Brazilian music is famous worldwide — from bossa nova, to choro, to samba.
Bossa is cool, choro is amazing, but my favorite things about samba is that despite being “pop music” it still has complex rhythms and harmonies.
My top favorite thing is the prevalence of the 7 stringed guitar and their use of counterpoints (i.e., parallel melodies).
I love how what (I think) started as guitarists just playing harmonies, turned into them improvising bass lines and counterpoints every once in a while, which eventually became them doing MOSTLY counterpoints and bass lines and barely playing the harmony lmao.
These bass lines and counterpoints, from what I understand, are often times arpeggiations of the chords and so forth, but they add such an amazing effect to the music.
Examples:
- This guy solo playing over a recording.
- This solo guitar + singer.
- Most music by Cartola which features the absolute timeless 7 stringed legend Dino. This one is a classic.
I also can’t get enough of electronic downtempo/chillout/lounge music, mainly prefer instrumental stuff but if it’s gotta have vocals then make them female. got any artist recommendations? I love all the old Pork Records stuff (Fila Brazillia, Baby Mammoth, Leggo Beast, Bullitnuts), and Elektrolux records (Fresh Moods, Guardner, Index ID, Naoki Kenji, The Sushi Club), Tosca, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Peace Orchestra, Nightmares On Wax, Bonobo, etc.
I usually lean more into the psychedelic side as I went deep into the psytrance scene in my twenties, like Ott, Shpongle, Bluetec, Ishq then had a major trip hop phase with Morcheeba, massive attack, Portishead, RJD2 and many artists you mentioned. Supertask has been one of my recent finds that has been impressive. Mostly I am song to song not heavy into particular artists. Here is a small platter of artists you haven’t mentioned.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4kFtWXruto5D6tbFDaMMXq?si=ei3olPlcT8i3vKs0mCAe1g&pi=u-cqsPkzARTy2G