What with all the linkthink round here of late, it’s quite possible that an item or two of particular interest and/or awesomeness might slip past even the most attentive, regular readers. So with that in mind, I would like to devote a post of its own to an emerging sound in Brazil known as “eletro melody.” After André put me on to it via an article @ overmundo, I made but a passing, linkythinky reference to it, and I think it deserves a little more shine.

Eletro melody is closely related to tecnobrega (the post-copyright music par excellence), but I haven’t heard enough of either to make the connection, or the distinction. A video link in the article implies that Benny Benassi has had some influence on the sound. (I can hear that.) So does FruityLoops, no doubt.

In the weeks since reading the article & DLing the mp3 included as an example — which, I should note, was quite striking on first listen — Maderito & Joe’s “Passageiros da Nave” has fast become a track which I play out on just about any occasion I get. It’s got a great sound, distinctive yet zeitgeisty. The synths, jumping from extremely high to rather low registers, saw through the texture — not unlike in bassline, grime, and fidget bizniz. & the prevailing rhythm is pretty engaging with its halftime/doubletime feel (at 85/170!), either sounding like some srsly uptempo soca/techno and/or some half-time rock/bachata ish. Add some funkcarioca-tinged poppy vocals and you’ve got quite a thing in your ears.

     >> Maderito & Joe, “Passageiros da Nave”

I’d love to hear more of this stuff. Indeed, more like this one! (Ok, maybe not this similar.)

In the article, which discusses eletro melody as one strand in the rich musical fabric of Belém, my man Ronaldo Lemos — copyleft crusader and keen observer of Brazilian technoculture — tells readers not to be surprised if some foreign DJ (“hello Diplo”!) begins to “export” the style:

Não será surpresa se algum DJ estrangeiro (alô Diplo) começar a “exportar” o estilo.

It sure doesn’t have to be a foreign DJ, far as I’m concerned (and I don’t think this post makes me the guilty globalista). Give me a local mediator of this new sound and I’ll be muito obrigado. Pages like this might be a good starting place, but, man, that’s gonna take some serious sifting through, techno-rumba style. (Plus, I think all the files are Windows Media. Ugh.) Get to work, blogobrain.

Then again, according to Ronaldo, the genre is new enough that there simply may not be much available yet. But if Ronaldo is right, we can rest assured that compilations of eletro melody will be forthcoming, following, as with technobrega, the desire of the people —

O estilo é tão novo que só é possível encontrar faixas de eletro melody perdidas em meio a outras coletâneas mais genéricas. No entanto, como o mercado do tecnobrega não dorme no ponto, dá para esperar com enorme segurança que em breve começarão a aparecer compilações só de eletro melody, saciando os fãs.

So, Brazilians? Brazilianists? Onde posso encontrar mais eletro melody? Give the people what they want, lest some foreigner hop on a plane…