garnered by their previous album 2014’s “Ocupai” (Mais um
Discos), Bixiga 70 headed out into the world. Their musical travels to Europe,
the USA and Morocco, as well as the many varied regions of Brazil (including
the streets of Bixiga) have all left a deep mark on the sounds and visions of
the new album.
Throughout
the nine tracks found on “III”, styles merge and original syncretisms come to
life. The album shape shifts contemporary afro-funk, Moroccan cumbia, spiritual
jazz, adapted afro-brazilian chants, Cuban blaxploitation, sounds from São
Paulo’s Black Rio movement, Arabian dub, Malinké drumming, Angolan guitar music
and traditional bamboo fife bands.
There is no
doubt that Bixiga 70 is one of the guiding voices of Brazil’s contemporary
instrumental music scene and their new album “III” clearly demonstrates why.They are a
band that deftly searches for untracked and thrilling musical spaces to occupy. And most
importantly, they are a band that succeeds in finding them.
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