Levanta Poeira

Levanta Poeira is a puzzling musical object. Compiler DJ Tahira is a well-known vinyl digger based in São Paulo and his biography tells us he spent the past four years researching and collecting ‘a broad spectrum of musical styles’ in Brazil. The sheer fact that only seven tracks make the cut, one of them being Tahira's remix for Gilberto Gil's ‘Toda Menina Baiana’, leaves us wondering if he has been looking in all the wrong places, given that Brazilian music is so rhythmically and stylistically rich. And Renata Rosa's ‘Brilhantina’ surely cannot count as a treasure long gone and finally rediscovered, when this remarkable work, reinventing tradition, was originally released in 2003.

So the problem with Levanta Poeira (subtitled Afro-Brazilian Music & Rhythms from 1976-2016) is less Tahira's selection, and more with the rather limited scope here: it ends up making a poor case in defence of Brazil's immense musical heritage.