Rating:
Genre:
Latin
Release Date: 04/29/2008
The third volume in
Far Out's series of Brazilian mix albums really opens up the field from previous headliners
4hero and
Kenny Dope. Although
Andy Votel may frequent the same shops as
Marc Mac from
4hero, the music they represent is far different. While
Mac's volume featured fusion heavyweights and smooth musicianship from the likes of
Azymuth,
Votel treats the music as his personal playground -- much as he's done with Welsh psychedelics on
Welsh Rare Beat or the hard prog of England's
Vertigo label on
Vertigo Mixed. He overlays two tracks at once, jumps from one to the next with nothing more than a spacy effect, and usually spins just the best two or three minutes of each record before moving to the next. Not that most of these records need any added lunacy; they're already stocked with zany fuzz-toned guitars, crazy reverb, and echo effects bouncing around the mix. The tracks all come from
Som Livre or
RGE, two of the best Brazilian independent labels for tropicalia in the '60s; although they weren't the homes of best-selling artists like
Caetano Veloso,
Maria Bethânia, or
Gilberto Gil, they
were putting out sizable hits from
Tim Maia,
Pery Ribeiro,
Marcos Valle, and the aforementioned
Azymuth. What's more, freak fans who have already exhausted their
Mutantes collections can hear -- and then check out -- some fellow travelers such as
Novos Baianos and
Os Brazões. Although identification is made more difficult by the uneven sequencing -- most tracks feature parts of two or three songs -- there's no denying
Brazilika as one of the most exciting and deepest trips into Brazilian psychedelia yet heard.
~John Bush, All Music Guide
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