The Rough Guide to Psychedelic Samba

Yet another compilation of new Brazilian music, this time from self-confessed ‘hoary compiler’ John Armstrong, who concedes the psychedelic samba theme is merely a starting point. Veteran that he is, he can’t help slipping in a 7” obscurity from the vaults (circa 1973) – problem is that Wal Sant’ana's ‘Que Vida é Essa’ is so effortlessly sexy, funky and life-affirming that it overshadows everything else. It also leaves you with the conviction that no matter how much great new music comes out of the country, the constellations of Brazilian rhythm and melody may never again align in quite the same way they did in the 60s and 70s.

Washington DC-based Alma Tropicália certainly imagine they will, or at least the gorgeous psych-folk of ‘Irene’ suggests as much. In the meantime, the likes of Metá Metá and Graveola have plenty to say about both the past and melting-pot present of 21st-century Brazil, filtering echo-chamber choro, samba and jazz through liquid psychedelia. Ditto the exquisitely named Russo Passapusso, whose ‘Matuto’ manages to sound both lumbering and agile at the same time. All in all, another compulsively listenable symptom of rude health.