Red Hot + Rio 2 is a modern tribute to late 60’s Brazilian Tropicália movement and produced in partnership with Entertainment One Music and the album sheds new light on the songs of this influential, politically charged era, which changed the culture of the country forever. This new compilation features over 30 original collaborations between Brazil’s legendary musicians and today’s international indie artists including John Legend, Os Mutantes, Devendra Banhart, Caetano Veloso, Dirty Projectors, Seu Jorge, Beck, Bebel Gilberto, José Gonzalez, Beirut, Tom Zé, Of Montreal, Marisa Monte Gogol Bordello, DJ Dolores, Aloe Blacc, Angelique Kidjo, Rita Lee, Madlib, Money Mark, Céu, Apollo Nove, Mayra Andrade, Trio Mocotó, Tha Boogie, Alice Smith, Carlinhos Brown, Los Van Van, Brazilian Girls, Marcos Valle, St. Vincent, Neon Indian, Forró In The Dark, Mia Doi Todd, Javelin, and many more. Red Hot + Rio 2 is the natural successor to the 1996 original Bossa Nova inspired Red Hot + Rio, which Vogue called the album “the latest and the hippest” while Entertainment Weekly said it was “an inspiring and modern sounding tribute. As with all Red Hot projects, proceeds from Rio 2 will benefit HIV/AIDS related charities. The first Red Hot + Rio raised over $1 million dollars as did the organization’s most recent album, Dark Was The Night (featuring 2011 Grammy winner for best album, Arcade Fire, The National, Feist, Grizzly Bear and Bon Iver among others).
Since its inception, Red Hot Organization – a not-for-profit production company – has produced over 16 albums and donated over $10 million dollars to worthy organizations, causes and projects around the world. Its mission is to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/ HIV and related health and social issues. To date the Red Hot organization has sold more than three million albums and has co-produced performances at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Radio City Music Hall, Central Park Summer Stage and more.
Along with the album release is a new documentary that features Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil (both featured on the new
Red Hot + Rio 2). Both returned to their native Brazil from political exile in the UK in 1972 – both to fame and to fortune, and in Gil’s case to eventual high political office. In this new documentary which recently had its North American premier at the somewhat clumsily-named 9th Cine Fest Petrobras Brasil-New York these two men, along with their collaborators and fellow travelers (literal and metaphorical), reflect on their experiences in and out of what Chilean-born author Roberto Bolaño called “the bloody open labyrinth of Latin America in the 70s.” From the guide to the festival: “[In] the wave of arrests that followed the decree of AI-5 by the military dictatorship in December of 1968, [Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were] arrested in São Paolo and later transferred to Rio de Janeiro [which] they eventually left for exile in London.” Which isn’t to say that Sounds of the Exile is a depressing or overly-earnest look at the period’s politics and compromises. Instead, it’s mostly a chance for Veloso, Gil, Jorge Mautner, Jards Macalé, and even and especially the writer/director Geneton Moraes Neto to riff on an age gone by, reliving and elaborating on the Tropicalista movement and what it led to with incredulous humor, wry grins, and near-solipsistic ramblings.
Though touching on serious social upheaval and deep political convictions, Veloso, Gil and the gang have had (and give us in turn) plenty to laugh about. Whether it’s the dark burlesque of Gil’s impromptu concert in the guards’s barracks inside his prison, or Macalé’s hilarious recounting of an LSD-addled “trip” to Madam Tussaud’s (he was removed from the building for weeping copiously over the waxen, supine form of Snow White within her glass coffin), their stories both amuse and at the same time bear implicit testimony to the immense improvement – material, political, social – that Brazil has undergone in recent decades. A more literal translation of the original Portuguese title (Cancões do Exilio: A Labareda que Lambeu Tudo) serves these men’s passionate music and unfortunate story better: “Songs of the Exile: The Flames That Singed Everything”. Both of these titans of Brazilian popular music make appearances on the new
Red Hot + Rio 2 as songwriters, and Veloso himself shows up twice as performer on the album–once alone (“Terra”) and once with the equally-imcomparable David Byrne (“Dreamworld: Marco De Canaveses”).
RED HOT + RIO 2 TRACKLISTING
RED
“Baby”—Alice Smith + Aloe Blacc
“Tropicália (Mario C 2011 Remix)”—Beck + Seu Jorge
“Um Girassol da Cor do Seu Cabelo”—Mia Doi Todd + José González
“Samba de Verão”—Quadron
“Boa Reza”—Vanessa da Mata + Seu Jorge & Almaz
“Love I’ve Never Known”—John Legend
“Nascimento (Rebirth) – Scene 2”—Aloe Blacc + Clara Moreno
“Ela (Ticklah Remix)”—Curumin
“Baby (Old Dirty Baby Dub Version)”—Aloe Blacc + Alice Smith
“Um Canto de Afoxé para o Bloco do Ilê”—Superhuman Happiness + Cults
“Mistérios”— Om’Mas Keith
“Aquele Abraço”— Forró In The Dark + Brazilian Girls + Angelique Kidjo
“Canto de Iemanjá”—Mia Doi Todd
“Terra”—Caetano Veloso (Prefuse 73 ‘3 Mellotrons In A Quiet Room’ Version)
“Nú Com A Minha Música”—Marisa Monte + Devendra Banhart + Rodrigo Amarante
“Acabou Chorare”—Bebel Gilberto
“Dreamworld”—Marco de Canaveses: David Byrne + Caetano Veloso
HOT
“O Leãozinho”—Beirut
“Panis et Circensis”—Tha Boogie
“Bat Macumba”—of Montreal + Os Mutantes
“Tudo o Que Você Podia Ser”—Phenomenal Handclap Band + Marcos Valle
“Banana”—Madlib + Joyce Moreno Feat. Generation Match
“Freak Le Boom Boom”—Marina Gasolina + Secousse
“Tropical Affair”—Money Mark + Thalma de Freitas + João Parahyba
“Soy Loco Por Ti, América”—Los Van Van + Carlinhos Brown
“Roda”—Orquestra Contemporânea de Olinda + Emicida
“Berimbau”—Mayra Andrade + Trio Mocotó
“It’s a Long Way”—Apollo Nove + Céu + N.A.S.A.
“A Cidade”—DJ Dolores + Eugene Hütz + Otto + Fred 04 + Isaar
“Ogodô, Ano 2000”—Javelin + Tom Zé
“Águas de Março”—Atom™ + Toshiyuki Yasuda Feat. Fernanda Takai + Moreno Veloso
“Show Me Love”—Twin Danger
"Pistis Sophia”—Rita Lee
Reggae stars pay homage to Beres Hammond, the godfather of reggae soul, in the ultimate way as they cover his songs in Our Favorite Beres Hammond Songs, a double-disc album from VP Records. Spanning over 30 years of recording soulful reggae music in his signature smoky-sweet baritone, Hammond's catalog is filled with hits for the picking. Now reggae and dancehall stars honor his legacy by putting their touch on his classics. The 23-track compilation features the talents of Jah Cure,Tarrus Riley, Busy Signal, Tessanne Chin, Marcia Griffiths and Nadine Sutherland, just to name a few. The project is the brainchild of acclaimed reggae producer and longtime Beres Hammond collaborator, Donovan Germain, who composed the covers at his own studio at Penthouse Records in Jamaica. Some of Beres' biggest hits are covered on this definitive collection, including "Putting Up Resistance," "Tempted To Touch," and "No Disturb Sign," which appears twice with a dancehall remix featuring Assassin. Beres himself also participates with "Fire & Ice," staying in the mix as the various contributing artists carry his songs to different and perhaps even new ears. Beres Hammond has always been covered by musicians in and out of the genre. Now with this official compilation from some of the artists he has influenced, fans can get a new take, and taste, of his signature sounds.
