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“embodies the living, breathing Brazil of 2023, smolderingly intense, captivated by the bustle of life, and determined to be heard far and wide.” - Bandcamp Daily
"With its assemblage of slouched vocals sparkly electronic flourishes, and breezy guitar, “Ô Lulu” is as laid back as it is endlessly replayable." - The FADER
“at once alien and delightfully inviting” - FLOOD Magazine
"A dazzling collage of baile funk, hip-hop, and jazz that runs on an adrenaline rush fit for a cinematic heist scene as ambient pop songstress Bebé and Alceu come along for the joyride" - Remezcla
“Paying homage to samba and bossa styles, Joãozinho sets modern production elements to his work by sampling the band he assembled, tearing it up, then chopping and flipping the arrangements” - KCRW
Dadá Joãozinho has shared his debut album tds bem Global, an album that unfolds like a genre-agnostic mixtape, shoplifting from dub reggae, hip hop, punk, and samba, all while inventing a few future styles in the process. The recording alias of São Paulo based artist João Rocha, the debut is his first for Los Angeles-based Innovative Leisure, and chronicles his move to the biggest city in South America during a time of intense isolation and toxic politics. “Desire for freedom was the north star of this record,” dadá insists. He explains that he needed to “feel free about artistic decisions - that I didn’t have to play the instruments in a certain way to sound good, I didn’t have to sing in a certain way to sound good, and I didn’t have to write in a certain way to make sense and reach people’s feelings.”
Alongside the album release, dadá Joãozinho is sharing a new video for album highlight “Habitual,” a driving, atmospheric track full of production wizardry and a compelling performance. He explains, “I wanted to raise more questions than give answers about what's going on. On the song I'm singing about a state of habitualness from relationships and crisis within it. The video takes from there and expands its meanings, contextualizing infinite possibilities of narrative, relationships dynamics and fantasy.”
After breaking ground in Brazil’s music scene as a member of ROSABEGE, an electronic music collective that fuses the sounds of bossa nova with sprawling synth pop, dadá Joãozinho puts Rocha’s star potential on full display, flexing his experimental muscles and showcasing the breadth of his talent. Lead single “Cuidado!” is tour de force of bombastic MC energy, while “Pai e Mãe” is a reimagined take on traditional Brazilian samba, and “Ô Lulu” infuses classic Música Popular Brasileira with experimental flourishes. Watch the videos below, and listen to tds bem Global HERE.
"Each song offers a different look at Joãozinho’s singular talent, and on “Pai e Mae” the artist introduces an entrancing samba with delightful lo-fi effects that meld with a renegade organ sound and the pulsing underbelly of bass-heavy percussion. The concoction is at once alien and delightfully inviting." - FLOOD Magazine
São Paulo based artist João Rocha has shared “Pai e Mãe,” the third and final preview of his upcoming debut album as dadá Joãozinho. Where lead single “Cuidado!” flexed his hip-hop chops with invigorating bombast, “Pai e Mãe” is sweetly melodic, infusing classic Brazilian samba with experimental flourishes. It’s another excellent preview of tds bem Global, out Sept 1st, an album that unfolds like a genre-agnostic mixtape, front-loaded with irresistible and effortless rhythms, careening across musical universes like a psychedelic fever-dream.
On the video Rocha explains “For this samba, that carries so much of our music’s tradition, and still sounds fresh, I wanted to strip things down and communicate through the rawness of the body language. Had my parents join the studio session, that was an emotional moment. I wrote this song about an episode we lived together, so it was a closing cycle to have them. This minimalist work in video expands the meanings of the album for me, that sometimes sounds so massive. Put things in a new perspective.”“a nice dose of '70s-style folk-pop” - Brooklyn Vegan
“lush folk-rock...a distinctly engaging sound” - Flood
"If you've ever wanted to breeze up the coast highway from Los Angeles to Malibu in a convertible as the sun sets out across the glittering Pacific Ocean, Swinging Stars will take you there" - MOJO
"Mapache couldn’t escape who they are at heart: acolytes of the ’60s Haight-Ashbury scene as filtered through the more recent desert psych sound” - Paste
”worn-in and relaxed with a classic air” - Raven Sings the Blues
Mapache release a new video for album single "Encinal Canyon,"a song about singing to yourself on long windy drives through the canyons. It’s about finding a quiet place where you can gain some insight even when you feel like you’re always on the run.
Mapache's dynamic and ambitious fifth album Swinging Stars arrives August 18 on Innovative Leisure / Calico Discos - an LP of calm, second-nature swagger, cosmic folk filled with distinct styles and their most cohesive album yet.
With a video for the lead single "People Please," Mapache announce Swinging Stars out August 18, a new LP of cosmic folk filled with distinct styles from a slow-burner that sounds something like Bob Weir fronting Crazy Horse to Toussaint swing and Parsons shine, a cowboy-chord ballad and more.
In the past, Mapache recording sessions have been pretty laid-back affairs, with friends coming and going, the sessions starting and stopping at the band’s discretion—as relaxed a process as the immaculately sunny vibes that their four albums would suggest. But on their dynamic and ambitious fifth album of cosmic-folk, Swinging Stars, Sam Blasucci and Clay Finch decided to take a trip and hunker down somewhere particularly special.
“It’s a pretty impactful place,” Finch says of the Panoramic House, the artist retreat where Swinging Stars was recorded. “It’s kind of dramatic. It’s a castle-y building on a hill, way up overlooking the Bay.”
Located in Stinson Beach in Marin County, California, the Panoramic House has recently hosted acts like My Morning Jacket, the War on Drugs, and Cate Le Bon, and was the ideal combination of scenic beauty and self-imposed confinement to allow Mapache to settle in for their most cohesive album yet. “That environment yields itself to a higher level of focus because everybody’s together for a week,” says Finch, explaining that the band stayed there during the process, sharing every bit of their time and energy on a shared vision. “We were all captive. No one could escape,” he laughs.
The band share a new video for first album singe "People Please," which they explain, "Some people talk your life into a corner in the name of god or religion, but you can talk your life back with whatever vocabulary you feel inside. It’s just about playing how you feel."
Swinging Stars, an album of calm, second-nature swagger, is the natural result of a band that’s existed in one form or another for its founders’ entire adult lives. Finch and Blasucci first met as students at La Cañada High School, just north of Los Angeles, where they both had a guitar class: “There wasn’t much supervision or anything,” remembers Blasucci. “It was really nice. And we got to just play guitars together.”
The two stayed friends through their college years—Finch went to Chico State and Blasucci spent two years as a missionary in Mexico—and eventually they ended up back in L.A., spending their days playing guitar together once again, just like old times. Working with producer/engineer Dan Horne (Cass McCombs, Allah-Las), they recorded four albums —2017’s Mapache, 2020’s From Liberty Street, 2021’s 3, and 2022’s Roscoe’s Dream. Often trading solos, and occasionally switching from English to Spanish, Finch and Blasucci are perfectly in sync together.
But the duo have also been developing their own personal voices in recent years as well—partially the result of the two of them living in separate cities for the first time in years. (Blasucci now lives in Ojai, and Finch in Malibu.) As Finch explains, that means the “meat and potatoes” of the songs were cooked up more on their own than they had been in the past. “What a Summer,” a slow-burn that sounds something like Bob Weir fronting Crazy Horse, is unmistakably Finch, for instance; “French Kiss,” with its Toussaint swing and Parsons shine, is Blasucci all the way. “Swinging Stars was probably the first Mapache record where each of us really leaned into our personal, distinct styles,” Blasucci explains.
Still, many of the songs on Swinging Stars are the result of a significant amount of group work on the road, sharpening and refining them, getting them just so before hitting the studio with their trusted collaborator Horne, who produced the set. Swinging Stars is also notable for its introduction of drummer Steve Didelot as a formal member of the band, with him playing on every track, and contributing an original song as well—“Reflecting Everything,” a cowboy-chord ballad sparkling with Finch and Blasucci’s guitars, and with Horne’s impeccable slide guitar.
There are also two special features: one from the Allah-Lahs’ Spencer Dunham, who plays bass on “French Kiss,” and another from David Rawlings, who graciously took the call to play acoustic guitar on the album’s finale, “Where’d You Go,” recording his part remotely. “He’s someone who Sam and I look up to in a pretty serious way,” Finch says. “So it was cool to have him.”
Mapache is so easygoing that their vibe belies their prolificness at times. Swinging Stars is their fourth album in as many years, and they show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Blasucci chalks it up partly to the fact that, when you have two principal songwriters in a band, “the songs come in quickly and they stack up quickly.” It helps, too, that they’re just in the right place to be making music. “We’re just trying to make hay while the sun shines,” as Finch puts it. “None of us have any babies or anything and we’re all pretty committed to playing as much music as we can. And really focused on making something beautiful.”
"...the Southwestern cowboy, who hums songs of simpler times. A storyteller at heart, the Americana multi-instrumentalist’s music hits you right in the feels" - Buzzbands
"...latest dusty ballad “The Clock’s Never Wrong” is perfectly apt for a song that feels wrong to listen to outside of the wide-open spaces of rural America" - Flood
"Mournful pedal steel pairs with Tim Hill's perfectly exhausted delivery... I’m a sucker for an album that’s pushing aside serenity in favor of simply finding solace and “Calico” hints that Giant is just that kind of record" - Raven Sings the Blues
"Hill's adoration of the likes of Neil Young (as well as classic Americana and singer-songwriter country) is as clar as day, just smoothed out by the California sun and good doses of campfire-friendly placidity. Giant is well written and expertly played...." Shindig
Tim Hill releases the single "The Irish Sea" from the forthcoming LP Giant (due out February 10th). According to Hill, the single "was written in proximity to the sea in a pub in Ireland on a napkin. The music came sometime later."