The +2: Rockin' Rio With Some New Musical Math
Suppose the Beatles had introduced themselves to the world with the so-called White Album -- essentially solo material with the group backing each member in turn. Or perhaps if the first time we'd experienced Kiss was with the four solo albums the greasepainted rockers released in the mid-'70s. That's sort of how the Brazilian band +2 burst on the world, though in their case the bursting took place over three albums, each spotlighting one of the three member, released over a span of seven years: the soft but askew 'Music Typewriter' billed as Moreno + 2 in 2001, the oft-electronics-based 'Sincerely Hot' by Domenico + 2 in 2004 and the recent wide-ranging trilogy-closer 'Futurismo' under the name Kassin +2. Each one reflects the respective front person's aesthetics, with distinctive takes on stylized updates of bossa nova, samba and colorful psychedelic tropicalia traditions.
Continue reading The +2: Rockin' Rio With Some New Musical Math
Posted by Steve Hochman on Dec 2nd 2008 11:00AM
Filed under: Around the World





"One day I will sing the songs with no lyrics and everyone can imagine for themselves if it's abut love, disappointment, banalities or about Plato," sings
Is there any artist in America or Europe who has covered the scope of his or her culture's music to the extent that
It was an odd scene one recent evening. The Brazilian Minister of Culture -- a graying but robust man in his 60s -- danced frenetically, goofily with a 20-something longhaired, bearded American hippie. Both flailed their legs and arms, both flashed huge grins and sparkly eyes, exuding pure joy, and then walked away, arms around each other into the night.
Some artists make music so distinct and unto itself that it's easy to overlook, or at least forget, that these artists -- such as Miles Davis and the Beatles, for example -- were in fact heavily influenced by others.
For decades, Brazil has been all but a global music capital rivaling any others, whether via the '50s bossa nova craze, 'The Girl From Ipanema' and Sergio Mendes' Brasil '66 forty-or-so years ago, the '80s-'90s discoveries/rediscoveries of Caetano Veloso and other tropicalia idols by, among others, David Byrne and his Luaka Bop label or





