Now depending on what you expect in a show called Brasilintime organised by indie rap’s premier label, you’re either going to leave feeling buzzing or feeling you couldn’t hear another beat for a good few weeks. I for one conjured up various images in my head of how the gig would pan out. Would it be Bossanova grooves over light scratching topped up with Gilberto or de Moraes samples or some samba induced funk rap?
Luckily for me the stage was occupied by 2 full drum sets flanking a bass drum/snare/ an orgy of percussion paraphernalia backing up 3 turntables and huge white organ/sampler (couldn’t make out) which gave me food for thought whilst idly waiting for Paradiso to fill up. DJ Nuts and Stones Throw’s house turntablist J Rocc shifted through smooth Bossanova funk (?!) whilst the screen in the centre of the stage played video cuts of Brasilintime the DVD, entertaining the hip-hop heads and casual hippies and making my girlfriend daydream of Latin American holidays, before the drummers entered.
If you’re familiar with Madlib’s Yesterday’s New Quintet moniker (y’know, the imaginary5piecejazzbandoccasionallyfeaturinginsaneguestdrummers one) then you got to see Ivan ‘Mamão’ Conti of Jackson Conti; an Otis Jackson (Madlib’s passport name) and Ivan Conti colab. in the flesh. Mamão (acting as the on-stage percussion leader), another Brazillian percussionist João Parahyba and Fela Kuti’s Tony Allen shifted through hard samba whilst the two deejays and Madlib manned the wheels of steel. The variations of samba and South American variants of the funk rolled through the 3 percussionists were amazingly varied but the effects from the scratching were quite mind boggling. Yes the spliffs and booze helped but moving vinyl backward-and-forwards to create chanting like effects or light stormy sounds is best described as some Afrobeat meets Weather Report on speed. Samples from J Dilla’s Donuts and the obligatory James Brown amongst others atogether with sing-along’s from Mamão filter through and bring a sense of familiarity as well as some melody amongst the orgy of sound and crashing cymbals. I was transfixed and so were the crowd. One could sense the collective feeling of awe that 3 underappreciated deejays and 3 underappreciated drummers from the 70s could create something so cohesive, inventive, original and danceable.
After just under 2 hours of the show the musicians bid their farewells and left the floor to J Rocc who gave the poppers and the breakers their fix of 1990s rap with a healthy dose of Q-Tip and Wu-Tang, even finding a slot for Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ to naturally glide in after A Tribe Called Quest’s ‘Can I Kick It?’. After the refreshing one hour closing session I left a little sad knowing that I will be one of very few people who will be covering this refreshing fusion gig. Now if 50 Cent or Coldplay were to try some samba…
All photos: Erick Wicaksono
Sorry couldn't find a relevant and clean video so here is a blurry one from 2006:
http://www.brasilintime.com/
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