Music

What We're Digging Right Now - Matuto

Image by Vincent Soyez


Whereas modern folk artists like Mumford & Sons draw inspiration from the Deep South - blazin' banjos and porch-rattling foot stomps - one band is migrating its influences to the Deep, Deep South-- South America, that is.


The six-member Brooklyn collective Matuto (Northeastern Brazilian slang for "bumpkin") live like it's Carnival every day. Zig-zagging accordions dance around nimble jazz riffs that whisper with the ghosts of Cajun and African rhythms. The genre known as forro-rock creeps into the psyche as Clay Ross spins yarns about running from temptation on The Devil and the Diamond (Motema Music).


As if Matuto's sound and interests couldn't get more varied, the narrative binding the 12 effervescent tracks is derived from the tenets of Buddhism. Striving to be one's best self, all while shimmying like there's no tomorrow? We can groove with that.

More from Melissa Bobbitt (See All)

Permalink to
Music
The last band that'll matter to the Millennials
  Melissa Bobbitt      0

Image provided by Fueled by Ramen So here we are, at the end of all things (if you believe the Mayans or the evangelicals or the economists). It's 2012 - did we think we'd get...

Apr 28, 2012