Halftime: Brasil Edition
VAMO BRASIL CAMPEAO DO MUNDO!!! Is what I would say if I wasn’t very skeptical of Brazil’s 2026 World Cup chances. Nevertheless, they have some of the best music on Earth and I have been listening to a lot of it. That’s the nice thing about non-English language music, there’s always more stuff that’s inaccessible without deeper and deeper digging, something I’m always wont to do. Here’s some tunes, and sorry about that Vini Ballon D’or.
Paulinho Nogueira - Isto É Sambalanço (1969)
A lot of these will be either bossa or samba, and I’d apologize for the lack of variety if I couldn’t listen to it all day. MPB might be pound for pound the best genre of music ever created (might be unfair since it can encompass so much.
Neco - Samba E Violão Vol. 2 (1968)
Osvaldinho Do Cavaco - Eterna Melodia (2013)
I couldn’t find anything about this guy in English but Osvaldinho is an incredible name. He sounds like he should’ve played for Santos or Atletico Mineiro.
Dalmo Castello - Com Que Prazer(1978)
A bunch of these were uploaded to the channel of a guy named Helio Palmesan, who by the looks of things is a sea captain from Sao Paulo and runs his own radio show. Thank you Helio, you have excellent taste.
Toco Preto - Chora Cavaquinho Vol. 4 (1987)
If there’s one genre that encapsulates Brazil’s multiracial coalition, it’s choro. It’s a combination of jazz, polka, waltz and carioca genres like lundu and batuque. Almost assuredly one of the first true “world” genres if you will.
Novos Baianos - Novos Baianos F.C. (1973)
Not as obscure but I had to include it because it just rips too crazy. Also fun fact, the album came about because during the military dictatorship, the band lived on a farm outside Rio de Janiero and often played football, eventually coining themselves a club rather than a band.
Sepultura - Schizophrenia (1987)
Might be better than Chaos A.D., Arise or Roots, which is saying something for how hard those records are. Shoutout Sepultura for always having crispy basslines too, Metallica could never.
MC Carol Bandida (2010-2013)
Age-restricted by Youtube that’s how you know you’re dealing with the good shit. Precursor to the insane funk carioca that’s gone viral over the past few years. We say they’re in 2050 in Brazil, but given this compilation, we might have undershot give or take 50 years.
Luiz Bonfa - Jacaranda (1973)
For my money, the best Brazilian album ever made. Absolute virtuosity from the master Bonfa himself, expert compositions by the legend Eumir Deodato, an all-star cast of players, this shit is the real fucking deal.
d. silvestre - Oque as Mulheres Querem (2025)
The chosen one. Can we retroactively give all of Arca’s accumulated avant-garde cred and cultural capital to d. silvestre?
Thanks for reading Halftime patrocinado por Brasil. Obrigado!