Product of Brazil: João Brasil’s Rio-Bred Corn
Mash Master João
Name: João Brasil
Where He’s From: Rio de Janeiro
Genre: Nu-Tecnobrega, sort of
When He Started: 2007
Sounds Like: The sexiest ironic mustache you have ever seen
UK-based Brazilian producer João Brasil grew up steeped in the many rich sounds of his nation of birth. That doesn’t mean he holds a scrap of reverence for any of it. Love, definitely. Reverence … not as much.
The sounds of tecnobrega, baile funk, carimbó, and bossa nova permeate his work, but this ain’t your grandad’s samba school. One of his specialties is tecnobrega or funk carioca flavored remixes of pop culture’s most cherished hymns. Be it The Beatles or Radiohead, it matters not. All are but raw supplies for his Amazonian festival of copyright infringement.
Certainly, Brasil is by no means the first Brazilian producer to make the corny mash-up their stock in trade. There are untold legions on this tip in Belém alone. But Brasil does it with such panache that you can kind of hear him giggling in the back of your mind going, “You’re smiliiiing! I see youuuu! You’re going to laaaaugh!” It’s not at all annoying when he says it, I swear.
This site has been laughing with him since he dropped his brilliant “Tropical Bomb” last year. Since then we’ve been rewarded with “Funk do iPhone” featuring Marina Gasolina and the utterly priceless “L.O.V.E. Banana” featuring Lovefoxxx. But a shout out as big and cheesy as his music is long overdue. He’s achieved notoriety and hits in Brazil, and rocks major parties there, in London, and just all over the place.This is a man who once made a mash up a day for a year. This is a man who will become a legend.
Dig his latest endeavor, the Tropical Britannia EP, in which he teamed up with five other global bass producers on behalf of Rio Occupation London: