“A quilombo was an autonomous, fugitive settlement founded by ex-slaves and others in colonial brazil. The Quilombo do Futuro is more than a possible physical space. It is a potential world-wide agglomeration of cultural resistance. After centuries of wealth generated by an economy built on slavery (and the subsequent post-abolition adaptations), the Quilombo do Futuro is a break from this legacy. Fortified by an international community based on plurality, inclusive democracy and direct communication, cultural resistance is paramount in creating a sustainable, healthy existence in the face of world-wide corporate domination.”

I am thinking about that short story by Peter Carey….. A bird brought to Earth gives people such a euphoric buzz when they stroke its feathers that it’s taken on tour. Along the way it coos, it sleeps, it shits, and out of the bird’s shit, trees grow. All over the world, wherever the bird has been, trees grow. Pushing through the asphalt, breaking up roads, tearing down buildings…

I think about what is happening across the world right now. Think of the groundswells of revolution, big and small, political, cultural, social, everywhere. Think of the ‘uncivilisation’ movement and others like it, and of the ‘global bass’ movement, the democratisation of communication, the open sharing of art and stories. Think of ‘western’ colonial, capitalist, corporate civilisation (all the c words) as the asphalt. Think of the multitude of rich human culture buried beneath…

‘Exotic pleasures’ bringing artists from far-flung parts of the world together is not new. What is new is the speed of connection, and the availability, of music especially. And the new challenges of integrity or otherwise, that this freedom of sharing brings. Where the purpose is true, cultural collaboration can only be a good thing. Like the multiplying roots of the forest, it should expand our minds, strengthen our foundations, and move us all towards complexity. Diversity – the key to health. In the global bass scene, the many collaborations of Maga Bo – US-born producer, traveller, an artist fully open to and mindful of the cultural and personal contexts of his collaborators, from India to Africa to Brazil –produces some of the best flowerings of this movement towards diversity. Rather than the distillation of culture which comes from ‘globalisation’ and even ‘world music’ this is a deepening of culture and of cultural celebration.

So … if the corporate globalised world is the asphalt, Maga Bo and his collaborators’ ‘transnational bass’ is the blue bird, and this music is the ‘good shit’ that cracks the concrete …

“…The roots of the terreiro growing and overtaking the asfalto. Crumbling it bit by bit. Life that springs from urban decay…”

Quilombo do Futuro (on Post World Industries, released May) is deep immersion in Bo’s adopted home of Brazil, filtered through his unique beats artistry. Collaborating with Brazilian artists BNegão, Gaspar, Lucas Santtana and Marcelo Yuka, Funkero, Biguli, BaianaSystem, Camaleão, the soulful voice of Rosângela Macedo, along with ‘Guyanese Brooklynite’ Jahdan Blakkamoore and ‘Panamanian Chicagoite’ (power-animal) MC Zulu. The album is joyful and tense, political and spiritual, bass-driven and melodic, and I defy you to listen without at least a part of your body dancing. Most wonderfully, it’s fully organic. Percussion from Bo and João Hermeto beat the heart of the country, and everything originates from true sound. It feels lighter than his previous work, maybe because it’s coming from a home place, an optimistic place. Maybe I can say, Quilombo do Futuro is reflecting a world where the joyful roots are again taking hold, where the shoots are again seeing the sky.

Sample and click to buy here:

...Then, there is the remix album: 18 tracks from the likes of Frikstailers, Dub Gabriel, El Remolon, Uproot Andy, Stereotyp and.. more.. take Quilombo do Futuro into hip hop, dubstep, grime territory, make this a truly global harvest festival: