★Polysom
Se O Caso É Chorar
"Wonderful 70s work from Tom Zé! The record's a bit more straightforward than some of his other records from the decade, and has a number of tracks with a samba sound at the base – but there's more than enough fantastic material to keep the record fresh, and Tom's writing is as great as ever. There's a vocal group that sings with Zé on many of the tracks on the record – but they also seem to sometimes act as a Greek chorus, in response to breakaway vocal passages that are dominated by Zé. The wh…
Negro É Lindo
Negro é Lindo is a worthy successor for the great album he had released in the previous year. Jorge Ben now takes his sound further toward a tropical Soul, a style that was his unique invention. But there are also still those hypnotic Samba grooves. Clearly, Negro é Lindo belongs to those master albums Jorge Ben bestowed to the world. With a good handful of records, Jorge Ben enriched Brazilian Pop and beyond, international Pop music. Negro é Lindo is one of them.
While many of the perform…
Lo Borges
An incredible album from Lo Borges - one of the best singer/songwriters on the Brazilian scene of the 70s! Borges first burst into the spotlight for his work on the Club Da Esquina album by Milton Nascimento - and his work as part of Milton's "corner club" really helped shape the style of the more famous singer. Yet Borges is almost an equally great talent on his own - with a soaring, soulful approach that's every bit as great as the best Nascimento material from the period - and recorded in a w…
África Brasil
A landmark recording that is one of Jorge Ben's best albums ever! The album is a perfect realization of the way that Jorge mixes Brazilian rhythms with choppy Afro grooves – and the result is a masterpiece that yeilded some of his biggest tracks ever. Included here is the great choppy funk track "Ponta De Lanca", plus loads of other goodies like "O Filosofo", "Xica Da Silva", "A Historia De Jorge", and a great remake of "Taj Mahal" – probably his greatest cut ever. Great all the way through – an…
A Tábua De Esmeralda
Searing samba soul from Jorge Ben – one of his best-remembered albums of the 70s, and for good reason too! The album's got a slightly fuller feel than some of Ben's other work of the time – never slick, but with backings balanced nicely against his own raspy vocals and acoustic guitar – sweetening things up with a bit of the strings you'd find on Forca Bruta, but with a hint of the soul to come on Africa Brasil! The balance is great – thanks to arrangers Osmar Milito, Darcy De Paulo, and Hugo Be…
Clube Da Esquina II
A second great statement from the "corner club" of Milton Nascimento – that special assemblage of musicians from his home territory of Minas Gerais, augmented here in slight ways that maybe make the album an even more ambitious record than the first! All the best artists from the previous set are in place here – including the sublime Lo Borges on vocals, Wagner Tiso on keyboards, Toninho Horta on bass and guitar – but the set also features contributions from other Brazilian talents – including C…
Clube Da Esquina
A landmark album from Milton Nascimento – not only a set that really marked his growth as a singer, songwriter, and overall musical visionary – but also a record that really showcased the collaborative spirit that would be a part of his music for years to come! The album features Milton with his "corner club" – an elite group of musicians and songwriters from the early days of his career – including greats like Lo Borges and Wagner Tiso – who'd already contributed to his music, but really get a …
Tim Maia 1973
A great step forward for the legendary Tim Maia – working here in a style that's even tighter and more sophisticated than before – yet still equally filled with funk and soul! The arrangements are a bit bigger than before, and the production a bit more professional – but that change only brings Tim into even more heavenly soul territory – with a mix of grooves and strings that lays somewhere between the best early 70s work on labels like Curtom or Motown! Tim's got a new sense of majesty on the …
Gal Costa
Reissue on 180gm vinyl! Originally released in 1969, Gal Costa's 2nd album is one of the finest releases to come out of Brazil's Tropicalia movement. Feat. songwriting & vocal help from 2 of the original Tropicalismos, Caetano Veloso & Gilberto Gil, she flows effortlessly between shredding psychedelia & smooth bossa nova. An essential record for anyone that appreciates the far reaches of Brazilian popular music. Incl. the classic trks "Baby" * "Não Identificado." Such a pleasant surpise to see t…
Revolver
A bit of an oddball record from Walter Franco, and one we've really come to love over the years! Franco's clearly going for an experimental rock sound here – and while the hard jamming kind of works at odds against that at times, at others, the whole thing gels together nicely in a blend of offbeat guitar work, choppy vocals, and percussion that's almost in the mode of late 70s Peter Gabriel or early 80s Adrian Belew. Judging from the lyrics on the inner sleeve, Franco's been influenced by some …
Jorge Ben 1969
A samba soul masterpiece from Jorge Ben – one of the most brilliant records to come out the fertile late 60s Brazilian scene – and an incredible album that works with the psychedelic flourishes of Ben's contemporaries and a deeper undercurrent of soul & funk! This is one of the most amazing early Jorge Ben LPs, recorded at the end of the 60s, when Jorge was singing with a stone-cold soul sound. The sharp, tight arrangements by Rogerio Duprat & Jose Briamonte made tracks like "Pais Tropical", "Ta…
Tim Maia 1971
The second studio album from legendary singer and composer Tim Maia continues the groundbreaking blend of soul and Música Popular Brasileira started with his first release a year earlier. Although 'Não Quero Dinheiro (Só Quero Amar)' was a massive hit (and covered many times over), the album is full of gems, from the tough fuzz funk of 'Não Vou Ficar' to the sweet soul perfection of 'I Don't Know What To Do With Myself.' For the first time, this reissue also includes the single-only hit 'Chocola…
Tim Maia 1970
The first studio album by legendary singer and composer Tim Maia, picked by Rolling Stone Brazil as one of the top 25 greatest Brazilian albums of all time, changed the game by seamlessly combining popular Brazilian music, MPB, with the brassy soul sound associated with Memphis. In addition to Maia classics 'Azul Da Cor Du Mar,' 'Coroné Antonio Bento' and 'Primavera,' highlights include the funk-meets-baião 'Padre Cicero' and the soulful 'Cristina.'
Contrastes
A straighter album than some of the early experimental work of Jards Macale – but maybe a greater album as well – and one that really shows the singer coming into his own, and finding a way to nestle his fresh ideas within the best settings of 70s MPB! The shift's a bit like the maturation some of his contemporaries were going through at the time – like Caetano Veloso or Gal Costa – reaching for a new level of sophistication in his arrangements, which might tie him back to older historical modes…
Jards Macale
An incredible album by one of our favorite Brazilian artists! This gem from 1972 is an album that we'd rank right up there with work by Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, or Lo Borges from the same time – with an underground singer/songwriter style, performed in a manner that mixes rock and jazz styles, but all with a rough edge and a very rootsy feel. Macale is an enormous talent that's always been woefully overlooked by listeners outside of Brazil – but he's one of the greatest talents of the 70s, …
Gal (1969)
This Brazilian classic finally gets a proper U.S. release -- one of the greatest psychedelic albums of the late '60s, and a key part of the Tropicalia movement as well! The record is easily the most tripped-out album ever from Gal Costa -- far more sinister than Gal's debut of a few months before. The session was still recorded with full arrangements by the legendary Rogerio Duprat (who'd worked previously with Costa, Os Mutantes, and others), but it also features a lot heavier guitar and a blaz…
Krishnanda
2012 reissue, long out of print. Krishnanda is an album in the truest sense of the word – a spiritual, experimental psychedelic Brazilian masterpiece from start to finish – Produced by the artist himself in the CBS studio with arrangements Joppa Lins (codenamed Pacheco Lins ) and the endorsement of Hélcio Milito (then in the position of Production Director of the label), Krishnanda is a pearl of MPB and features poetic lyrics mystical perspective under a different linguistic structure.The sound…
Correio Da Estação Do Brás
2012 reissue, long out of print. A fluid, low-key effort, with less of the challenging, music box melodies of his earlier efforts. This is a record which eases its way past your ears (and I mean that in a good way!) It’s not sappy or unchallenging, but it is a lot smoother and less overtly avant than the stuff David Byrne loves so much.” – slipcue.com
Tom Zé began his career together with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Maria Bethânia. As a composer, he influenced Caetano and …
Estudando O Samba
This is one of Tom Ze's best albums ever – and it's monsterously hard to find. The record is a fantastic blend of post-Tropicalia styles – and it features some strange arrangements that perfectly illustrated Ze's insane approach to songwriting. As with much of Ze's music, the actual sound is incredibly hard to describe – and the album bristles with imagination and creative fire. Documenting Zé’s most fertile and creative period, this album documents his kaleidoscopic experiments in the be…
Todos Os Olhos
2014 Reissue. Long-awaited legit (and High Quality) Brazilian reissue of this collectible avant madness LP from 1973 from one of the most influential artist in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Brazil. The joke with this album is that the album art -- which looks like an eyeball -- is actually a photo of a marble shoved up someone's anus... a little jab at the Brazilian dictatorship's office of censorship, which apparently didn't recognize a mirror when they saw one. Tom Ze's nutty side comes dan…