In order to give a little background on each of the artists that appear on the upcoming Kafundó Vol. 1 release, the guys from Kafundó Records and I are going to run down a little about each track on the compilation. I’ll kick it off with a song that has become a staple in my DJ sets these days:

Carimbó music, originally from the state of Pará, definitely has a Caribbean tinge to it. With influences like calypso and cumbia, to me it sounds like Hatian Kompa with a little samba thrown in. This makes it the perfect music to transition in my DJ sets, from more internationally recognized Brazilian genres like funk or samba into Angolan House or kizomba. The last one especially, because kizomba is more or less a mix of French-Antillean Zouk and Angolan Semba. The above tune even has what I hear as a kompa style breakdown in the introduction — a run on the keys that turns me into a giddy child every time I hear it!

The group responsible for the tune, Coletivo di Tambor, is a super group from Salvador, made up of members of bands such as Timbalada, Baiana System, Orquestra Rumillez and others. Check them out at Salvador’s popular Carnival procession performing on top of a Trio Eléctrico:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/GjuFaFcuI-M[/youtube]

Instead of shying away from a cultural association with their Latin American neighbors, the band comes with the following Latin-funk tune that wouldn’t be out of place in the repertoire of a band from Cuba or Colombia. This type of cross-cultural association, and the sound of Colectivo di Tambor in general, really gets at the heart of what I feel is going on with Kafundó Vol. 1 — Brazilian artists participating in a diaspora with shared cultural origins that stretch beyond both international borders, and national social boundaries. What’s more, as the two main characters in this clip make their way through the streets of this neighborhood, it gives me a sense of a place and people not unlike a black neighborhood in the U.S. — just in a different climate:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Rm_4b5yoSWQ[/youtube]

Coletivo di Tambor’s “Carimbó” is featured on Kafundó Vol. 1 in remixed form. This version was touched by the hands of DJ Mangaio, also of Salvador, who is a prolific producer. Check out his Soundcloud page that shows the range of styles of the mostly Bahian bands he remixes. His technique is clearly influenced by the Jamaica-U.K. axis, using dubbing techniques developed in Reggae, or bumping the originals with a little distorted bass. He is also part of three different music related projects in Salvador: live band experiment RadioMundi, live drum and DJ duo OrB, and the DJ Collective NozMoskada that throws parties in Salvador. Check out his remix, the version that will appear on the compilation below:

Kafundó Vol. 1 will be available for digital download worldwide June 10th, and you can pre-order it on iTunes now!