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 Concerts
Robert Schwartzman Is on a Roll
  Melissa Bobbitt      0

Photo by Zoey Grossman Pioneers used to traverse the United States in covered wagons in the name of exploration and in search of a better way of living. The Wild West lured dreamers from the East...

Oct 6, 2014

Permalink to
Music
Occur Goes Global - The Music of Eritrea
  Melissa Bobbitt      0

There seems to be two Eritreas: One is the young nation who fiercely fought for independence from Ethiopia for 30 years. Another is the oppressive regime of Isaias Afwerki, from which thousands flee monthly to...

Oct 2, 2016