Reviews of A New Kind Of Wilderness, The Marching Band, Good One and Magic Farm by MARIA DUARTE, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA
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Innovative, affirmative and, most of all, celebratory
MICHAL BONCZA reviews Bixiga 70’s Quebra Cabeca, Billy Shinbone’s The Billy Shinbone Show, and Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith’s Many A Thousand
SCOTT ALSWORTH foresees the coming of the smaller, leaner, and class conscious indie studio, with art as its guiding star
MARJORIE MAYO recommends an accessible and unsettling novel that uses a true incident of death in the Channel to raise questions of wider moral responsibility
MIK SABIERS wallows in a night of political punk and funk that fires both barrels at Trump
Reasonable radicalism, death in Abu Dhabi, locked-room romance, and sleuthing in the Blitz
SIMON DUFF recommends a new album from renowned composer and oud player Anour Brahem.
JAMES WALSH has a great night in the company of basketball players, quantum physicists and the exquisite timing of Rosie Jones
Bixiga 70
Quebra Cabeca
(Glitterbeat Records)
★★★★★
THE 10-PIECE Bixiga 70 were named after their Sao Paulo neighbourhood, populated by immigrants from Calabria, and the entirely instrumental Quebra Cabeca (Puzzle) is an immersive paean to the area’s multiplicity of throbbing urban sounds and vibrant multicultural spirit.
Rather then trying to produce Afrobeat, they came up with their own creation Bixiga and, while respecting the likes of Gilberto Gil, they also look up to Pedro Santos, Os Tincoas and others who aren’t as well known but of far greater significance within the core of Brazilian music.
Bixiga 70 write collectively and their work is almost symphonic at times. Awe-inspiring polyphonic arrangements are delivered with extraordinary precision and discipline, while intriguing melodic themes are furnished by unexpected horns and percussions in symbiotic combinations, energised by spine-tingling guitar riffs on an exquisite bass foundation.
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