Various Artists: Rio Baile Funk—More Favela Booty Beats

Various Artists
Rio Baile Funk—More Favela Booty Beats
Essay Recordings

The bump of Rio Baile Funk—More Favela Booty Beats will sound familiar to anyone who has pounced around the house to the M.I.A. record. A compilation documenting the dance music of the Rio ghetto, the first Rio Baile Funk (along with Diplo's DJ must-have-mix Favela on Blast) put the genre into hipster dance-party rotation and the 2004 Village Voice Pazz and Jop year-end poll. A furnace grind of Miami booty bass and funk carioca, the sound is characterized by stuttering lo-fi samples and blown-bin raps. Perhaps the first comp's weapons-grade hotness owed much to the genre's regional incubation, but volume dois is decidedly less potent (or perhaps just poorly curated) and specifically tracks baile funk's progress in the last three years. The liner notes submit that wider access to computers and filesharing networks has made for the miscegenation that is seeding in the new baile tracks. But outside elements don't compel as much as they distill. It's not as if the pongy 1-2 beats have been crunkitized, or that hiccups of Dominican bachata have lost their novelty, but the material isn't particularly lethal and certainly not much to throw on the tables to impress a floor of people. There are some careful highlights: the dancehall damage of Voltair's "Cleck Cleck Boom," the lecherous growl of Mr. Catra, and the teen tone of Juliana e as Fogoasas. If you are seeking an update on favela funk's future, you're better off subscribing to Diplo's podcast, which will keep you bouncing and eager to hear more.