foto/design por felipe cartaxo

In his final post for this series profiling the artists on Kafundó Vol. 1, the compilation of digital roots music put out by Kafundó Records and ourselves, Maga Bo tells us about the Salvador, Bahia based duo A.MA.SSA. Their collaboration with Mauro Telefunksoul, Apache Nagoh, can be found on the Kafundó Vol. 1 compilation.

A.MA.SSA is the duo of producers, Mahal Pita and Rafa Dias, based in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Their sound is a mix of regional beats like pagodão, arrocha, ijexá, and samba with bass oriented electronic production. Working with 1 computer, pirated software and a huge desire/necessity to make music, their self-professed mantra is “Be yourself, work with what you have, in whatever way you can.”

AMASSA at FIAC

They’ve only been around for around a year now, but already, their work has struck a chord in Salvador filling in a vacuum in the local music scene. The local pagode/arrocha/axé world (which is big business in Bahia), while pulling in references and influences from all over the world, has never put much of an emphasis on the quality or uniqueness of the electronic production. A.MA.SSA is working on hacking this – basing their beats on local rhythms, but looking to the electronic production in the international African diaspora for inspiration – to break down not only stylistic, cultural and market barriers, but also to poularize and desseminate their sound as far as possible.

Here’s “Pagaodão das Tres Raças,” a pagode/arrocha/trap/bass rework of the classic Clara Nunes track, “Canto das Tres Raças”…

…and another remix that sounds like Bauer’s bubbling synth went to the soteripolitano periphery, found pagode and a rapper, but insisted on cutting up and stuttering all of his rhymes about moving your body from here to there….it’s a remix of the track “Desloca” (relocate) by É Xeke, which gets transformed into “DXLØK∆” aka Deixa Louca (make you crazy).

Their name is a play on words:

EH.A.MASSA.QUE.AMA.SSA!>>>

It’s the masses that mash things up. SSA is the code for Salvador..

foto eliado machado