April 28, 2007

http://www.loudersoft.com/?p=3328&seenIEPage=1

Saturdays Are For Emails: Chico Correa & Electronic Band’s World View
by E.J. @ 3:41 pm.

I try to go thru my emails with a fine-toothed comb when time permits, and Saturday is frequently my best opportunity. How pleased I was to receive an email from Brazilian artist Chico Correa which contained a link to his self-titled album, released by Japanese net label Bump Foot. I will confess: when I read his name, my mind went where yours just did — boy, that name…it seems so…familiar! The sound, however, was anything but familiar to me.

What I got to hear was a mixture of very stripped down ambient electronic music a la Air supported by scorching female vocals mixed with distinctly Brazilian-influenced rhythms a la Flora Purim or Aierto Moirera. This fine combination resonates throughout all the tracks I heard, taking cues from all of these sources while never imitating to the point of confusion. Maybe I’m just a sucker for the language of Brazil: there is something smolderingly sexual to me about the sound of Portugese, particularly when blended with thundering percussion, horns, and driving bass lines. This collection’s jazzist leanings are actually rounded out through the introduction of sparse electronic meanderings — echoes, various piano structures, and the like — to create a fluid and memorable ambience.

I’m confident that this represents an awakening to some kind of music that people have been listening to for some period of time. If it doesn’t and I’m hearing something wholly unique, color me pleased and surprised. I think you, too, will find it worth listening to. Here are two of my favorites from the album, “Lele” and “Eu Pisei Na Pedra”.

Chico Correa & Electronic Band - Lele
Chico Correa & Electronic Band - Eu Pisei Na Pedra