M dM MMr 4MMML . MMMMM. xf . "MMMMM .MM Mh.. +MMMMMM .MMMM .MMM. .MMMMML. MMMMMh )MMMh. MMMMMM MMMMMMM 3MMMMx. 'MMMMMMf xnMMMMMM" '*MMMMM MMMMMM. nMMMMMMP" *MMMMMx "MMMMM\ .MMMMMMM= *MMMMMh "MMMMM" JMMMMMMP MMMMMM 3MMMM. dMMMMMM . MMMMMM "MMMM .MMMMM( .nnMP" =.. *MMMMx MMM" dMMMM" .nnMMMMM* "MMn... 'MMMMr 'MM MMM" .nMMMMMMM*" "4MMMMnn.. *MMM MM MMP" .dMMMMMMM"" ^MMMMMMMMx. *ML "M .M* .MMMMMM**" *PMMMMMMhn. *x > M .MMMM**"" ""**MMMMhx/.h/ .=*" .3P"% nP" "*MMnx _________________________________________________________ __/ \ (__ ___) \______________________________________________________/ ._RELEASE_INFO_________ . \______________________________________. . . . Artist >> CΘu . . Album >> CΘu . . . .______________________ . . \______________________________________. . . . Style >> Latin . . Date >> Mar-31-2007 . . Street >> 000-00-0000 . . Company >> Six Degrees Records . . Media >> CDDA . . Size >> 71,4 MB . . . . . ._RELEASE NOTES________ . . \______________________________________. . . . Just when you think that Brazil must surely have exhausted . . its supply of irresistibly jazzy, funky, sexy, soulful . . electro-pop singer-songwriters, someone like CΘU comes . . along and makes you think that maybe that particular well . . is bottomless after all. . . . . Her full name is Maria do CΘu Whitaker Poτas, but she goes . . by the simpler moniker CΘU. It's a name that can be . . translated into English in a couple of subtly but . . significantly different ways. CΘU means either "sky" or . . "heaven," depending on context, and either translation . . applies quite nicely in this case: think of her as "Sky" . . when you hear the soft blue clarity of her voice, or . . "Heaven" when one of her sweetly bubbling melodic hooks . . takes you by surprise and makes you shiver with delight. . . CΘU's U.S. debut comes hot on the heels of a Latin Grammy . . nomination for ôbest new artistö of 2006. She is also . . riding high on a wave of international success in France, . . where the influential Les Inrockuptibles recognized her as . . one of the top 5 musical revelations of 2005, Holland, and . . Italy, as well as in Canada, where she was recently the . . fourth highest-selling artist for the Archambault chain of . . music shops while simultaneously holding the number 32 slot . . on the pop charts. Originally issued in 2005 on the Sπo . . Paulo-based Urban Jungle label Jungle and Beto VillaresÆ . . Ambulante Discos, CΘU was picked up by Six Degrees when . . members of the staff heard the album and found themselves . . entranced by the warm, fresh sound of her voice. . . . . The momentum didnÆt stop there, as Starbucks Entertainment . . selected CΘU as the fourth artist to be featured in the . . innovative Starbucks Hear MusicÖ Debut CD series. Her . . self-titled debut will be a co-release by Starbucks Hear . . Music and Six Degrees Records and will be released . . simultaneously at traditional retail and Starbucks . . Company-operated locations in the U.S. beginning April 3, . . 2007. CΘU is the first international artist featured in . . the Starbucks Hear MusicÖ Debut series. . . . . CΘU's stateside release gives a whole new population the . . opportunity to be equally entranced. The album opens . . enticingly with "Vinheta Quebrante," a brief introductory . . track that builds itself up in delicate rhythmic layers. . . With "Lenda," the album's first full-length track, CΘU . . stakes out her musical territory more assertively: anchored . . by the juxtaposition of a subtly chromatic melody and a . . lazy funk groove and ornamented with a gracefully . . understated turntable scratch, the song sways seductively . . like seaweed in a warm ocean current, hints of reggae and . . dub lurking tantalizingly in the background. Next comes . . the album's first single, a sweetly tuneful and more . . explicitly reggae-flavored song titled "MalemolΩncia" (if . . you're lucky enough to have satellite access to the TV . . Globo network, then you may recognize it as a featured song . . in the soundtrack to Cidade dos Homens, the television . . adaptation of the celebrated film City of God). Then, as . . if she's unwilling to let go of a good thing, she follows . . up on that track with the slightly more muscular "Roda," on . . which she delves deep into the rich soil of dub-funk . . groovaciousness again. Yet despite its quietly chugging . . and soulful rhythms and its insinuating touches of . . turntablism, this song is actually quite spare in texture: . . its basic structure consists of little more than turntable . . scratches, a percolating bassline and a straightforward . . drum lick, while guitars and keyboard are allowed to lurk . . around the outside edges of the sound. . . . . But as intriguing as the musical arrangements are, it's . . CΘU's voice that really grabs your attention and won't let . . go. On "Rainha," a jazzy and more conventionally Brazilian . . number, she delivers a beautifully cascading melody over . . rich, thick layers of horns and percussion, while on the . . drier and more bluesy "10 Contados" her voice whispers the . . melody softly and warmly into your ear with an almost . . unbearable sexiness. On every song, CΘU croons with a . . warmth and sensuality that is much more interesting and . . complex than the warblings of the sex-kittens-of-the-month . . that perennially inhabit the American R&B charts; CΘU sings . . as if she were imparting secrets. Her songs sound as if . . they're informed by life as it is really lived, in all of . . its emotional difficulty and complication, rather than by . . gauzy romantic illusions or sexpot posturing. . . . . There are good reasons for the depth and complexity of . . CΘU's songs. She was born into a musical family in the . . artistically diverse city of Sπo Paulo; her father, a . . locally renowned composer, arranger and musicologist, . . taught her at a young age to appreciate the music of . . Brazil's great classical composers, including Heitor . . Villa-Lobos, Ernesto NazarΘ and Orlando Silva. By age 15 . . she had decided to become a singer, and pursued music . . studies in lieu of a college education; trained on the . . violπo (a nylon-stringed Brazilian guitar) and in music . . theory, she was performing onstage with major artists and . . exploring the repertoire of the marchinhas . . (turn-of-the-century carnival music) by her late teens. . . Soon after that she relocated temporarily to New York City, . . where she had a chance meeting with fellow Brazilian . . musician Antonio Pinto, who became her flat mate while he . . was going through some financial difficulties. She later . . learned that he was actually a distant cousin, and their . . relationship was renewed when he teamed up with lead . . producer Beto Villares to help her record her album. Pinto, . . who produced CΘU's song "Ave Cruz" is the composer of the . . musical score for two Oscar Nominated films, Central . . Station (1999) and City of God (2003.) . . . . . . Following her stint in New York where she was influenced by . . the sound of Hip-Hop, jazz singers Billie Holliday and Ella . . Fitzgerald, Lauren Hill and Erykah Badu, she returned home . . to Sπo Paulo, where the young up-and-comer fronted a samba . . funk outfit and then an electro-dance group and caught the . . attention of several major record labels before agreeing to . . join forces with Urban Jungle, an indie label whose . . managers promised her the respect and independence that are . . clearly her due. . . . . That freedom has resulted in an album that is surprisingly . . mature and fully realized for a debut effort from such a . . young musician. On every track you find yourself being . . pleasantly surprised by her delicate and elegant balance of . . inventive experimentation and reverence for tradition, in . . particular for the samba sound that is so beloved of her . . countrymen (the sound which she sings on "Samba na Sola," . . "sticks to the soles of my feet"). Note, for example, the . . unique ambience she creates on "Veu da Noite," with its . . wispy, abstract groove, blippy synthesizer warblings and . . floating shreds of vocals and horns. Compare it to the . . sturdy funk and hypnotically bluesy singing that power . . "Valsa pra Biu Roque," and then skip over to the album's . . most surprising track, her cover version of Bob Marley's . . archetypal sufferer's anthem "Concrete Jungle." This is a . . song that has tripped up many a cover artist in the past; . . it's easy to accidentally turn it into simpleminded . . political sloganeering or, even worse, some kind of . . beach-party tune. CΘU avoids the first pitfall by . . delivering the song's lyrics of searing despair in a somber . . but gentle voice, thus nailing Marley's original tone of . . understated heartbreak rather than turning it into a . . caricature of political anger. She avoids the second . . pitfall by taking the tune essentially out of reggae . . territory altogether, shifting the rhythmic emphasis into a . . swaying, swinging groove that would sound perfectly at home . . in any Sπo Paulo club. CΘU feels that though this song was . . written about Kingston Town it just as easily describes Sπo . . Paulo. . . . . The album's most whimsical and charming moment comes on "O . . Ronco de Cuica," a celebration of the cuica, a Brazilian . . percussion instrument that looks like a drum and sounds . . like an agitated monkey or tropical bird. Although CΘU . . carefully avoids the drum'n'bossa sound that is so much the . . rage in her native country these days, there are definite . . hints of junglism in both the drum sound and in the . . manipulated cuica samples that are layered throughout the . . track; a messy guitar part lurks in the background, hinting . . at an impending chaos that never quite takes over. . . . . Samba, reggae, dub, electronica, love, heartbreak, chaos . . and sweet, sweet tunefulness û sounds like the perfect . . recipe for an irresistible album by a thrilling new talent. . . And so it is. . . . . . ._TRACK_LISTING________ . . \______________________________________. . . . >> 01 >> Vinheta Quebrante >> 00:54 . . >> 02 >> Lenda >> 04:19 . . >> 03 >> Malemolencia >> 02:55 . . >> 04 >> Roda >> 05:18 . . >> 05 >> Rainha >> 03:39 . . >> 06 >> 10 Contados >> 03:27 . . >> 07 >> Vinheta Dorival >> 00:32 . . >> 08 >> Mais Um Lamento >> 04:49 . . >> 09 >> Concrete Jungle >> 03:32 . . >> 10 >> Veu Da Noite >> 06:18 . . >> 11 >> Valsa Pra Biu Roque >> 02:49 . . >> 12 >> Ave Cruz >> 03:27 . . >> 13 >> O Ronco Da Cuica >> 03:24 . . >> 14 >> Bobagem >> 02:19 . . >> 15 >> Samba Na Sola >> 03:08 . . . . >> 50:50 min . . . .______________________ . . \______________________________________. . . . . .______________________ . \___________________________nfo_by_sp__.