Description
Snapped up by Polydor at the turn of the 80s, Bons Mementos was his first work as a solo artist. Its the work of a young musician brimming with musical ideas and creating a new take the Black Rio sound one he would refer to variously as Meritiense (the sound of Meriti) or as Electric Samba. The title track is perhaps the perfect distillation of his ideas, mixing Black Rios funky bass and guitar lines with a healthy dose of the samba rock style developed by Jorge Ben, a pinch of eighties synths, and some of the best call-and-response female vocals this side of Fela Kuti. The result is a potently-rich musical stew that has made the track a compilation favourite and the album hugely collectable among funk connoisseurs.
Elsewhere on an all-killer-no-filler effort, Madureira adds reggae-fied guitar rhythms and low-slung bass to the mix while Malandros added bursts of brass give playful homage to Glenn Millers Big Band standard In The Mood. Memorias demonstrates Meritis mastery of tempo. Beginning with a languid slice of samba rock the track abruptly changes speed half way through for a bright and zippy finish of brass-heavy funk. Serjane adds layers of flute and saxophone the latter adding to the natural warmth of Serginhos rough-hewn vocals. Tipo is a classic funk workout with some deliciously squelchy synths, while Batalha ends the album with a warm slice of funk, its yin and yang melding of joyful horn bursts with mournful vocals a potent demonstration of the sadness that underpins the albums seemingly sunny soul. Source: Bandcamp
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.