As skint as I was, I managed to get myself to the
New Picket to attend the
Trocabrahma Culture Jam, an event that I hoped would "synthesise the finest in established and emerging UK and Brazilian music talent for an incandescent must-see live show, urban art and truly exclusive collaborations".
Now, I'll be open with you, I think of this event as nothing more than a cynical marketing tool to embed the Brahma brand into youth culture, developed by a
brewery with a 2006 market capitalisation of $41.7 billion dollars. But we'll push that aside for now. Although I didn't see the full line-up, what heralded unfortunately did not live up to its own hype:
Romulo Froes,
King Creosote,
Tony Da Gatorra,
Gruff Rhys and
Tita Lima. I
don't know if it was just the mood I was in, or maybe the beer I was drinking, but none of what I saw even hinted on the flair that one associates with Brazilian music. This chiefly demonstrated by Gruff Rhys (who's solo stuff isn't bad) and Tony
Da Gatorra's collaborative set, who's mind numbingly arid sound seemed hopelessly monotonous and unfitting. One guy I missed,
Ben Westbeech, from what I've heard, would have enthused life into what should have been an invigorating experience.
Anyway, as cynical and despondent as I may sound, money permitting of course, I hope to go see
Diplo (as part of the same event) for a dose of grizzly hip-hop. Brahma anyone?
MP3: Gruff Rhys - Candylion DOWNLOAD / ZshareMP3: Ben Westbeech - Hang Around DOWNLOAD / ZshareMP3: Diplo - Must Be A Devil DOWNLOAD / Zshare
I would say I am excited about Trophy Wife, but that kind of emotion doesn't fit well with the band's ethos. The promotional literature from this Oxford trio tells me they regard their sound as "ambitionless office disco". As Self-depreciating as this may seem, it happens to be a neat way of packaging the bands creatively sparse take on the indie-disco genre into one sound bite. If you can imagine Swedish band Studio covering a Vampire Weekend track, you won't be far off.
