Occur Goes Global - The Music of Brazil

• by Melissa Bobbitt
• Nov 30, 2015

From the frenetic, prismatic sounds of samba to raging rock ‘n’ roll, Brazil has got the beat. Here are five artists that continue to fuel the fire of the country’s vibrant music history.

 

Marcio Faraco

Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t. Bossa nova/samba king Marcio Faraco named his most recent album Cajueiro, which means “cashew” in Portuguese. Why? “Everybody knows the nut, but how many know anything about the rest of the tree? I think that sums up Brazilian music,” he says in a press release. His analogy is understandable once you give Cajueiro a listen— it’s a swaying mix of his homeland and his adopted dwelling of France.

 

CSS

Though they’ve been effectively dormant since 2013’s Planta, Cansei de Ser Sexy have been a premier name in dance rock since 2003. Coming up in the São Paulo rave scene, Lovefoxxx and her mates conquered the world in 2006 with the head-bobbing “Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above.” The effervescent front woman became a fashion plate thanks to her paint-splattered full-body leotards and bubbly performances. Lead image by Michael Spencer/Wikimedia Commons

 

Rampazzo

A graphic designer by trade, Lucas Rampazzo takes his visual talent to the aural realm. His style is electronic, hypnotic, “abstract and organic,” as he notes in his online portfolio. Synthesizers dance and stretch, resembling a duet between Explosions in the Sky and the Beatles at their most psychedelic. Rampazzo’s latest tracks can be heard on his Soundcloud page. (Thanks to Remezcla for introducing us to his music.)

 

Emicida

A freestyle kingpin who gives shout-outs to the impoverished favelas, Leandro Roque “Emicida” de Oliveira is called the Jay Z of Brazil. (Though we think he sounds more akin to Q-Tip.) Like these hip-hop greats, this MC incorporates pulsing beats with unique instrumentation and cadences. On the above “Mufete” (a dish from his ancestral Angola,) he brings African melodies to samba-enriched rhythms. He dropped Sobre Crianças, Quadris, Pesadelos e Lições de Casa earlier in 2015.

 

Maria Rita

Her caramel voice and storied upbringing – she’s the daughter of jazz heroine Elis Regina – brought Rita to the world’s attention. Perhaps as a form of rebellion against her parents, she didn’t become a professional singer until age 24, instead focusing on Social Comm and Latin American Studies. But as fate would have it, she exploded onto the scene in 2003 and went on to win numerous Latin Grammys and Platinum Discs.