With the current interest in proper Seventies and early Eighties old school, Strut's timing has seldom been more impressive than this trawl through the funk, jazz and Samba of Sixties and Seventies Brazil.
Maybe this isn't surprising. At least part of the upsurge in interest in this period of the roots of contemporary hip hop, dance and break beat has been caused by Strut's soon to be released Grandmaster Flash retrospective LP.
Nominally this album looks back at the forgotten history of the Black Rio movement that saw the Brazilian City explode with Afros, black power politics and massive funk parties of 10,000 or more people.
Spearheaded by artists such as Tim Maia, who provides one of the LPs high points with 'Quier Quiera Quer Nao Quiera', Genival Cassaino and Toni Tornado, the music took North American inspiration from Motown, Staxx, Atlantic, Sly Stone and James Brown and fused it with Brazilian themes to create 'soul brasileiro'.
At full pelt the sounds are up beat carnival whirlpools of sound that swirl around the penetrating hypnotic rhythms.
But the tracks that are going to grab people's attention here are the slower, locked on funk grooves.
And none more so than Gang Do Tagarela's 'Melo Da Tagerla', most famously used as the back track for 'Rapper's Delight' and on 'Grandmasters Flash's Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel'.
Unaio Black's'Black Rio' is an equally low-slung affair that mixes a Commodores bass line with a Meters guitar riff and a Latinised Horny Horn brass section. Miguel De Dios' 'Cinco Anos' takes its funk from Sly Stone/ Tower of Power traditions and adds a George Clinton inspired rap and vocal lines.
Toni Tornado's 'Podes Crer, Amizado' is strikingly advanced, almost go go affair. Eklipse Soul's 'Psicose' is pure Leo Nocentelli guitar and George Porter bass and The Gerson King Combo's 'Uma Chance Q' is War shifted five thousand miles south.
Jorge Ben's (aka Jorge Benjour) 'Comanche' whispers in with infectious, simmering, pandeiro rhythms and a soft, beautiful melody, while Trio Mocoto mingles deep African drum and vocal influences with psychedelic Sixties organ.
Copa 7 and Grupo Arembere provide more Samba based fusions on 'Copa 7 No Samba' and the mesmerising 'Laia' respectively. Banda Black Rio offer the jazz licked 'Gafieira Universal'.
Compiled by DJ Cliffy, the force behind the 'Future World of Funk' album series and London's Batmacumba club nights at the ICA, Black Rio adds yet another strong release to the increasingly prestigious Strut stable.
by Ben Osborne