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LP
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FD 030LP
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Radio Diaspora works on the concept of cultural identity, which is flexible and dynamic. This provocation is generated by referring to all African ancestry moved by the diaspora and its sonorous, vocal, polyrhythmic, and polyphonic codes -- all the ancestral heritage that has spread throughout the world following expropriations, genocide, and slavery -- sampling and amplifying references that become triggers of energetic approaches. A heavy core of representations and senses aims to exorcize through noise and strangeness all secular violence against people of the African diaspora. In the title song of this album, Negro Humor, the respected Brazilian actor Grande Otelo highlights the contradiction of the clown, which awakens joy in everyone but is a sorrowful, lonely figure, ridiculing himself and putting himself in the most embarrassing situations. In "Despacho", Radio Diaspora explores the dichotomy of society by introducing a speech by Brazilian lawyer Hédio Silva Júnior specialized in Afro-Brazilian religion. He questions a rule under discussion in Brazil's Congress that would prohibit the use of chickens in Candomblé and Umbanda rituals. Silva Júnior points out that everyone takes a stand to protect the rights of animals, but the same cannot be said of the defense of young black people and outlying societies. The track "Meia-Noite" evokes a celebrated point of Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian religious syncretic cult, permeated by free jazz and electronic atmospheres developed by the duo. The other songs on the album are divided into two parts. They feature the voices of North American icons of the black struggle for civil rights: The tracks "A.H.M. Al-Shabazz 1 and 2", amid sonic dissonances, use extracts from speeches by the American leader Malcolm X, and in "Muhammad Ali 1 and 2" you hear quotes from famous interviews given by the boxer and activist. Ali ironizes the questions he asked his mother as a child, why all good and positive things are associated with white. His inquiry is seen as a joke by the white audience present at the TV show, which laughs off Ali's scathing criticism. Radio Diaspora uses art as an instinctive force to reject submission to traditions and culture as taming. Negro Humor is the tenth album by the duo of Romulo Alexis and Wagner Ramos. "The (album) sound means to exorcise racism out of our minds and make us ready to act." --Rômulo Alexis. Includes insert.
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