By gathering so many far-flung but fully committed experiments within 78 minutes, the greatest accomplishment of White Elephant is laying bare his febrile creativity and commitment to growth. Head scratching has never been so much fun.”
Peter Margasak, The Wire
“An enormous sense of fun underpins this exhilarating ride…Leo's art is tantalising in every sense.”
Daniel Spicer, New Internationalist
“A dazzlingly chaotic, care-free compilation… Confrontational, complex and utterly compelling.”
John Parry, Backseat Mafia
“The ideal introduction to a deeply political artist whose output grazes tropicalia, funk carioca, samba, noise and even free jazz.”
Boomkat
Hive Mind are excited to have worked with Rio de Janeiro based label QTV, to bring you this retrospective from the cosmic joker of contemporary Brazilian music, Negro Leo.
NEGRO LEO - White Elephant 2LP
It's hard to know where to start with Negro Leo.
I could start by saying that Negro Leo's background is in Anthropology and Sociology, and that he didn't start making music until he was 28 years old.
I could tell you that in 2020 Paula Gaitán (who has also made films about Arto Lindsay, Eliane Radigue and Agnès Varda) made a documentary film called Riverock: É Rocha e Rio, Negro Leo about him.
I could also tell you that in 2021 he became the subject of a scholarly book called Deixa Quimar (Let It Burn) written by philosophy professor and music critic, Bernardo Oliveira.
I could also tell you that during his recording career over the past nearly 20 years he has collaborated with a who's who of artists at the cutting edge of contemporary Brazilian music including producers Sergio Machado and Renato Godoy and musicians such as Fábio Sá, Lucas Pires, Kiko Dinucci, Juçara Marçal, Domenico Lancellotti, Ricardo Dias Gomes, Eduardo Manso and of course his wife, Ava Rocha. These are some of the artists who have over the years, helped Negro Leo de Pindaré-Mirim (Maranhão), or Leonardo Campelo Gonçalves as shown on his passport, realise his unorthodox, unpredictable and deeply political musical vision.
The music on this retrospective, which draws together songs from his 14 albums, EPs and singles released since 2012, ranges widely and wildly across genres and styles, from the urgent and angular no-wave inspired punk-funk of Niños Heroes or Ilhas de Calor, through the psychedelic hoedown of Noite Invertida or the beautiful and delicate Esferas and on to the maximalist hyperpop of more recent works like RELA or Desejo de Lacrar. Negro Leo consistently confounds, confuses, disturbs and provokes.
His music is explicitly and fiercely Brazilian and draws on the history of black Brazilian music for inspiration - Gilberto Gil and Tropicalism, Itamar Assumpção and the Vanguard Paulista, Funk Carioca, the Boi's rhythm from the northern carnivals, the samba of the streets and the country - it's all thrown into the mix, along with free-jazz, noise and various chunks of non-Brazilian pop. Leo's music and songs serve as an essential documentation of the country's rapidly shifting social fabric in the digital age, a time in which the country and its people feel lost in a 'jungle of pixels'.
Some of these surreal songs can feel overwhelming at times, like a wall of noise full of unfamiliar sounds and rhythms, but there's an unapologetic punk spirit behind it all, alongside a genius composer. It's worth pushing through the that sense of overwhelm to the place where the beauty and complexity of the composition and songwriting shines.
