Mateus Starling
Bem-vindos to this week’s Brazilian edition of OurStage Model U.N.! The music of Brazil is known to be representative of its people, a diverse range of influences from all over the world. For the country that gave us such great gifts like Carmen Miranda, the Samba and the Bossa Nova, it’s a bit of a downer that more recent developments in Brazilian music aren’t well known in the states. Fortunately, American music bloggers gushing over 60′s psychedelic garage rockers Os Mutantes and new ravers CSS, have helped spark an interest in Brazilian music of old and new. To quench your curiosity, take a break from making your Carnival costume and give these Brazilian artists on OurStage a shot:
HITCHCOCKS are a psychobilly/surf band from São Paulo. Known for making edgy surf instrumentals, their music would feel right at home in the soundtrack of a 60′s science fiction B-movie.
Autoramas are quite popular in Brazil’s alternative rock scene. After all— not just any band gets to open for the likes of Mudhoney, the Pixies and Guitar Wolf. With new wave influences such as Devo and The B-52′s, the band has the potential to win over many new fans in the states.
Brazilian born guitarist Mateus Starling is bursting at the seams with talent. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mateus paid the bills by writing TV jingles and working as a session musician. Earlier this year, Starling released Kairos, his debut solo album with a live jazz instrumental focus. Listen to the track “Guerreiro” and you’ll understand why critics in Brazil are calling him the “future of the Brazilian guitar.”
Database
Database is one of the biggest names in Brazilian electronic music. The two Producer/DJs that form Database, Lucio Morais and Yuri Chix, were childhood friends that went to film school together and gained popularity throwing down dance parties for their fellow classmates. After releasing two successful compilation CDs, contributing a remix to Fat Boy Slim’s Southern Fried Records, and playing numerous festivals in Brazil, Database is ready for a full forced breakthrough in the US. Most recently the duo worked with Brooklyn electro-pop outfit French Horn Rebellion, co-writing a single for the group’s Friends and Beaches EP. You can catch Database live as they open for French Horn Rebellion’s current US tour.
Another big buzz act from Brazil is the alternative rock group The River Raid. These moody rockers cite their biggest influences as The Stooges, Violent Femmes, Radiohead and Sonic Youth. Check out the sweet Moog sounds on their track “Electric Cool”.
Rio guitarist Alisson Souza‘s “Esses Dias,” is an instrumental track blending blues and Latin jazz. Souza has a unique approach to combining several layers of break beats, flamenco-styled guitar solos and heavy blues guitar breakdowns over a somber organ. It’s definitely one of those great recordings you hear something new on with each repeated listen.
Summer and songs. They fit together like Santa and snow, like sex and the city, like Coldplay and Rihanna in the “Princess of China” single and video, which both acts no doubt are hoping will be the song of the summer of 2012. (And if it’s not, Rihanna’s got another shot anyway, with “Where Have You Been,” the fifth single from her Talk That Talk album.)
But the songs of summer aren’t just about the latest, greatest hits when warm weather starts to roll around. If they were, we all would have been stuck with Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep,” Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” and LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” on an endless beach loop last summer (and certainly some of us were). The hottest season has been figuring prominently into pop since the beginning of time, regardless of the temperature outside.
