Red Hot Goes South With 'Rio 2' Compilation

Posted on Apr 8th 2011 12:45PM by Chris Mugan
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Anyone familiar with 2009's 'Dark Was the Night' will be aware that charity records can be rewarding in much more than their altruism.

That covers compilation, featuring the likes of the National and Arcade Fire, benefited Aids awareness charity the Red Hot Organisation. Now the fund-raising body is aiming to repeat that success with a mash-up of the cream of contemporary indie and late 1960s Brazilian tropicalia, a vibrant combination of psych, funk and leftist politics.

'Red Hot + Rio 2' is the follow-up to a 1996 release that featured a mix of artists, including David Byrne and Stereolab, tackling the nation's bossa nova heritage. In Rio-based newspaper O Globo, quoted on the Red Hot Web site, executive producer Beco Dranoff explains the inspiration behind the charity's latest release.

"There is a great parallel between the Brazilian musical movement of the late Sixties and what one hears and produces today," he says. "Tropicalia was a crucial movement, which preached that everything would end up mixing: music, culture, fashion, movies, etc. It was a bold vision that became reality. Today everything in the world is interconnected, and so tropicalia becomes deeply relevant."

Pitchfork, meanwhile, is streaming one of the new tracks -- Beirut's cover of Caetano Veloso's 'O Leaozinho,' tackled with conviction in the original Portuguese. Also lined up are previous Red Hot contributors, namely Dirty Projectors and Jose Gonzalez, plus Beck, John Legend, Devendra Banhart, Of Montreal and Neon Indian.

'Red Hot + Rio 2' is scheduled for release on June 28.

Watch Yeasayer's 'Tight Rope' Video From 'Dark Was the Night'