Candomblé: Sacred Rhythms in Brazil review – drumming drumming remix for the dancefloor | Music

TReligious traditions and Brazilian candomblé music and music. Candomblé, which began in the 1800s among slaves in West Africa, appeared in music as a drumming tradition, and drumming was played with hammers to attract spirits. The Athens-based label Flee presents a treasure trove of traditional music from the Salvadoran community in the late 1980s, along with creative mixes by contemporary artists.

On one side of the album are field recordings. Sad, unsettling and filled with tapes of singing, the 10-song classic drags listeners into the haunting landscape in which it was written. It’s like sitting next to a recorder and seeing the overflowing, joyous voice that appears in the distance on Ossaim or a single male voice movingly wailing before fading away on Xangô. The scene can feel frustratingly fragmented, but if the song is short, the drumming isn’t. A clave-style beat produces an infectious movement on Ogum, while bells and mid-tempo swings create the feeling of undulating waves on Entrada dos Orixás.

These musical elements are manna for producers who recreate them for the modern dancefloor on the second side. Brazilian producer DJ Anderson do Paraiso spins the song for fun at Festa Iansã, while French musician Vincent Taeger covers the drum tracks to create a fun track on O Santo da o Nome, Portuguese producer Xexa slows down to enter the Swiss scene and Jonas creates a preview of the album All My Love, putting drum loops in seven minutes of techno. Professionally curated and near-miraculous, The Escape cements its place as one of the oldest records in the business, giving artists the freedom to transform these sacred songs into new dancefloor traditions.

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