Bossa Brava
The Very Best Of
Instinct
For a few years, I thought that nothing wrong could come from the interbreeding of the Brazilian and electronic genres. The emotive rhythmic nature of Brazilian music seemed to dovetail naturally with electronic music’s imperative on the groove.
Of course, everything came crashing down last year with a couple of consecutive NovoBossa stinkers. Uninspired and repetitive, the anthologies which shall remain nameless gave me a case of music poisoning, and I was wary of giving this a listen.
I shouldn’t have worried; Instinct has done a fine job of assembling a consistently inventive set of music. With an unending well to draw from, the niche boasted (still does) such interesting acts as United Future Organization, No Sé, and the Roby JC Project, all of which are represented on this two-disc set. On the first disc, you’ll find seriously cool jazz, with a skittering rim shot and strolling bass (Diferenz’ “Shadowrun”), a slow and inexorable batucada with a haunting bass line (Cujo’s “The Brazilianaire”) and a hilarious snapshot of domestic strife interlaced with Ren And Stimpy samples (Damn!’s “Stink Stinky Ashtray”).
The second has tracks like Nobukazo Takemura’s “Moonstone,” which builds on a classic BossaNova foundation, and the Roby JC Project’s “Bossa Super Nova (2001 Cut)”, a m=C8lange of loops and samples. If like me you were worried that this whole electrobrasil stuff was played out, fear no longer. There’s plenty here to last a few years and influence a couple of generations to come.
Instinct Records: http://www.instinctrecords.com
