AÍ MALUCO!

Yes, sir, there is drum’n bass in Brazil. And Drumagik is here to prove that, with a little help from the right software, it is perfectly possible to master an alien style and draw the best from it with our good old musical sensitiveness. Clearly less experimental than other local producers (like Paulo Beto, a.k.a. Anvil FX with his great Lo-Fi Genesis), the two brothers have made an album that, on the one hand, doesn’t display the hallucinating rhythmic syncopation or revolutionary innovations portrayed by foreign counterparts; but on the other hand, is well produced and very effective to cheer up parties and meetings. Drumagik choose a jazz-driven drum’n bass (as in the traditional double bass groove with sax in Metromorfose – XRS Land Remix) with a few gloomy passages, like on the title track (whose Marky remix is way faster) and on Peso Líquido, which rings a Grooverider bell. Max de Castro’s piano adds a bossa touch to A Maré. On Face (Improove Your Life), the brothers invest in female vocals, and the result brings them close to Roni Size. Max returns with his acoustic guitar, introducing the samba to color up Funquiado, one of the best tracks (which gains a jazzier approach on the remix version by Ram Science). Well balanced in its various atmospheres and sound elements, Aí Maluco! reveals Jr.Deep and Guilherme Lopes as a sophisticated pair of producers, able to fly higher.