There are so many reasons to admire Far Out Recordings: its vision, its longevity, for the undisputed high quality of the music they release, and its across-the-board eclecticism (encompassing everything from vintage bossa, psych, and disco to house, broken beat, and drum & bass). The label is largely responsible for the rediscovery and reintroduction of the greats of '60s and '70s Brazilian music (Joyce, Marcos Valle, Azymuth, The Ipanemas, etc.), but they've also made it clear that they're about much more than compiling the classics. In the past decade they've done as much for future music as any of the other labels we've looked at thus far, putting out dozens of truly visionary records and offering up fresh revisions of the samba and bossa archetypes. It may have sounded impossible until a few years ago, but now it's hard to deny: the freshest sounds out of Brazil are to be found on a London-based record label. For the full two-hour special click here. |
