Far Out Brazil Electronic

The third volume of the ‘Far Out Brazil’ series offers a selection of classic, exclusive and very sought after electronic inspired cuts which has helped shaped the label over the last 12 years. Following on from ‘Latin-jazz’ and ‘Chill’, the ‘Electronic’ chapter rounds off the series exploring glitchy electronica, future world funk, minimal house/techno, broken beat and world beat.

Far Out’s commitment to exploring and exposing the best in Brazilian music both in terms of traditional bossa and samba and its younger more modern counterpart is well documented. Less known is Far Out’s innovative A & R and their commitment to developing niche areas in dance music. This has significantly helped shape the labels’ reputation as a dominating cultural organisation and iconic purveyor in the world music category. Far Out ‘Electronic’ represents 12 years at the forefront of dance music innovation.

Classic: Kenny Dope inspires with his trademark ‘dope’ beats against Sabrina Malheiros’ sultry vocals.
Exclusive: Afronaught from Bugz in the Attic re-shapes Zeep’s mellow samba to a rough edged carnival monster.
Sought After: Da Lata’s first foray into dance music, ‘Ponteio’ is a dark and dreamy batucada sure to please even the Brazilian purists

Also included is “The Essence” from Troubleman, only previously released on vinyl. Man of the moment, Dixon supplies a classic German minimal remix of ‘Besteiras De Amor’ by Marcos Valle whilst fellow German remix team Fauna Flash re-write the batucada of Grupo Batuque into a peak time club banger! 4 Hero’s exclusive work on Far Out in their Nature’s Plan guise offers an alternative broken-beat workout of Far Out’s batucada innovators, Grupo Batuque - ’The Samba’ was a massive tune on release supported by Gilles Peterson and Jazzanova.

Unlikely highlight comes from Roc Hunter’s housey interpretation of label stalwarts Azymuth, sending the trio’s electric jazz into futuristic tech-house territory. Also on a house tip, Beatnick offers an old skool version of Democustico’s Rejoycing’, just made available on vinyl. Nobukazu Takemura’s take on ’Os Grillos’ from 1996 is a reminder of the early stages of Far Out’s electronic adventure which still sounds as pioneering as it did back then.

'The third album in this Brazilian series is mostly remixed by UK, Euro and US producers released over the past 12 years, though it kicks off with a dacier but still dreamy batucada by Da Lata and Troubleman's warm strings 'n' things instrumental 'The Essence'. The remaining eight tracks are all sorts: Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez adds phat beats to Sabrina Malheiros' gorgeous vocals on ' Estacio Verao'; Zeep's mellow Samba is fattened for carnival by Afronaught and Grupo Batuque's batucadas get the broken beat treatment from 4Hero's remixers Fauna Flash turn 'Ole ola' Into a club banger, with whistles and football crowd noises working a treat.'

TimeOut Jan 2008