This Can't be Brazilectro. It's more like "Latinectro" with
bordersj2 | Boston | 07/28/2008
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Brazilectro's been going for around 8 years now. Since it's inception, it's been one of the leaders in bringing new electronic tunes with a distinctly Brazilian twist, or inspired twist, to the masses. It's spawned a spinoff called "Brazilution", headed by the Brazilectro series founders and has been the source for loads of copy-cat compilations like Nova Latino, Rio Lounge, Cafe Copacabana and many more. However after 10 years I noticed a trend after around the 5th volume that's seen the series slide. Since it's been 10 volumes, this review might be a little longer than my others.
One of the most glaring problems is that it's got even less to do with "Brazilectro", and more to do with "Latinofunk" than ever before. The first song's from Frederic Abuele, which is nice but... it's not what I expected to hear from Brazilectro. Summer of Flora was good, by Democusico and remixed well. I also enjoyed the cool "Rhythmo" by Dusty, and "Find A Way" was given a nice Bossa remix, with the intro coming straight from Kyoto Jazz Massiv'es "A Calmaria". I also didn't mind "Bebado de Solidao".
The bad? Those are all the highlights on disc 1 to me, as disc two was also bleak. Mo'Horizon's and Club Des Belugas tracks were nice but the rest? Easily could have done without. There were quite a few boring songs on this. And the remake to "Take It Easy My Brother Charlie" doesn't do the great song justice. Another stand-out, in that this song was painfully bad, was DJ LK's "Sambalanco Uruguaiana", which tries to be funky to the extent that it sounds like someone's forcing themself to vomit in the background (wait exactly 1 minute). Just listen to "Son Montuno", remixed by Smoove. The sample comes out of nowhere and if it's on loud, I urge you to turn it down.
In the end, I think the problem is that this wasn't what I expected and it continues a disturbing slide in the series which really started at about the time of the split. When you see "Brazilectro - latin flavoured club tunes", and the "Brazil" and "Latin flavored CLUB tunes" are few, it's easy to get frustrated. To top it all off, the album tries WAY too hard to be cool and funky. I'd say pass on this one. And since it's been a while since I've been wowed by a Brazilectro, I'm giving up on the series. Can't stress it enough... this is the most un-Brazilian Brazilectro I've ever heard... which you might be able to deal with if it wasn't for the songs being rubbish. And finally... what about the original tracks? Were there any? What happened to Jusin, Janice Andrade, Sound Surgeons, Aaron Bingle, etc.???
In the past 10 releases, here's how I'd rate them today out of 5 stars and looking back, you can see the trend.
vol 1: 4 stars
vol 2: 5 stars
vol 3: 4 stars
vol 4: 5 stars
vol 5: 4.5 stars
vol 6: 4 stars
vol 7: 3 stars
vol 8: 4 stars
vol 9: 3 stars
vol 10: 2 stars
I'm hoping there will be a new Brazilution as that's the better of the series and has been since the split. 5.4 was a step back, but it wasn't nearly as bad as this one in terms of forgetting the roots/inspiration of the series."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1