SÃO PAULO CONFESSIONS

Edited in Brazil by the Suba Institute, created to preserve the memory of Yugoslavian musician Mitar Subotic (1961-1999), this album received rave reviews by European critics, last year. And the first audition testifies to such reviews. Living in São Paulo since 1990, Suba added classical training to his many talents – theater, dance, fashion, advertising and, of course, music, where he would overlay ideas for the utilization of electronica. Unfettered by special effects and pyrotechnics, Suba designs a very convincing profile of the national chaos, supported by his ten-year experience in Brazil. When he proposes a Samba do Gringo Paulista (São Paulo Gringo’s Samba), he gathers humorous self-criticism and skills to concoct the drumbeats sampled from samba school sections. Mestre Ambrósio (whose album Fuá na Casa de Cabral was produced by Suba) thickens the coco/house/funk/maracatu mixture on the track Antropófagos with fiddle, percussion and bass. In Um Dia Comum, recorded voices inform about password errors or automatic alarm clocks, dictating the soundtrack for the urban citizen. The gloomy Pecados da Madrugada contrasts with the whispered sensuality of the trip/maracatu with bossa nova piano Você Gosta (sung by Taciana). It took an alchemist from Yugoslavia to teach the locals that BPM can swing along with top electronic technology.(Tárik de Souza)