Rocky Marsiano - Meu Kamba (2014)

There's something about the old streets of Lisbon - we even have one with a name that translates into "well of the blacks": you might be walking past a door and hear a bit of marrabenta and then, further down the street, there will be hints of semba, funaná escaping from an open window of a car passing by. Lisbon is full of these sounds. And smells, and colours…
D-Mars, a producer who also goes by the name of Rocky Marsiano, grew as an artist in Lisbon, formed a hip hop group with guys with ties to Cape Verde and Angola. Africa was always close, always present. And hip hop taught him that vinyl records are pathways into the past and future when put to good use on the hands of a dj or in the inner circuits of an MPC sampler.
D-Mars, now residing in Amsterdam, challenged Rui Miguel Abreu, a friend, an ally, a co-conspirator on many past adventures, to select some records from his personal collection. The result was a batch of vinyl from Cape Verde and Angola, from Mozambique and São Tomé.
All D-Mars had to do was to dive in, extract the deepest grooves from those significant slabs of black plastic and reimagine Africa with the help of his MPC. This is the result: re-edits with the soul of classic african vinyl, beats that try to answer to the the wildest of questions - what if b-boys danced to semba instead of funk?

Rocky Marsiano is the beats project of ‘Lisbon hip-hop veteran’ producer/DJ/MC D-Mars. For his latest release Meu Kamba, Marsiano collected a batch of classic vinyl from Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique and flipped them into glistening MPC arrangements with a booming backbeat. The 14-track album runs on endless semba & funaná guitar and vocal samples (highlights include “Psycho Baio” and “Semba Assim”)

Tracklist:

01. Psycho Baio
02. Dancante
03. Tuta
04. Genti (feat. Sagaz)
05. Mexe Mexi
06. Semba Assim
07. Selva Rainha
08. Kassula (feat. Sagaz)
09. Da Banda
10. Black Like Gold
11. C.L. Suave
12. Owyele
13. Irri Birri
14. Rengue Lengue