Friday, 21 March 2025

The fact that the title includes 'Horse Meat Disco Presents' and 'Brazil Vol. 1' should be enough to get everyone excited, to add 'Disco & Boogie' is just the icing on the cake, samba on the carnival, chips on the plate, etc.


The horse logo may not be as rampant as the early HMD Strut compilations, but many of these 16 tracks are 'hard' - no only in so much that us mere mortals won't hard the chance to find originals (as will welcome back Max from "his final week working in Rio"!) but even for disco/boogie standards, 'hard to find' is also edgy as the opener by the 'Harmony Cats' sets the tone.

Mr Bongo fans will recognise the name Jorge Ben and the summer-funk of 'Rio Babilônia' along with Marcos Valle's classic, 'Parabéns (Dança Do Daniel)' (one for the flute gang) and straight-up boogie-disco of Robson Jorge/Lincoln Olivetti's 'Suspira'.

No surprise that the HMD guys would go for the dust biting intro of 'Pássaro Selvagem' (Os Carbonos) that wanders into a rain forest or the heavy Earth, Wind & Fire horns of 'Sol De Verão' by the un-Brazilian sounding 'Lafayette'.

As you can gather, there's tracks that you won't have heard of but are influenced by the International sounds of the time but I can't pin down my current favourite, 'Venha (Remix)' by the mostly unknown Zé Carlos (Ed. could it be a Latin Edwin Collins?)

Much like the long awaiting Vol. 2 of ' The Original Sound of Mali' that came out last month (see review HERE), this compilation has taken 13 years since the quartet of James Hillard, Jim Stanton, Severino Panzetta and Luke Howard started this labour of love; Luke himself visiting Brazil for the first time in 2003, to context, a time of "four-to-the-floor bordom", which gave HMD themselves a leg up - see Rough Guide to Brazilian Electronica HERE).

Partly due to licencing issues and due to their own success (Ed. who remembers the Ponica roadblock appearance?) it's finally here in it's double LP glory this is a musical mix as vibrant as 70s World Cup squad!  "Goooooooooooooalllllllllllllllllll" as someone might say.



Artist: Various Artists 
Title: Horse Meat Disco Presents Disco & Boogie from Brazil Vol.1 
Release date: 21st March, 2025
Label : Mr Bongo
Catalog Number : MRBCDLP302
Format :  2xLP Vinyl / CD / Digital / Bandcamp

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