Quilombo do Futuro by Maga Bo - Kaxambu Records [KAX004]

Quilombo do Futuro

Maga Bo

A 13 track brazil album (40m 50s) — released May 22nd 2012 on Kaxambu Records

#world #brazil

Quilombo do Futuro dives deep into afro-brazilian rhythms and sound system culture. It's the roots of the terreiro growing and overtaking the asfalto. Crumbling it bit by bit. Life that springs from urban decay. Coco, maculelê, samba, jongo and capoeira meet ragga and dub, hip hop and kuduro, grime and dubstep. Organic elements combined with electronic production to bring the punch and power for big sound systems, this is serious batucada and bass, mids, treble. TUDO.

Maga Bo has performed and worked in over 50 different countries - from Delhi to Sydney, Berlin to Addis Ababa, New York City to Brasília, all the while keeping his feet (and ears) firmly planted in the sonic axis RJ/SP/BA - Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador. Inspired as much by his experiences touring internationally in the global beats and bass world as his time spent in the traditional Afro-Brazilian roots scene in Rio de Janeiro, Quilombo do Futuro offers a careful juxtaposition of raw, heavy bass with organic, instrumental and vocal subtlety. Far from relying on pre-made loops of "Brazilian" drums or other shallow cultural signifiers, this album was recorded with some of the most original and brightest musicians in Brazil today.

Working with celebrated Brazilian musicians, BNegão, Gaspar, Lucas Santtana and Marcelo Yuka, the record also brings in new talents, Funkero, Biguli and one of the most innovative groups in Brazilian music today, BaianaSystem. Bo's mestre of capoeira angola, Mestre Camaleão, brings the berimbau while Rosângela Macedo's vocals hold down tradition. Guyanese Brooklynite, Jahdan Blakkamoore, and Panamanian Chicagoite, MC Zulu, bring the dancehall vibe to riddims that most don't even try to touch. All percussion was tracked and produced by Maga Bo and his long time partner in riddim, percussionist and fellow carioca, João Hermeto.

A quilombo was an autonomous, fugitive settlement founded by ex-slaves and others in colonial brazil. The Quilombo do Futuro is more than a possible physical space. It is a potential world-wide agglomeration of cultural resistance. After centuries of wealth generated by an economy built on slavery (and the subsequent post-abolition adaptations), the Quilombo do Futuro is a break from this legacy. Fortified by an international community based on plurality, inclusive democracy and direct communication, cultural resistance is paramount in creating a sustainable, healthy existence in the face of world-wide corporate domination.

Hand-played percussion and hard-nosed voices are the rocket fuel for Maga Bo’s “Quilombo do Futuro” (Post World Industries), a cultural manifesto riding on rhythm. Make that rhythms. Maga Bo, a widely traveled American D.J. and producer who relocated to Rio de Janeiro in 1999, uses kinetic Afro-Brazilian beats as the album’s foundation and superstructure. But his tracks also mix in drum-machine sounds, stray ricocheting electronics, Brazilian guitars and glimmers of soundsystem bass music like Jamaican dancehall as well as Brazilian baile funk. Atop them — rapping, chanting and singing their own lyrics — are voices that can keep pace with the syncopations or sail above them. In Portuguese and occasionally English, Maga Bo’s collaborators often praise culture as survival mechanism and resistance tactic, while the beats constantly prove them right. - Jon Pareles New York Times

It’s an impressive, bass-heavy blend of Afro-Brazilian styles (coco, maculele, jongo and capoeira) with hip hop, electro, kuduro, dancehall, dubstep and more, with a raw, edgy sound combining buzzing synths and booming Afro-Brazilian percussion. - Don Yates KEXP

The producer's latest album beautifully juxtaposes traditional melodies and club-friendly beats. - BANNING EYRE NPR

Quilombos were settlements for African slaves far away from the colonized world which were often attacked. Intelligent fighting techniques and an enduring drive to overcome injustice preserved these warriors in the face of adversity. Maga Bo has captured brilliantly his forward-gazing vision of such a gathering: hard and precise while inviting and approachable. A fine balance by an even finer producer. - Darek Beres Huffington Post

Centuries-old percussive styles go into battle with the sharpest electronic rhythms around - samba faces off against dubstep, batucada goes head-to-head with kuduro. Ultimately, the forces combine, overwhelming the dancefloor. This is sound system culture taken on a history lesson. It's also where the hand-wrought rhythms of the past get a sniff of the future. - Nige Tassell WOMAD UK

World-wide lovers of tropical bass and Afro-Brazilian percussion will certainly go bananas over this release. Leave it to a native of Rio de Janeiro to envision the future of Brazilian beats but make sure this carioca has done his rounds backpacking around the scariest corners of the planet so that his music is infused with a global perspective and crossover appeal beyond its niche. - Juan Data Remezcla

To the casual fan of Brazilian music, there's a yawning disconnect between the sexy sounds of samba and bossa nova and the stiffly modern sounds of funk carioca and other Brazilian electronic music. Maga Bo not only brings the two together but does so in a way that should be deeply satisfying to fans of both. Quilombo De Futuro succeeds for many reasons. - David Dacks Exclaim

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