Belém - Amazon city sounds

The Amazon is not just a jungle the size of Europe. Or a river holding a fifth of all the world's fresh running water. Full of crocodiles and piranhas, 8 foot long freshwater sharks, stingrays, and dolphins. And catfish as large and hungry as a pig. It's also a place where people live. Belém, which lies at the river's mouth in Brazil is home to almost two million; and it's been one of the country's principal cities since the Portuguese hacked it out of the forest to build a fort. Modern Belém is a beautiful colonial city backed by a jagged cityscape of skyscrapers and surrounded by thousands of square kilometres of wilderness. And it has perhaps the liveliest music scene in Latin America.

Rainforest Techno

At the heart of Belém’s party scene is techno-brega. In Portuguese brega means 'cheesy'. And there is nowhere in Brazil where tacky music is more energized, frenetic or fun than here. Imagine Colombian dance-club Salsa sped up, fused with Rio baile funk, hip-hop and Duane Eddy guitar and sung by bottle-blondes in tiny skirts backed by legions of bare-chested male dancers and you may begin to get the picture. At weekends tens of thousands of locals gather in vast warehouses on the edge of the city to dance wildly to the techno-brega shows. Or they throng into sweaty make-shift clubs where DJs spin the sound from vast stages that look like the flight consoles from space cruisers - designed by an acid head obsessed with 1970s Sci Fi.

The documentary Good Copy Bad Copy (directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen and Henrik Moltke) is about the current state of copyright and culture. Bootlegs and illegal samples are the lifeblood of the technobrega scene - this clip shows how the DJs use rampant local CD piracy as a super-efficient distribution and promotional channel to reach the fans of their mega ‘aparelhagem’ sound systems –.

Surf Guitar

Surfing doesn't immediately spring to mind when most people think of the Amazon. But Amazon Brazilians have been surfing for decades. Every month a tsunami-like tidal bore wave called the Pororoca rides up the Amazon river system, reaching speeds of up to 30 km/h and travelling almost 200 kilometres upstream. And Pororoca surfing has its own soundtrack – a kind of twangy, lilting, psychedelic dance music called guitarrada. There's always a guitarrada band playing live on one of Belém's river beaches or waterfront music clubs at weekends. The hottest and most experimental are La Pupuña– famous in the Amazon for their surf guitar take on Pink Floyd – the ‘Charque’ Side of the Moon.

La Pupuña play "Americana"

Favela forest funk

There are favela slums in Belém too – as marginalised and close-knit as those in Rio or Recife. And the music of the Belém favelas is equally dynamic and militant - but with a quite different sound to Nação Zumbi or Afro Reggae. Bands like Coletivo Rádio Cipó fuse local carimbó rhythms with Hip Hop, reggae and Amazon guitar to produce a sound that explodes out of the speakers like a rat-a-tat of gunfire and pounds with rhythm as energising as an intravenous shot of Guaraná. Lyrics denounce corruption, violence and complacence.

Coletivo Rádio Cipó – Matinha do Cruzeiro

Jungle Metal

It may be most famous as the land of breathy Bossa but some of Brazil's most internationally successful bands play Heavy Metal. And the country's best new bands play in the black-paint and steel clubs of Belém's city centre. Act of the moment are Madame Saatan - fronted by Sammliz - a delicate, wispy singer with a face like a fashion model and perhaps the biggest and richest Brazilian voice since Elis Regina. They have just signed to Brazil's leading alternative label, Trama records.

Madame Sataan video-clip "Devorados" directed by Priscilla Brasil

The Call of the Wild

For a live show at the other end of the musical spectrum go to one of Albery Albuquerque rainforest concerts. Albery is a conservatory-trained guitarist who spends several months a year in the Amazon recording animal calls. He mixes these with his own music and reproduces their calls so accurately on his guitar that birds are literally seduced out of the forest when he plays live.

Travel

The best guidebook is Footprint Brazil (www.footprintbooks.com). TAM (www.tam.com.br) fly to Belém via São Paulo. Air Caraibes (www.aircaraibes.com) fly from Paris via Martinique. Visit Marajó island for beaches and nature and stay in the Casarão (www.hotelcasarao.com) – one of the best eco-tourism hotels in Brazil.

Text and photos by Alex Robinson

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