Fumaca Preta
Fumaca Preta

What will be remembered about these first 15 years of the new millennium, musically speaking? Everyone, depending on their age, will remember what they find noteworthy. My intention is to reflect on which distinctive features will be remembered to describe the music of these years. Personally, two come to mind: syncretism and a-territoriality.

So, a musical landscape streaked with musical currents, even very distant from each other, merging together, making it impossible to distinguish the various initial influences. As for the second feature, it is the perception of the end of the UK/USA centrality in the musical topography of today. Thus bands that sound African despite being from Scandinavia, or psychedelic tropicalists living on Dutch dikes staring at the Atlantic instead of in Bahia.

And this is the case with Fumaca Preta (black smoke in Portuguese), a brilliant mix of Dutch, Portuguese, and Brazilians who, besides sporting a look worthy of a perfect score, revive the glory of Os Mutantes, enhancing the mix with African, Caribbean, and European spices.

Just to give you an idea, it starts with a psychotic Brazilian lounge track with a title foreshadowing upcoming psychedelic visions (“Pupilas Dilatadas”). It continues with a fuzz samba counterpointed by analog synths and sax (“Toda Pessoa”), a space garage piece that seems to be directly stolen from Os Mutantes (“Eu Era Um Cro”). And then tributes to a Beck from the Amazonian jungle (“Recitando A Toa”), Detroit sound almost hardcore with a spatial interlude conceived by a madman (“Fumaca Preta”), Isaac Hayes from Shaft jolted on acid between the favelas and Dam Square (“Vou Me Libertar”). Until the apotheosis of nonsense with “Tire Sua Moscara”, a techno piece but with the means of 72, fuzz, sizzling analog synths, vocoder, and percussion. Between the delirium of a megalomaniac and a collective mega delirium.

Stateless of the world, disunite!