Novos Sons e Tradições ‘Modernizadas’

Pernambuco state has long been a hotbed of some of Brazil's most innovative music, led by artists such as DJ Dolores and brought to the UK via compilations such as Luaka Bop's What's Happening in Pernambuco? Brazil's north-east is home to a boundary pushing scene that mixes some of the more well-known sounds one might associate with Brazil with less predictable Afro-Brazilian influences and electro.

While Dolores takes his music in a more dance-orientated direction, Eta Carinae's sound is more rooted in rock with the occasional tinge of reggae. Get past the album's uninspiring name – New Sounds and Modernised’ Traditions is not the catchiest of titles – and you'll hear they certainly aren't afraid to mix things up. There are definite electro and psychedelic edges to much of their music, more obviously on the dance-floor thumping ‘Deep Space,’ which turns full-on hard trance after a couple of minutes. This is, however, the track that works the least well on the album and they would have been advised to leave it out. Because the rest of it is a success: a combination of that slightly sleepy lyrical singing style that Brazilians do so well with (from vocalists Catarina Rosa and Dirceu Melo) combined with electric guitar, drums, samples and the Korg Kaoss effects pad, used when they want to mash things up a bit. Highlights include the laidback re-worked samba ‘Inverno do Samba,’ which tries out a bit of drum‘n’bass and the closing ‘Dubaiao’ which, as the name suggests, is a dub track featuring some fun samples in English and Portuguese.