Arthur Verocai
Arthur Verocai
Luv N Haight/Ubiquity
I’ve said before that Ubiquity is the Indiana Jones of the lost funk, and now they’ve entered a Temple of Doom phase, going south to Brazil to tap the mines already begun by Six Degrees and Strut. There’s gold in them there hills – in the form of ’70s Brazilian funk, and one hidden nugget has been Arthur Verocai.
This 1972 self-titled release is a dreamy, psychedelic journey worth taking. With musical influences as wide and varied as Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, Milton Nascimento and Chicago, Verocai serves up a tasty, trippy cocktail of Brazilian funk-jazz with heavy splashes of orchestration and the spacey feel of a Mandrill. It’s an idiosyncratic sound that revels in its own unique qualities and entertains any funketeer who has exhausted her/his collecting opportunities. The future/past of funk is Brazil, and it’s a great thing that labels are discovering these rare gems. While definitely no Hope diamond like Jorge Ben or Trio Macoto, Verocai knows how to move you. This disc is a refreshing little excursion into a bygone era that so many in the electronic game are trying to recreate. This is definitely one for the funkster, the jazz head and the nu jazz crate digger who can’t afford the $400 the wax version recently fetched on Ebay.
Ubiquity Records: http://www.ubiquityrecords.com/
