Review: Sam Nóbrega - Ponta De Dois Lados (Freestyle Records)

Sam Nóbrega, born in Recife and now resident in Lisbon, has all the multi-instrumental versatility of a Marcos Valle, Milton Nascimento, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil with a sound to surpass Seu Jorge - what more of a recommendation do you need?

Recife in the Pernambuco north east region of Brasil and it may not be as fashionable as Rio or populous as São Paulo, but it's clearly given Sam a training in traditional folk, Música popular brasileira (MPB), tropicalia and no-fear of the leftfield; the track 'Espelho Animal' is a bit Tim Burton meets Frank Zappa on the intro to the South Bank Show!

This north-east element was said to give the Batucada tradition a harder sound compared to southern softie counterparts but in Nóbrega, he really does cover the bases,  'Natural' has a deep 60s west coast vibe with deep strings but there's some modern chancon and the title track does sound a bit of a protest song to me (but in a Brasilian way).

So no obvious dance based samba/bossa (although a remix album would be more than interesting) but there seems a trendy for this experimental MPB avant-garde, see Zé Nigro's album 'Silêncio' which feature Arthur​ ​Verocai and Saulo Duarte (see review HERE) or even Mr Bongo's compilation 'Hidden Waters: Strange and Sublime Sounds of Rio de Janeiro' (see review HERE) but Nóbrega along with Pedro Diniz who produced the album, will be much in demand after this release.

Artist: Sam Nóbrega
Title:  Ponta De Dois Lados 

Release date: 22th November, 2024
Label : Freestyle Records
Catalog Number : TBC
Format:  Digital / Bandcamp