A tribute to the forgotten Brazilian sub-genre and 80s dancemovement “Charme” an album of effervescent machine funkharking back to a golden era of Brazilian party music.
The era of interest for Sao Paulo’s Pedro Zopelar begins inthe 1980s in Rio de Janeiro, when a particular phenomenoncaught on at suburban parties which became known asCharme. “Charme was like a mix of slow boogie, RnB andnew jack swing,” explains Zopelar. “DJ Corello startedcalling ‘charme’ the moment
of the party when he played slow grooves and felt that thepeople started dancing differently, with sexier synchronizedmoves. Some years later, charme evolved from an awaitedmoment of a night to a whole movement of parties justplaying that kind of music. On this record I tried to makesomething that brings this emotional feeling to my music in amodern way.”
Much like the original genre-not-genre he drew inspirationfrom, Zopelar’s approach across his latest LP spansdifferent moods and tempos. There’s blissful, sultry mysterylingering around ‘Clara’ and ‘Do You Feel?’ while OSAGIElends some chops to the exquisite, Rompler-powered synthfunk of ‘Chain Net’. The lead singles ‘Shibuya’, ‘Charme’ and‘Passado’ all tap into varying shades of deep house, fromslinky City Pop-tinted loungers to peak-time dance pop andLarry Heard-influenced flavours, with the constant beingZopelar’s immaculate production and the unbridled warmthof his compositions.
Continuing the Latin-rooted theme of the album, the artwork conception of Charme was realized bymultidisciplinary artist and curator Ode, showcasing apopular style of street paintings made by anonymous artiststhroughout Latin America. It’s not about graffiti-culture but apopular solution utilized by small restaurants, bars and otherestablishments to use their own walls for commercialpurposes, hiring artists to paint food and drink menus orother information about their products.