Under The Influence

Hoje, eu vou embora para Londres (Today, I'm leaving for London). While flicking through the latest selections on emusic (new Burial, new Efterklang, etc) something dawned on me - I'm desperate to hear music from the West again.

That's not to say that the music in Brazil isn't great - but it's really not what I'm used to. It's kindof to do with the culture - and it extends into the arts generally. You see, people here are very expressive; exagerated movements; hand-signals; and they make a song and dance about everything. Sit down and watch Brazilian TV and you'll see what I mean. For us it comes across as very fake, with all traces of subtlety removed.

Unfortunately all this has a place to play in the music too. The main manifestation is with the fake sounds. Even in recordings with a lot of commercial backing you'll find a Technics keyboard used to create the brass sounds. It kills me, it really does. Some of this stuff could absolutely kick ass - but instead I can't even show it to my friends back home.

Anyhoo, there's a lot of music here and I managed to find plenty of other stuff that's really enjoyable. Oh, check out the cover art for one of the country's top bands to get an idea of what I'm talking about...