Duo from Rio de Janeiro releases their electronic disco-funk on Cocada Music

By Claudia Assef

A bike ride with the sea breeze hitting the face and that nice sun tanning the skin. That is what we need now, isn't it? And that is what you will have earn by extension, in music format, when listening to Nu Azeite music, who has just arrived to the Cocada Music family, Latin American arm of the German label Get Physical, guarantee of quality since 2002.

The first attack is the single Vem Com Noix, a disco-funk that will make you travel with a seventies footprint from Tim Maia and Lincoln Olivetti, but there is also a foot on the current dance floors, from house music DJs to disco music fans, like Todd Terje and Koze.

Formed by the musician, DJ, singer and music producer from Rio de Janeiro, Fabio Santanna and by DJ Bernardo Campos, one of the great agitators of the underground house and disco scene in Rio de Janeiro, the duo Nu Azeite musically sums up the Brazil we want.

The duo added organic grooves with a salty flavor to must have elements of a good house music track; synths and beats that combine to create a soundtrack that has DNA as carioca as iced mate and biscuit globo.

Nu Azeite brings a happy mix of organic and electronic music. A balanced blend between the sweetness of the sugar and the sourness of the lemon, which together with a beautiful cachaça, make up the perfect caipirinha.

On the one hand, Fabio, an experienced musician, who has played the keyboard with medallions from MPB such as Marcos Valle, Elza Soares, João Bosco, Lenine, among others, in addition to being the founder of Nave studio, one of the most popular of this generation. On the other, Bernardo Campos, DJ resident of Rara, who often shares DJ booths with names like Moodymann, Laurent Garnier, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Kenny Dope, Derrick Carter, Detroit Swindle, Miss Kittin, among others.

The meeting of them arose from a failed booking, a cruise to Fernando de Noronha that never happened, where both of them were consulted to play. The trip to paradise did not happen, but connected them. “The cruise never happened, but we kept in touch. Until I got in Fabio's studio to make music. The harmony was good and we started to meet once a week to produce. We soon saw that we had enough material to engage in a project. Nu Azeite was born”, recalls Bernardo.

Musician by training, Fabio had been flirting with electronic music for a long time: “with the crisis of major record labels, the entire music scene suffered a great impact, which affected everyone in the industry. I realized that for me it would be an opportunity to expand, to learn a new thing. Then I started to act as a DJ and to incorporate this new tool in the gigs that I was already doing as a musician ”.
This way, he killed two birds with one stone. There was the studio, waiting for Azeite.

Just like many other DJs around the world, Bernardo and Fabio also drank from the same source that gringos love to try: Brazilian Grooves and Boogie, the sound that the country created from the digestion of soul and American disco music, pulled in bundle of the particularities of our political, economic and social issues.

Among the names that will jump as references when you hear Nu Azeite will appear Tony Bizarro, Toni Tornado, Banda Black Rio, União Black, Som Nosso de Cada Dia, Marilene, Robson Jorge e Lincoln Olivetti, Os Diagonais, Marcos Valle, Junior Mendes, Márcia Maria, Azymuth, Gerson King Combo and others that print vinyl records that today are disputed in vinyl stores throughout Brazil and the world.

However, it is not only from rarity that Nu Azeite lives. Fabio and Bernardo lives the present and bring current dance floors references, from Joey Negro to Crazy P, always keeping their feet on house music, this young electronic lady descended directly from its organic matrix, disco music.

"Our Brazilian Music is pretty rich. The amount of international edits that you find on SoundCloud is amazing. We think this recognition it is natural and fair, hopefully it will grow more and more", says Nu Azeite duo.

As they say, Nu Azeite is a junction of Bernardo's house music with Fabio's Brazilianness and, in the middle of it all, a common passion for boogie and disco-funk. “Gilberto Gil and Tim Maia are at the top of our list, always! There is also a very carioca thing, something from who was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro as we both were. And, finally, a touch of Bahia, since we have a very special relationship with that magical land ”, sums up Bernardo.

What to expect from this mixture? Heals for the resumption of high spirits, now with a little push from Cocada, a label that wants to discover new “rarities” not only on Brazilian soil, but throughout Latin America.

“The story with Cocada / Get Physical was very positive because it has everything to do with the project, since the label seeks this mixture of electronic music with Brazilian / Latin music. The coolest thing was to know that the Get Physical team got hooked on the tracks, now and then we get an audio coming from Germany trying to sing the lyrics [laughs]”, says Bernardo.

With Fabio vocals on almost all tracks, except for Chicago (which has Bernardo singing in English) and Me Deixa Louca (with Bia Barros vocals), the album titled Nu Azeite was mixed and mastered by Pedro Tie. Before the full album, there are two singles on the needle: Me Deixa Louca and Chicago.