Search - Various :: Brazilution 5.7: Musica Electronica Con Sabor Do

Magnificent Seven

bordersj2 | Boston | 12/04/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Brazilution first came out in 2003 as Edicao 5. It got a jump-start on that summmer's Brazilectro 5, but Brazilution was distinct in that it had more laid-back, relaxed tracks and maybe most importantly they brought over the series founders; Jens-Uwe Welge and Arndt Kielstropp. As time has passed, this has proved to be the most significant part of the split as Arndt has since really spearheaded the Brazilution franchise and while Brazilectro has ended after 10 years, I'm happy to say that Brazilution is continuing on with the spirit of the original Brazilectros and Brazilutions thanks to Arndt Kielstropp. The focus is still there - Brazilian tracks, electronic tracks, laid-back latin grooves. But they still have that familiar formula and approach which blends quality original material that should have a Brazilian flavor, if not being Brazilian altogether.



Maybe it was an inside joke or a hommage to the recently ended Brazilectro, but I thought it was interesting that Arndt used "Sunshine Eaze Your Love" by Aaron Bingle to open it up. The song is cheery, fun and light. And it is familiar, having been an exclusive on Brazilectro volume 4, which was the last Brazilectro that they had put together and IMO the best. That's followed up with Bossa Futura's "Gala", a song that sounds every bit as dreamy and spacey as the name with an excellent intro. Signor Rossi's "Viva La Felicita" is an excellent follow and inclusion. It has a nice, old-school Italian soundtrack funky vibe to it. But of course it does since it's based off of the classic Bruno Bozzetto cartoon from the 1960s (Il Signor Rossi cerca la felicità"). Reminds me a bit of an old Pekka Streng track as well - maybe not coincidentally found on Italian compilations and an older Brazilution too. Other top shelf titles from disc one were Arthur Verocai's ""Amor Na Contra-Mao", an update to a classic that has an incredibly romantic feel. And "Nova Estacao" by Sabrina Malheiros highlights her delicate, sweet voice that I can never get enough of along with a nice beat. Both songs, featured on Far Out Records (Along with Marcos Valles) shows that the label's class is near un-paralleled. Ending out the first disc with an Azymuth classic was another nice touch.



Unlike previous Brazilutions, disc two doesn't follow the mold of being a 'mixed' disc. Instead it's like the first and last ones, which just has more good tunes. It opens up tremendously with "Maracatu Mixtura". I'm mixed about the song because Christoph Isermann's production work is sensational on it. This song is VERY cute and the rhythm and musicianship gives the song a sweet, innocent almost soundtrack feel but of all things Janice's voice didn't work for me on it. I wanted to love it but she's done WAY better on vocals - almost like this was a first take or they used the wrong take of the song on this album. When you hear the arrangement, you'll hear what I mean & know why it's so frustrating for what should be such a good song. Hopefully they release an instrumental of it or do another take - it'd be worth it. The disc also had Tosca's "Heidi Bruhl", which was a bit of an odd inclusion but still a good track. "BossaNove Goes Bossa" and "Mucho Grande" are pretty expected instrumental/sample pieces that you should expect from the series, and both were ok. But I was happy to see Malena make an appearance here with "No Llores Mas". Though in Spanish, Malena's one of those group's that's put out loads of great songs through the years and this is no exception as the cut skips with a funky, disco like beat but with a live, fresh feeling thanks to the percussion work and live instrumentation. The real highlight though to disc two though was CeU's rendition of "O Ronca Da Cuica" which has a simple approach which works. Not over the top and CeU's voice is so distinct and unique (and good), it works. Maria Rita's "Ta Perdoado", also a good choice as featured recently in a Novela on Globo right now and the outro of "Corcovado" was actually pretty nice as well.



How to rate this Brazilution? There may be a few misses here and I think some of the bigger names featured had a couple better cuts to use. But still, this Brazilution is no shame in the successful franchise and is pretty close to being a 5 star effort (4.5, rounded to 5). If anything, I think this Brazilution shows that it's important to have a good compiler/DJ and that having one is invaluable to a series, whether it be Hotel Costes or Cafe Del Mar, etc. Something that might seem as simple as even the track order is important and you can tell that it was done with care here. Also, I want to make the distinction that THIS Brazilution 5.7 is different from the other Brazilution's available as MP3 releases. Those MP3 releases do NOT have all of the songs, and are generally just one disc, and you tend to miss out on some of the quality exclusives. So you're not getting the real thing there or even the best thing and for that, it might be worth just paying the extra for the full set."