CABRUERA
PROIBIDO COCHILAR (Piranha CD PIR1999)

Here's a conundrum: If you go through the Brasilian section in any well-stocked record store in North America you will find a lot of crap. You look in vain for that exciting new band you've heard is tearing it up in Salvador or Sao Paolo. But all you find is generic samey pagode bands, many of them one-hit wonders on their tenth CD, and of course endless dreary samba singers still looking for that lost girl from Ipanema (not realizing she's middle-aged and wrinkled like a walnut). Who's behind it? Why, Universal, Sony and Columbia, of course. So we have to assume they are sure of their market and don't give a toss about the music. Every now and then an independently produced album makes a splash but I have learned that the best Brasilian music is coming out of Germany. (This may change after Brasil knocks Germany out of the world cup in Summer 2006.) Whoever is behind Piranha music has a great ear for what's really vital in Brasilian music. Proof of this is the new Cabruera release: PROIBIDO COCHILAR subtitled "Sambas for Sleepless Nights," which was released by Nikita Music in Brasil in 2004. It's the most interesting thing to come from Brasil in ages. Brasilian rock & progressive pop has languished since the death of Francisco França (Chico Science), though his band Nação Zumbi carries on. Cabruera (their name means a herd of goats, or colloquially, mulattos) are Nordestinos or Pernambuccanos so there's forro & maculele undercurrents in their version of Mangue Beat. The title "No Snoozing" comes from dancehalls of the band's youth where even the accordionist couldn't stop. Fronting the group is Arthur Pessoa on guitar who loves his effects pedals & periodically creates a really eerie effect like a fiddle by rubbing the strings with a ballpoint pen. There are definitely cover versions on here (one song sounds like "You are my sunshine"!), but Cabruera have made it all their own, adding trip hop rhythms to traditional Coco, Embolada and Maracatú. This is a gem of a recording, not to be missed.