Weird Baile: Collected Rips 2004-2024 review – a hallucinatory trip to baile funk’s outer limits

Originating in 1980s Brazil, baile funk began as a bass-heavy blend of syncopated folk rhythms and hip-hop-influenced sampling, and has since developed into regional styles ranging from the hyperpop freneticism of D.Silvestre to DJ K’s eerie and cacophonous bruxaria and the house-sampling sound of MC Lan. Coming together by sharing baile funk edits on SoundCloud, producers JLZ, VHOOR, Mu540 and DJ RaMeMes began releasing their own version in 2017 as Weird Baile. Now compiling two decades of their lo-fi productions as Collected Rips 2004-2024, Weird Baile establish their sound as a curious blend of Brazilian and British dancefloors.

Sparse, harsh and artfully arranged, the Weird Baile signature strips baile funk down to its essentials: vocals, bass and rhythm. Opener Aquecimento Do Ih Caraca embodies this ethos with its industrial sub-bass, chopped-up shouted vocals and percussive beatboxing, producing two minutes of menacing intensity. The mood matches perfectly with the similarly abrasive energy of grime instrumentals, and on Grime Do Weird Baile the group mix the instantly recognisable vocalisations on Skepta and JME’s 2006 Rhythm & Gash Freestyle beat with clattering electronic percussion and Portuguese lyrics. This connection to the UK bass continuum continues with the skittering drill bass of PPRT and the cavernous, dubstep-influenced sounds of CaFaGesTeh, as well as in the ambient opening of Pique da Oakley, which calls back to dubstep producer Mala’s 2007 track Changes.

Rather than simply replicate these motifs, Weird Baile’s skill comes in disrupting and deconstructing them into a new mould. Grime Do Weird Baile, for instance, flips Skepta and JME’s front-footed aggression into a bouncing dancefloor number, while Beat Derruba Gringo slows and unsettles a trance synth melody into an ominous assault. This wonky, decades-spanning compilation, as outlandish as it is alluring, sends baile funk into a hallucinatory zone.

Also out this month

Soumik Datta, master of the Indian stringed instrument the sarod, returns with his new album Melodies in Slow Motion (The Spontaneous Society). Taking the natural world as his inspiration, Datta mimics the zigzagging flight of the honeybee in Journey to the Nectar and the beauty of seasonal change in the wistful melodies of the title track. Senegalese ensemble Orchestra Baobab release their first album in a decade, Made In Senegal (Strut/Madoky Music), combining ebullient Afro-Cuban melodies with mbalax rhythm and jazz instrumentation in a new multigenerational lineup. As joyous a listen as ever. Trombonist Ryan Keberle’s Collectiv Do Brasil turn their attention to Brazilian composer João Donato on Here Is Donato! (Alternate Side Records). The quintet find ample space for deep-swinging improvisations and intricate interplay in Donato’s luscious melodies.