River of Revenge: Brazilian Country Music 1929-1961 (Vol 1 & 2)

The pop and crackle of early recording gear, the guttural twang of handmade instruments, hand-me-down harmonies and country songs of love and betrayal – you’d be forgiven for thinking this is a description of the early American folk recordings collected by Alan Lomax. But as artists like Leadbelly were laying down classics on rickety rigs, musicians in rural Brazil were on a remarkably similar journey.

Música caipira was born in the ‘outback’ region of north-eastern Brazil in the 1920s. A forerunner to música sertaneja, the Brazilian equivalent to US country and western, the style is rooted in Portuguese troubadour folk traditions. However, the stripped-back recordings that survive from this era are a far cry from the polished pop country and western sertaneja of today.

The pioneers of música caipira sang songs of love, loss, landscape and heartbreak, often using handmade instruments and invented tunings. The music is typically performed by a duo singing in parallel thirds and sixths, drawing upon a Portuguese-Brazilian style known as moda de viola. The core instrument of the style is the viola caipira, a Brazilian ten-string guitar (five paired strings). The result is a form of music that could be considered Brazil's equivalent to the roots music of the American dustbowl or Appalachia. The spirit is very similar, too.

An archive collection of recordings that explores the rich history of música caipira has now been released by Death Is Not the End (DINTE). Fuelled by a desire to delve into obscure global folk music and field recordings, River of Revenge: Brazilian Country Music 1929-1961 is DINTE's latest voyage to the frontiers of music. Over two 16-track releases, the spellbinding recordings take you deep into this historical pocket of Brazil.

The collection includes some of the earliest recordings made by Cornélio Pires – a journalist, writer and Brazilian folklorist. As with any early music recordings, the sense of boarding a time machine is profound and moving. People sang and played like their lives depended on it and this raw emotion carries spectacularly on the century-old vibrations. Although recording quality can be challenging, the fuzz of a stylus cutting its live groove, or the static pop of studio dust often only adds to the intoxicating chemistry. The beauty of these recordings lies in their honesty. There's no fakery or tomfoolery, a magical thing in a scripted and spot-touched digital world.

Without a grasp of Portuguese, it's arguable that you miss one of the most interesting parts of this historical recording: the lyrics and the stories. You miss those window-to-the-past snippets of conversation that end up on some tracks. That said, music transcends language on so many occasions. From the first notes of the sparkly intro riff to the upbeat melodies of ‘Old Saying’ (Valdomiro & Valdemar), you’re transported to a time-of-plenty fiesta. The pained harmonies and the weeping guitar of ‘River of Revenge’ (Jeca Mineiro & Bambuí) seem to reopen wounds of the past. Xerém & Bentinho's spine-tingling refrain in ‘Little White Hawk’ captivates. And it's hard to ignore the urgency in the joint vocal of ‘Saying Goodbye’ (Leôncio & Leonel).

Ultimately, DINTE have put together a mesmerising collection of songs on these two volumes. It might be a curious ride at times, but this is a time machine adventure that's well worth taking.