Preço de Cada Um

A collector’s dream, with a copyright so obscure Mr Bongo Iitself couldn’t track it down, Prego de Cada Um was apparently recorded in late-70s Salvador by personnel so similarly obscure that only their first names are credited. And this despite the involvement of the late, great forró accordionist Sivuca. So is it worth the hype? Certainly, at least with regard to the Sivuca-penned standout, ‘Fogo Pago’ which, with its fervent, flashing-eyed crescendos, accordion counter¬melody and undertow of Exile on Main Street-style murk, is the sound of 70s Brazil at its most inspiring. Elsewhere, vivid yet gratifyingly analogue arrangements alive with glutinous acoustic and electric piano, hissing hi-hat and wild optimism render the album so glaringly at odds with the current cold European winter that you can’t help but warm to it.

Pretty much every track is carried by the ecstatic harmonies of two ladies anonymous save for their first names. Fabiola and Vera, whoever they are, have surely missed their true vocation by a Bahian country mile. Throughout the often familiar material, ranging across Asa Branca, Noel Rosa’s ‘Gago Apaixonado’ and Dom Um Romão’s Amor Em Jacumã, their every luscious syllable turns sung words into gold. Though the pace wavers slightly towards the end, fans of the tropical flotsam and jetsam favoured by the likes of Favela Chic will love the ensemble uproar and skittering Moog of the closer ‘Beijo Baiano’. How can you possibly argue with an album that manages to alchemise the unlikeliest of louche-limbed soul from the base material of Neil Sedaka’s ‘Stupid, Cupid’?