Far Out Recordings-Brazilian Music Sampler

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Customer Reviews

Fantastic Collection of Brazilian Tunes
Another hit from Far Out Recordings. The mix of songs is perfect for a Saturday afternoon by the pool, or an evening on the patio with a pitcher of mojitos. I can feel the warm summer breeze wafting across the beach. Thank you Amazon for making this sampler available.

Unbelievable Offer...
Wonderful Brazilian cuts.. Free for the listening..
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Solid Little Far Out Records Sampler
Still tough for me to get into reviewing MP3's, but so be it! This is a little sampler of music from UK based label Far Out Recordings, highlighting some of the works of their artists. Far Out Records is one of my favorite labels as they have a fantastic reputation for releasing quality works by classy musicians like Joyce, Azymuth, Marcos Valle and Os Cariocas along with bringing out fresh material with acts like Sabrina Malheiros (Alex Malheiros of Azymuth's daughter), Democustico, Clara Moreno and many others. What you have here are eight tracks of different Brazilian musicians in the Far Out Records catalog.

And it's a fair compilation of samba, and time flies! It opens up with Grupo Batuque's "O Tempo Samba", a little nostalgic considering the title was used on their "Far Out 100" release from 2005. It's a track featuring Grupo Batuque's trademark samba fusion beats and chant like lyrics. It's followed up by Sabrina Malheiros's "Eira Nem Beira", which is a nice song that quickly skips around with a touch of African ambiance. The production on the title really is terrific, and the flute work equally impressive. However true to the term 'sampler', the track seems to fade out all too quickly! Clara Moreno's "Brincando do Samba" was reminiscent of her recent style, which is classy arrangements on all of her songs. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Her mother, Joyce, is featured with "London Samba" is proof, as her voice skips along to the rhythm. Marcos Valle's "Poweride" is also a sweet title that glides, perfect for any summer evening. Although to be honest, I preferred Roc Hunter's remix. Azymuth and their own Jose Bertrami both have solid cuts featured here too.

The other songs featured here are fair, but to be honest if you're a fan of Far Out, there isn't a lot that's new here. I think the label's been taking a pro-active approach to making sure that their artists are given the exposure they deserve with the changing music climate. Far Out was also known for releasing sweet 12" albums, for instance, and they'd been busy converting those to MP3 format and releasing. I should mention though that not all of the tracks here I really liked. For example, I like The Ipanemas, but Doriva was like a disjointed version of "Icarai", and both "Doriva" and "Icarai" are very similar to "Serato", etc. Also, the artists featured do have much better material available than featured here. But this sampler has a few things going for it which makes knocking it too hard. The biggest of which is that it's 'free', so what's not to love? Definitely give it a lesson and I'd recommend looking out for Far Out's REAL compilations like their Brazilika series done by Kenny Dope and Gilles Peterson among others, their Brazilian Love Affair series and also their Viagem series, which has been done by organized Nicola Conte.