Confident and infectious, Nelson Cavaquinho’s ‘Luz Negra’, the lead off track to his 1970 LP Depoimento do Poeta shakes with clattering drums, enthusiastic flutes and to the front flamenco guitars with Cavaquinho’s raspy voice pushing the proceedings along. Serving as a fiery number on its own, it stands as one of the more energetic on Depoimento with tracks such as “Aceito o Teu Adeus” and “Rugas” standing beside it matching equal energy while the rest of the record lays back and mellows out. Nelson on his own as well as in conjunction with other peers went on to pen hundreds of compositions, yet only a minuscule number of them were made available stateside and it’s very rare that his LP’s turn up for acquisition at all.
Os Magrelos’ cover of ‘Luz Negra’ dispenses with the vocals entirely while beefing up the horns and stepping back on the pace while allowing a gorgeous farfisa to stand in for the flutes of the original. While one can certainly hear the resemblances, the cover is hardly faithful - though I’m not entirely sure that producing a carbon copy was the band’s intention anyhow. While the basic groove of Cavaquinho’s composition is present and accounted for, Os Magrolos seems to have deconstructed the whole of the original while re-building it around that one basic groove and in the process, they’ve created something that is at once an homage while standing on its own as an original composition in its own right. With Cavaquinho’s original, one felt that they could be spectators at a rough and tumble block party being thrown along a dusty and crowded road while Os Magrelos are more interested in seeing if their rendition can make you float. As the track winds down, the farfisa begins to skip and hop while shimmering keys falter in droves towards the drums moving below. This is the sound that Stereolab spent their entire career shooting and never quite reaching.
On the flip side of the 45, Os Magrelos brings vocalist Laura Ann Singh into the fold to integrate vintage bossa nova sounds into their musical makeup. Vocally, Singh sounds like she could be at home on the Bossa Nova and The Rise of Brazilian Music In The 1960’s series of Soul Jazz curated compilations released over the last couple of years which have done a great job of covering the Brazilian bossa nova scene of the early 60’s (and the Elenco label in particular) that seems to be oozing influence here. The lone trombone standing side by side of the back up vocals adds an extra dimension of warmth and aids in tying together the song as something worthy of mixtape inclusion.
Closing out the B side, Os Magrelos’ lead in command Magrela Rose crafts a brief sound scape of rich drum machines, melodies, blips and blurps via a vintage Roland Juno-106 synthesizer. Electric Cowbell would do well to allow Rose a 45 all her own to further stretch out and craft more elaborate shapes of sound. The chameleon qualities of Os Magrelos in terms of the stylistic jumps they make within the cumulative 10 minute time span of this single is astounding and certainly, my favorite of the releases I’ve heard coming out of the Electric Cowbell catalogue.
Purchase a copy of the 45 over at Electric Cowbell and give a listen to Luz Negra on Soundcloud.
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