Something different n. 3 – Goma Laca – Afrobrasilidades em 78rpm

Now a real Christmas gift, this one a friend of mine told me about and I think you may like it.

Goma Laca is a project to investigate and rework old Afro-Brazilian records, usually issued only on 78rpm at the start of the 20th century. Those include many traditional Afro-Brazilian genres, like capoeira, embolada, praieiras, cocos, and other genres. It is — obviously — a musical mine, one which is still unexplored.

This CD here presents reworking of these tracks by new Brazilian recording artists, such as Lucas Santtana, Juçara Marçal, and Karina Buhr. They are all situated at the “middle”, so to speak, of Brazilian music ambient right now, they are not popular artists neither household names, instead they’re part of a renewing of MPB for a younger audience. For all of those reasons, maybe you don’t know them — or all of them.

I confess I was usually suspicious of these younger artists, but after listening to this album I’ve noticed I had to change my mind. Maybe it is the original material which is so strong, maybe they were all inspired working on an important project like this.

Anyway, click on the cover below to go to the album’s site and then click on “Baixe o disco”. The liner notes are also availabe, but they are only in Portuguese. If you have any question, send me a note here on the comments and I’ll translate it. And on this link you can find the original 78rpm recordings.

PS: Goma-laca stands in Portuguese for shellac, the material used to make 78rpm records back then.