voz di sanicolau: fundo de marê palinha
Francisco Espregueira
Next up on the stellar series of releases by Analog Africa, we go back all the way to Rotterdam, 1976. Seven Cabo Verdean musicians going by the name Voz di Sanicolau gather in a small recording studio to lay down an album of fearsome coladeira songs inspired by the music of their home island of São Nicolau. Fundo de Marê Palinha is an historic piece composed by six firing tracks that are deeply felt and fiercely executed by a group that incorporates, as so many Cabe Verdean artists do, their heritage and their legacy as one of the most creative and musical nations in our world.
Vanishing after the creation of this album the band has in Fundo De Marê Palinha their sole proof of their existence reedited by Analog Africa forty-four years later. Treble-soaked electric guitar lines snake back and forth through percussion-and-cavaquinho driven rhythms rooted in the sound of the islands established by the previous generation of Cabo Verdean émigrés; subtle keyboards wash through the background, and the vocals, traded between Joana do Rosario and Tô-Zé, alternately push the music forward and soar above it. Fundo Marê Palinha is now available in vinyl and is some of the finest Cabo Verdean music ever made.