Lula Cortes and Ze Ramalho Paebiru

So Brazil is the hot sound now (a year or so ago).  It does seem douchebaggy, I know, to glom on to this shit.  Soul Jazz blazed these trails of course.  These thoughts avoid the reality of just how good this re-issue/discovery is.

Courtesy of Lula and Ze, here we get a totally organic (at least soundwise, and that is what matters) journey through the sounds of nature.  Of course that means the trickle of water on creeks.  It also means unhinged but relaxed acid guitar work merged with an unholy, yet completely natural, symphony of stringed instruments which float in and out.

The beats are alternately incredible and absent.  This record is about the feel.  Though the free floating guitar drifts through tracks, there is never a shortage of classical foundation or nature sounds to hold it down.

The album is a concept piece covering the seasons.  It does so with a mix of improvisatory whimsy and deep consideration of the abstract time frames which once marked album sides.  Either way, it is a sampler's paradise.

Here's to Brazil, and their 30-year-old music just now coming to light.  Keep it coming, and I just might get into this sort of thing.