Olodum - Egito Madagascar (1987)

Olodum is a cultural activism group created with the objectives of fighting racial discrimination and socioeconomic inequality. They have recorded ten LPs/CDs and have worked with Wayne Shorter, Jimmy Cliff, Herbie Hancock, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, and Spike Lee. The group draws 4,000 people to parade in the bloco (which has about 200 musicians) at Salvador BA carnival, gives lectures on social and political issues, and publishes a monthly news journal, Bantu Nagô. The group also runs a factory for clothes and musical instruments sold to the public and a school for Salvador's poor children.

They play powerfully percussive pop which combines thunderous traditional African rhythms with intensely sensual samba melodies. Olodum is a weird phenomenon - more a musical collective and Africanist social movement than simply "a band".

Their first "samba-reggae" records in the mid-1980s helped reinvigorate Brazilian pop, and several Olodum songs are now standards. Beware of synthy, iffy production on later albums, though.

On the album "Egito Madagascar" (1987) they play awesome, thunderously melodic percussion-and-chorus. This is the start of the whole samba-reggae sound, and it's an absolute classic.

Tracklist:

A1 Madagáscar Olodum
A2 Salvador Não Inerte/ Ladeira Do Pelô
A3 Olodum Florente Na Natureza
A4 Raça Negra
A5 Um Povo Comum Pensar
B1 Arco-Íris De Madagáscar
B2 Reggae Dos Faraós
B3 Faraó Divindade Do Egito
B4 Encantada Nação
B5 Vinheta Cuba-Brasil


Olodum - Egito Madagascar (1987)
(192 kbps, cover art included)