MAGA BO (Soot Records)

Maga Bo is a producer/DJ based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His work spans the breadth of transnational urban bass music from hip hop and kwaito to baile funk and jungle ragga to dub, grime and dubstep with flares of samba, rai, bhangra, skewed electronic beats and loudspeaker jitter.

His live performances are a hybrid mix of DJ set and live PA where he mixes diverse sounds culled from pirate cassettes bought on the street in various parts of the world, MP3s from the internet, obscure vinyl found in underground shops, original beats, unreleased remixes and exclusive tracks. His performances often include the presence of guest MCs and musicians.

DJing and producing tracks with a portable laptop studio, he has worked and performed in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia, North and South America and Europe. Maga Bo has collaborated with, remixed and been remixed by Filastine, Dr. Das (ex-Asian Dub Foundation), Nettle, Ghislain Poirier, Quantic, TM Juke, and Dub Gabriel.

His current releases include his debut full length album, Archipelagoes, and two 12" vinyls on Soot Records as well as a 7" vinyl and compilation on Nanny Tango/MELT 2000. In addition, there are 3 accompanying video clips filmed in Senegal and South Africa. Aside from his critically acclaimed mixtape, Confusion of Tongues (Soot Records 2007), his work has also been released on Tru-Thoughts and WordSound.

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And here is the raw text from the ARCHIPELAGOES press release:

MAGA BO - ARCHIPELAGOES. CD/2x12 out now on Soot Records.

This is globalization in the worst sense: jetlag skin coloring, dengue in Rio, a handful of irritated Africans who owe us money or -- worse -- data.ARCHIPELAGOES.

But then there's the music! Conceived and produced during Maga Bo's extensive time in Africa. He leveraged offdays as a film sound recordist into kamikaze production sessions. A $6 hotel room turns into a recording studio...

World music is music with truly global reach: 50 Cent, U2, Shakira. ARCHIPELAGOES is the other thing - emissions from the flip side where (it's happening, now) vocals recorded in one-room studios on a microphone taped to a refrigerator in lieu of a stand get released on the internet and played over local sound systems that same night. By the next day the track has been sampled again by youth 6-time-zones away and mashed up with whatever local concoctions they got going on. Maga Bo's tapped into that weird new force-field.. I don't know what it is, but it helped his album turn beautiful... aided by a mix of knucklehead determination and the gifted accidents that fall when understanding happens despite the friction of honest collaboration, despite itself. ARCHIPELAGOES.

Maga Bo's music makes people dance better. I've seen this happen. Everyone who's caught his live show knows it...