Previsão Do Tempo

The resonant Tropicália movement wasn't the only site of musical subversion in Sixties and Seventies Brazil. Proof is this 1973 pop-rock-samba-jazz gem, the funkiest in a four-disc Marcos Valle series. Sampled by Kanye and others, the Rio singer-songwriter has a wicked rhythmic sense. His speed verses on "Os Ossos Do Barão" out-groove the drumming, while "Mentira" echoes Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." Valle's politically coded poetry dodged the radar of Brazil's military government censors. But his hooks and beats need no decoding. Let's hope his groovy soundtrack for Brazil's Sesame Street is reissued next.