For just about all of history, Brazil has produced some of the most compelling music on the planet. Right now, with the rapid growth of Brazil’s economy, we’re hearing more juicy tunes coming out of the South American nation than ever before. The country has long been known for producing great traditional pop like samba and forró, forward-thinking composers like Caetano Veloso, gritty urban hip-hop, favela funk, and even world-class heavy metal (see: Sepultura). But Brazil has never been known for being especially ahead of the curve in the field of electronic music.
That’s about to change. A new compilation, titled Brazilian Bass Culture & Beyond will hopefully educate the masses about wide variety of soundsystem-rattling music coming out of Brazil. The compilation comes from the Brasil Music Exchange, a great non-profit organization located in São Paulo and dedicated to promoting the export of Brazilian musical talent abroad. They periodically put out great comps of independent Brazilian music, including a dope 2011 compilation of new São Paulo bands co-presented with the Sounds and Colours web magazine.
The bass culture comp (which you can stream below) contains 34 tracks, all by different artists ranging in style from dub head Junior Dread and Rio rapper BNegão to afrobeat innovators Bixiga 70 and global bass ambassador Patrick Tor4. There’s a lot of new artists to discover here – we suggest you dive right in: