Quilombo do Futuro dives deep into afro-brazilian rhythms and sound system culture.  It's the roots of the terreiro growing and overtaking the asfalto.  Crumbling it bit by bit.  Life that springs from urban decay.  Coco, maculelê, samba, jongo and capoeira meet ragga and dub, hip hop and kuduro, grime and dubstep. Organic elements combined with electronic production to bring the punch and power for big sound systems, this is serious batucada and bass, mids, treble. TUDO.

Maga Bo has performed and worked in over 40 different countries - from Delhi to Sydney, Berlin to Addis Ababa, New York City to Brasília, all the while keeping his feet (and ears) firmly planted in the sonic axis RJ/SP/BA - Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador.  Inspired as much by his experiences touring internationally in the global beats and bass world as his time spent in the traditional Afro-Brazilian roots scene in Rio de Janeiro, Quilombo do Futuro offers a careful juxtaposition of raw, heavy bass with organic, instrumental and vocal subtlety.  Far from relying on pre-made loops of "Brazilian" drums or other shallow cultural signifiers, this album was recorded with some of the most original and brightest musicians in Brazil today. 

Working with celebrated Brazilian musicians, BNegão, Gaspar, Lucas Santtana and Marcelo Yuka, the record also brings in new talents, Funkero, Biguli and one of the most innovative groups in Brazilian music today, BaianaSystem.  Bo's mestre of capoeira angola, Mestre Camaleão, brings the berimbau while Rosângela Macedo's vocals hold down tradition.  Guyanese Brooklynite, Jahdan Blakkamoore, and Panamanian Chicagoite, MC Zulu, bring the dancehall vibe to riddims that most don't even try to touch.  All percussion was tracked and produced by Maga Bo and his long time partner in riddim, percussionist and fellow carioca, João Hermeto. 

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.  

Born in the United States and based in Rio de Janeiro since 1999, Maga Bo has collaborated with Mulatu Astatke, Issa Bagayogo, Bollywood star Shilpa Rao, BaianaSystem as well as releasing critically acclaimed remixes for Poirier, Luisa Maita, Filastine, Blick Bassy and Bomba Estéreo.  His music and remixes have also been released on Tru-Thoughts, Ninja Tune, Cumbancha, Dutty Artz, World Connection and many others.  Among his many international tours, he has performed at the Sydney Festival, WOMEX, Club Transmediale and Mundial.

FREE DOWNLOAD

02  No Balanço da Canoa feat. Rosângela Macedo and Marcelo Yuka

“Speaker-bangin’ before all else” (XLR8R) with “some of the smartest ears in the game” (Chicago Reader), “few can make a room explode like Maga Bo” (Flavorpill). A purveyor of “international sonic weaponry and rhythm knowledge” (Rough Trade), the Rio de Janeiro-based DJ/producer is a veteran pioneer of global bass music, with 20+ years of dedicated experience searching out unheralded music bumping from speaker-boxes in the world’s grittiest corners, from Addis Ababa to Zanzibar. 

Maga Bo’s sophisticated approach to international sounds comes from in-person, on-site collaboration with other artists. He has worked on location in Morocco, India, Ethiopia, Senegal, Zanzibar, and South Africa, to name just a few, while delving into a whirlwind of local styles: chaâbi, asmari music, taraab, manganiyar folk music, masqanda, and mbalax. All instruments and vocals come straight from the source. His original riddims and recordings, enriched by the presence of live vocalists and percussion, and enhanced by the philosophies of hip-hop and dub, take the global bass DJ set to a new level, one driven by first-hand experience searching open-air markets instead of just searching the web. 

His current work explores the contours of Afro-Brazilian culture and includes collaborations with the brightest talents in Brazil’s vast musical landscape. An immigrant himself, Maga Bo put down roots in his adopted hometown of Rio -- a cultural melting pot like no other where he has produced baile funk MCs and played drums in his neighborhood samba school. Journeys to Brazil’s northeast region have resulted in recording sessions with unsung folklore heroes Grupo Bongar and Samba de Coco Raízes de Arcoverde. 

A globally in-demand performer, Maga Bo has graced stages from India to Ethiopia to Brazil, at major summer festivals across Europe, and on tour in North America and Australia. He has performed at WOMAD UK, WorldWide, Sydney Festival, WOMEX, Transmediale and Mundial. He’s collaborated with Buraka Som Sistema’s Kalaf, Max Normala aka Ninja of South African rap-rave outfit Die Antwood, Ethio-Jazz godfather Mulatu Astatke, Bollywood star Shilpa Rao, and Brazilian chart toppers BaianaSystem and BNegão, and released critically acclaimed remixes for Asian Dub Foundation, Batida, Bomba Estéreo, Poirier, Filastine, and Systema Solar. 

Maga Bo’s groundbreaking debut full-length album, Archipelagoes, was released on DJ /rupture's Soot Records in 2008 after recording sessions in Senegal, Tanzania, Morocco and South Africa with heavyweight local rappers and musicians. His second full-length, Quilombo do Futuro, landed at #1 on the iTunes Brazilian music chart and #1 on the Rhapsody world music album of the year. The album was lauded by the New York Times as “a cultural manifesto riding on rhythm” and by National Public Radio (NPR) as “defin[ing] a kind of virtual refuge for traditional culture, giving it a welcome place in the techy global music soundscape of the 21st century." 

His track, ”No Balanço da Canoa,” garnered over half a million views on Youtube and was featured in Grand Theft Auto V and the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He’s released music on Jarring Effects, Tru-Thoughts, Ninja Tune, Sound Way, ZZK, Cumbancha and many others. 

He currently releases confrontational, bass-heavy digital roots music from all over Brazil on Kaxambu Records and is an integrant of the live tropical-electro soundsystem band, Sociedade Recreativa. 

Having performed and worked in over 50 countries, Maga Bo walks the walk of the real globalization. Music is the weapon in a world of cultural appropriation, wide-spread poverty and mass migrations. 

Maga Bo bookings - booking*at*magabo.com

Brazilian underground artist, I work with IDM, Experimental Eletronica or Experimental Hip Hop, VERY influenced by Aphex Twin or Flying Lotus.

DJ/Artist

02 No Balanço da Canoa feat. Rosângela Macedo and Marcelo Yuka

MAGA BO