To the Amazon - specifically the mouth of the Amazon, in the state of Para and its capital Belem. You realise Brazil is so vast that even fans of Brazilian music only have a small idea of the musical variety on offer. In fact, while Para is a state about the size of France with its own strong scene, hardly anyone knows anything about it.
On the one hand there is the tackily enjoyable (if you are among the blissful crowd) tecno-brega scene - think Depeche Mode outtakes circa 1984 with primitive electro beats (and always the same ones). It's a huge thing - one club I went to was empty at midnight on a Monday night and packed with 2,000 ravers by 1.30am. Tecno-brega is spreading through northern Brazil now, and will meet the baile funk coming up from Rio somewhere in the middle. I met the biggest star of tecno-brega Gaby Amarantos (above) the singer of Tecno Show, when we were both interviewed on a Para TV station. Meanwhile - the good stuff. For decades there's been a style here called guittarada. Watch the Mestres de guittarada playing to a huge crowd here. I caught Mestre Viera at 4am in a very steamy Belem club by the banks of the Amazon. The style has been updated by the hugely talented Pio Lobato who is a world class guitarist. He's developed a mix of guittarada and techno-brega called tecnoguittarada. You can hear an example in this weird soft porn video (do proceed with caution). All of this music is rather influenced by American Sixties surf music and groups like La Pupuna sing about the Amazon surf scene. During full moon, it is indeed possible to surf the Amazon for miles on its longest wave, called the Pororoca. The wave and the surf music will be the subject of a forthcoming OMM piece, to co-incide with some of the bands coming to play in London for the first time next May.
