Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

If you are unfamiliar with the popular sounds of Angolan music, as I was, then it is really a Fusion of African rhythms and the melancholy of Fado, not unlike the music of Cape Verde, another former Portuguese colony.

Mauricio trawled the Angolan National Radio archives for the best of Angolan pop music from the fertile period of the 60s and 70s. After amassing a collection of the most soulful music he found he then transported the tracks to Brasil and, as well as reworking them himself, gave them to the new generation of Brasilian producers for the remix treatment.

Really this project is just an extension of the musical cross pollination that has been happening between the two countries for 100’s of years ever since the bad old days of the slave trade and colonialism which long ago resulted in the export of Angolan Semba to Brasil. It is simply exploring the possibilities that are now available in this new era of electronic music production

The album kicks off with Pacheco’s rework of Teta Lando’s ‘Angole’ giving it a simple hip hop beat, nice strings and minor electronic touches which don’t distract from Teta’s emotional vocals and I can tell you opening tracks don’t get much more soulful than this.

Kassin & Berna Ceppas get busy with ‘the voice of Angola’ - Bonga, and his track ‘Kapakiao’ giving him a fresh slow, broken, dubby, percussive house remix over which Bonga’s well worn vocals sit nicely. DJ Dolores also chooses a house remix which dispenses with the vocal, keeps the guitar and creates a dancefloor winner from Paulinho Pinheiro’s, ‘Merengue Rebita’.

Moreno Veloso comes through with the most organic reworking, staying true to the Ciros Cordeiro original whilst fusing his vocals with the sound of the samba and DJ Cris helps Mauricio out with a nice soulful Afro house remix of Elias dia Kimuezo.

This is a great sounding project, which, ironically, is only slightly let down by the driving force himself, Mauricio. His remixes are fine, always sympathetic and allowing the soul of the originals to shine through whilst taking the songs in new directions, it’s just they aren’t as well crafted and imaginative as his fellow collaborators.

Out Here Records