Spin (p.98) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he album plays like a soundtrack to the most high-spirited place that you've never heard of."
Vibe (p.126) - "This intriguing compilation features revelatory tracks, new and old, from the region."
Subtitled "What's Happening in Pernambuco," this seventh volume in Luaka Bop's influential Brazil Classics series examines the relatively new and revolutionary music scene in Northeast Brazil. Centered in the town of Recife (home to the late Chico Science), the Northeast scene--referred to by its locals as Mangue Bit--is still only in the midpoint of its second decade. Mangue is a petrie dish of musical hybrids: baiao and samba, carimb¢ and rap, frevo carnavala and punk, folk and electronica, all performed in a defiantly life-affirming way that, in spirit, resembles the can-do, boot-strap musical activism of the Clash, Public Enemy, and other pioneers.