Nao Wave
I've been lazily assembling a library of Brazilian post punk compilations the last couple months. Post-punk music in general has that combination of vitality and artfulness that always gets me. I guess in part, because it was really the music era that I lived through and discovered through my kookier friends with older brothers at a very young age. Hearing comps like Nao Wave (Man Recordings, Berlin) or Soul Jazz THE SEXUAL LIFE OF THE SAVAGES - POST PUNK FROM SAU PAULO, BRAZIL gives you a pretty good idea of what happened when Gang of Four and the Contortions hit South America, but I'm glad to report most of the music rises above mere imitation. And on Nao Wave, you get a lot more Brazilian percussion thickening things up. Even As Mercenarias the all-female punk/funk post-punk group from Sao Paulo is suddenly hot shit. They have a disc out on Soul Jazz of their early '80s recordings and are reportedly playing London sometime this year. As for electronic post-punk of the Anglo variety, the audio that I got with the mediocre DVD doc on the Sheffield music scene is totally a gas and I even threw one of the crazier tracks on during a DJ set. And in response to any accusations that being into Brazilian post-punk is obscurantist or pretentious... just tell me that you've actually heard good new indie rock lately, because, honestly I'm unaware of it.