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In the last couple years obscure psychedelia from Brazil has become a touchstone for a new breed of psych-folk here in the US. Everyone knows the more pop-inclined mayhem of Os Mutantes, but I’m talking about the spacier stuff produced in the northeastern state of Pernambuco in the early 70s. Artists like Alceu Valenca and Geraldo Azevedo made some trippy records back then, but the cognoscenti has embraced the primal purr of people like Lulu Cortes & Ze Ramalho and Marconi Notaro, some of which has been reissued by the fine Portland, Maine imprint Time-Lag Records. Yet, I hadn’t heard any contemporary takes on this stuff being made in Brazil itself—until now.A Estetica do Rabisco (Dubas Musica), the debut album from MoMo (aka Marcelo Frota), taps into that loopy vibe in service of more conventional pop tunes, and the results are stunning. Along with Caetano Veloso’s Ce, it’s the best album I’ve heard from Brazil this year. Actually, it’s among the best records I’ve heard from anywhere this year. Frota has made clear his admiration for folks like Devendra Banhart and Antony & the Johnsons, but I find his stuff more subtle, focused, and restrained. He was born in the state of Minas Gerais—which also produced the great Milton Nascimento—but his family soon moved to Rio de Janeiro. They later moved to Angola for three years, only to return to Rio. It was during high school that Frota developed a strong taste for underground rock, particularly the stuff coming out of Seattle in its heyday.
