Brazilian Scene.

This small report tries to show past and present of brazilian hardcore/breakcore. I have to say that I (retrigger) am gonna tell it from my point of view and this is a subjective text, based on my experiences, that’s one of the reasons that this is gonna be written in first person. It’s also gonna be written around TEMP crew history, as I don’t know anyone else doing parties or anything else like it over here. Of course, i am not making this up, so trust me, and let’s cut the crap and start.

I think it all started in 2001, when I met Bruno Tozzini on the internet. We met on a mailing list and soon were talking about making music, a band, exchanging links and everything. Bruno met Daniel Gozales some months later, in São Paulo. They played in a small party (it was Bruno’s birthday) where they met Julian, a french hardcore/breakcore DJ who was living in brasil for some months at the time. Together, they did the first TEMP (Temporary Eletronic Musik Party) party in 2002. At the second one, they booked me for my first live PA.
Party after party, there were more people, and more artists involved. Based on Hakim Bey’s concepts of temporariness and psychological nomadism, the parties were thrown in different venues and places, each one with a different line up, different interventions and different results. At the 4th party, it reached the TEMP template, like it is known today. DJs and live acts, VJs mixing video live, group performances and construction site decoration.
In those parties, they had several djs such as DJ Hidraulico (Daniel Gonzales), DJ Reverse Tunes (Bruno Tozzini), DJ Caio Macea, (those three running TEMP these days), DJ Enrico, DJ Gen, DJ Bruna (now with toxic dancehall crew in Bristol, UK), DJ James Kinetec (UK), DJ Jerome Hill (UK).
TEMP had been one of the only places in Brasil where you could have local live acts playing harsh and experimental eletronic music. I have been the most active live act, being at TEMP 6 times. Other brasilian acts were the abstract noise of Cine Vitoria (www.nemo.com.br/cinevictoria), the wonderful rhythmic industrial noise act Gengivas Negras (http://gengivasnegras.blogspot.com), the ambient IDM by Gunfunter Kunsten and the Industrial one man band Phantasma.
In August 2003, TEMP crew was invited to coordinate “Território Anti-Espetáculo” (Anti-Spectacle Territory), a festival of counter culture and political activism, sponsored by the Commerce Council Social Service in São Paulo. As they were sponsored, they managed to book Saoulaterre, from France, to be the first foreign breakcore act in Brasil. At those times, I wasn’t so involved with them, so i wasn’t booked and hadn’t heard much about it. Talking with them today, they say that it was one of the best TEMP-related event and they got really big crowds, like 1500 to 2000 people.
After that, in march 2004, they did the biggest TEMP party (these ones never had sponsors), at a Escola de Samba warehouse. Escola de Samba means School of Samba and it’s the name of those blocks that you see on the carnaval parades, with all those naked women on the cars and a huge percussion section. These schools have big warehouses where they built the cars, rehearsal their samba and throw some parties. This party, TEMP v9.0, had 1000 people, that had seen the first Gengivas Negras show in São Paulo, along TEMP DJs and VJs, Jerome Hill (English DJ living in São Paulo) and others. The audience response was very positive, the collective had some profit. It was the beginning of a very good year for them and for breakcore in Brasil.
When i came back from my european tour, it was clear to me that we could make our own strong scene in Brasil that could be as good or even better than what I have seen up north. In august of that year, they had thrown the first Breakcore-sp party, a breakcore only party, that featured the TEMP DJs and VJs , my live set and DJ/VJ MÖSER, aka Maanila Santos de Moraes, brasilian woman who used to live in Austria and had played in several parties up there, including Fuck Parade, being part of ATAC soundsystem. The party was great, one of my best live sets ever, more profit, met more incredible people, nobody could stop us.
Next party was the TEMP 2 years anniversary. Massive line up had Michael Forshaw (THE wonky techno producer, from UK), DJ Jerome Hill, Retrigger, Apavoramento Soundsystem (a brazilian miami bass/baile funk act), DJ Tano (3 times winner of brasilian turntablism championship – http://www.ponto4hiphop.com.br/Site/?Url=Home), TEMP DJs and VJs, a dub soundsystem, people doing graffiti at the door and the yoyo (yeah, yoyo) world champion team. It was huge, i can’t say nothing else!
TEMP crew teamed up with Dissonant, a collective from London, with brazilians and europeans for the next party. They came to Brazil for the second Breakcore-sp party, in the end of 2004, with Sigma, Rogério and Disruptor (doing live PA). Another international guest at that party was Rik Mayhem, belgian DJ, part of Wood Crew. As usual, TEMP DJs and VJs, performances and Retrigger Live Set. Another great party, 500 people dancing and shouting mad on the dancefloor. A great ending for great year.
In the begining of 2005, TEMP crew changed its modus operandis and did 4 small parties, called Okupasom, in a small club, on thursdays. Those parties opened up more space for local live acts, showing new names and more experimental sounds. Again, some more people from other countries came to play for us, and again, it was a great time. We had ZAZ TRAZ, a portuguese artist who makes audiovisual instalations with joystick controled by people in the audience. Kolektor (from Paris) came to Brasil and stayed for some weeks. He played twice in the Okupasom parties, Djing and playing live. He also came with some records, sold cheap for local djs, that were fighting to death to buy more! Also played at Okupasom: Maga Bo (American jungle-arabian-brazilian music – http://www.sonarcalibrado.com/), MuepEtmo (brasilian noisician – http://www.f4r.mus.br/experimental/muep.htm), Ajax Free (Industrial noise – http://www.geocities.com/ajaxfree/), a DJ Tano turntablism set and all the TEMP residents, DJs and VJs.
For the 3rd year aniversary, Knifehandchop was the biggest name in one of the coolest events i have ever been. In the middle of São Paulo’s asian neighborhood (or chinatown… whatever), the Scicilian People in Brasil Association ballroom was home, for one night, of the noisiest, funkiest, loudest crew in Brasil. DJ Hidráulico played with a ska trumpetist, Reverse Tunes played a killer breakcore set, Dubstrong came with ragga and jungle. I honestly did my best live set ever. I mean it! People were screaming, jumping and dancing. Knifehandchop droped his ill melodies and breaks. More temp DJs and VJs, Caio Macea did a set with hardcore mixed with punk, at 8 am, and there were lots of people jumping around. I still can’t believe how cool this party was.
In november, Daniel Gonzales (Hidraulico) was invited to produce a music festival, inside FILE (Festival Internacional de Linguagens Eletronicas ). Inside a HUGE line up, with more than 100 acts, he managed to book Sickboy and several noize, idm, error-music bands and acts from several countries. Even facing some soundsystem problems we had the chance to see Sickboy playing a great set, inside an industrial kitchen. I also had the chance to play live with my other project, Arrebite, that I have with my friend Rafael, with the guest MC Diamond Dog, from Angola.
Two weeks after, last party of the year and last party organized by TEMP crew so far. Another Breakcore-sp edition, with my live set, DJ Bruna (Toxic Dancehall crew), TEMP Djs and VJs, Bruno Belluomini (grime producer and DJ) and Gunfunter Kusten live performance. A smaller party, compared with the previous ones, but still extremely fun. Unfortunely, it hasn’t been a financial sucess, what has cooled down spirits of the crew. Adding with that, Hidraulico has gone to Spain, for a one year course. It’s not the end of the mighty TEMP crew, but it seems that it’s time for a break.
Reverse Tunes is starting to produce some music, Caio Macea still DJs and plays with his grindcore band. I am gonna produce music for ever, it seems. We are finishing recordings of the first Arrebite 12”, to be released by Phantomnoise soon, with guest vocals MC Diamond Dog and Caio Macea. Retrigger is alive and kicking, just looking for labels to release. As for the rest of the scene, you can feel that something is about to come. We hear from young producers all the time, still in the beginning, playing with sounds and breaks.
Another thing to keep your eye on in the future is Rotonucleo.org. This website is planned to be the breakcore hub for latin america, teaming up TEMP, Esfinter.org (collective from Mexico), Cardopusher (peaceoff artist, from Venezuela), Tuareg Geeks (mexican noize blasts released by DHR), Arrebite and Retrigger. Our aim is to connect people arround, crazy for the mad beats like we are, support our growing scene and show our music to the rest of the world. Nothing new really, but who cares!
This is Raul Costa Duarte, aka Retrigger, sign out! Paz.

Links:
www.digitalenemy.com.br (TEMP)
retrigger.widerstand.org (RETRIGGER)
www.rotonucleo.org (ROTONUCLEO)

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