Posted on 06/19/2009
Popular British club record-spinner DJ Cliffy has selected some choice cuts from the deep funk and samba of 70s Brazil for his second compilation Black Rio 2, a further delving into the impressive mixture of American and local styles played by the youth at parties, that underwent a marginalisation following the rule of General Emilio Garrastazu Medici.

The collection showcases ranging styles from oft short-lived musical careers of the decade, and when taken as a whole, bounds from rich, blackened funk to sweet samba, with many of the songs showing a grooving, late-night interplay between the styles. Even in this sticky stew, many songs are instantly indelible. The Cry Babies’ “It’s My Thing” has an impossibly funky bass line, horns ablaze, while the singer is echoed and raw, hopped-up, sexy and growling through the thick, like Betty Davis having a lost weekend in Rio. “Supermarket,” by Pete Dunaway (nee Paulistano) is straight, lush Philly Soul, expanding with a street funk, with a rubbery bass sticking it together, while Super Som Lord’s “BR Samba” has its rhythm tight in a rolling samba, whilst the horns and organs get dirty, giving a unique high-life sounding sway to the jam.

Renata Lu’s “Faz Tanto Tempo” is another find here, a funky, unwashed pop gem with sweet harmonies blasted with soul horns, the bass a guttural jive by the end. The up-tempo cuts also mingle quite well with the slower selections; a sweet and quirky Sonia Santos’ on the last track “Poema Ritmico Do Malandro;” the lounging vibe of Emilio Santiago’s “Bananeira,” or the low, dreamy pulse of “Tema De Azambuja,” a haunt of a duet, with Azambuja and Cia’s voices hovered over a slight guitar, a spidery Hammond appearing now and then.

The collection offers a compellingly danceable series of glimpses at a subsumed age long bartered away, its creative inventory in want of exploration. So if these songs aren’t sampled or played in dark, basement jams this summer, it would be a sore disappointment.

- Chris White