Music

What We're Digging Right Now - Matuto

Image by Vincent Soyez


Whereas modern folk artists like Mumford & Sons draw inspiration from the Deep South - blazin' banjos and porch-rattling foot stomps - one band is migrating its influences to the Deep, Deep South-- South America, that is.


The six-member Brooklyn collective Matuto (Northeastern Brazilian slang for "bumpkin") live like it's Carnival every day. Zig-zagging accordions dance around nimble jazz riffs that whisper with the ghosts of Cajun and African rhythms. The genre known as forro-rock creeps into the psyche as Clay Ross spins yarns about running from temptation on The Devil and the Diamond (Motema Music).


As if Matuto's sound and interests couldn't get more varied, the narrative binding the 12 effervescent tracks is derived from the tenets of Buddhism. Striving to be one's best self, all while shimmying like there's no tomorrow? We can groove with that.

More from Melissa Bobbitt (See All)
Permalink to
Music
Flagship set sail with epic 'Are You Calling'
  Melissa Bobbitt      0

Courtesy Michael Finster The Carolinas tend to breed bands that rely heavily on sounds of the South: banjos, foot stomps and the like. But Flagship, out of Charlotte, N.C., rock like New Yorkers the National...

Jul 21, 2013

Permalink to
Music
The ladies of the '90s
  Melissa Bobbitt      0

Photo by Melissa Bobbitt This writer is extremely excited for the return of Garbage. Front woman Shirley Manson is the epitome of rock goddess, someone so exotically beautiful but who also deals with human issues...

Apr 7, 2012