Candomblé: Review of Sacred Rhythms of Brazil – Remixing Ceremonial Drums for the Dance Floor | music

TThe Brazilian religious and musical tradition of candomblé is a rhythmic barrage. Candomblé originated in the 19th century among enslaved people in West Africa, and manifested itself in music as the ritual practice of drum circles, in which multiple rhythms were struck to attract spirits. Athens-based archival label Flee presents a treasure trove of this festive music from a community in El Salvador in the late 1980s, along with a series of masterful remixes by contemporary artists.

The first side of the album hosts field recordings. Blurry, unbalanced and full of tape hiss, the ten ritual compositions draw listeners into the frenetic environment in which they were recorded. It is as if we are sitting next to the tape recorder and witnessing the overlapping, joyful sounds glimpsed in the distance on Useem or the unique male voice wailing poignantly before disappearing on Zango. The experience can feel frustratingly fragmented, but if the melody is ephemeral, the drumming is not. Scattered stick-style beats produce infectious movement on Ogum, while bells and mid-tempo swing create the sensation of undulating waves on Entrada dos Orixás.

This rhythmic material is a boon to producers who reshape it for the modern dance floor on side two. Brazilian producer DJ Anderson do Paraiso flips the beat into a sparse track on bailey funk on Festa Iansa, while French percussionist Vincent Tiger overlays drum kit beats to create a raucous funk epic on O Santo Da O Nomi, Portuguese producer Xexa slows down the dub pace on Pluralidades, and Swiss artist Jonas Albrecht produces album highlight All My Love. Packing drum loops into seven minutes of techno music. Flee is expertly curated and almost miraculously sourced, cementing their status as one of the most innovative archival labels in the industry, giving artists the freedom to transform these sacred beats into new dancefloor rituals.

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