Showing posts with label Freestyle Records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freestyle Records. Show all posts

Friday, 22 November 2024

Posted by Gerry Hectic | File under : , ,

Sam Nóbrega, born in Recife and now resident in Lisbon, has all the multi-instrumental versatility of a Marcos Valle, Milton Nascimento, Jorge Ben, Gilberto Gil with a sound to surpass Seu Jorge - what more of a recommendation do you need?



Recife in the Pernambuco north east region of Brasil and it may not be as fashionable as Rio or populous as São Paulo, but it's clearly given Sam a training in traditional folk, Música popular brasileira (MPB), tropicalia and no-fear of the leftfield; the track 'Espelho Animal' is a bit Tim Burton meets Frank Zappa on the intro to the South Bank Show!

This north-east element was said to give the Batucada tradition a harder sound compared to southern softie counterparts but in Nóbrega, he really does cover the bases,  'Natural' has a deep 60s west coast vibe with deep strings but there's some modern chancon and the title track does sound a bit of a protest song to me (but in a Brasilian way).

So no obvious dance based samba/bossa (although a remix album would be more than interesting) but there seems a trendy for this experimental MPB avant-garde, see Zé Nigro's album 'Silêncio' which feature Arthur​ ​Verocai and Saulo Duarte (see review HERE) or even Mr Bongo's compilation 'Hidden Waters: Strange and Sublime Sounds of Rio de Janeiro' (see review HERE) but Nóbrega along with Pedro Diniz who produced the album, will be much in demand after this release.


Artist: Sam Nóbrega
Title:  Ponta De Dois Lados 
Release date: 22th November, 2024
Label : Freestyle Records
Catalog Number : TBC
Format:  Digital / Bandcamp 


Friday, 7 April 2023

Posted by Gerry Hectic | File under : , ,
Well, we all love a rare, private press, white label but even by normal standards of exteme crate digging, this is a super find.

If you can remember 1992, in the UK, Charts included The Brand New Heavies, Tina Turner, Diana Ross but not much in way of male vocals; Simply Red!  So when Rick Clarke decided to made a nine track album with some ladies mostly and drum machines (in their infancy at the time) he clearly had no idea that 30 years on his album of raw street funk/hip hop/go-go house sounds pretty unique!  
Apparently this was never released as he was in-deep contractually with Soul II Soul whose influence is most upfront on 'Gonna Make You Happy' featuring Jill Francis and 'Love Don't Strike Twice' featuring Easton.

Of course, London centric soul at the time was still heavily US influenced and it's heavy on influences like Luther Vandross, Shalamar, Sharon Redd and Street Sounds club culture. 
Must have been very frustrating for all involved that these performances hadn't been heard by a wider audience until now, especially on tracks like 'Fantasy' featuring Gina Foster (who went onto we a busy backing singer with Swing Out Sister) and 'Without You In My Life' featuring Delores (who we know nothing about).

'Show Me the Way' (featuring Mark Antonio) and 'Do What We Gotta Do' (featuring Delroy Dyer & Gina Foster) both could have been big singles even as they are now with the endearing lo-fi production; what would they have been like with the big Soul II Soul production?

It's now difficult to believe how big Soul II Soul were at one stage, even opening their own fashion shop outlet in Camden High Street at one stage (it didn't last long) but certainly indicating how much Jazzy B believed in his project; if not Clarke's. 

But at least when we now 'Guess Who' we know it's Rick Clarke and fair play to Freestyle Records for giving it a proper release and not trying to re-record it as it'll always sound unique.


Artist: Rick Clarke
Title: Guess Who
Catalog Number : FSRLP 142
Label : Freestyle Records
Format: LP / Digital
Release Date : 7th April, 2023