It`s the beginning of March. This means that winter started sometime about 3 months ago, and everybody is looking forward to spring….when you happen to live on the North hemisphere of our planet. It`s a whole other thing in the South. It`s Summer, it`s Carnival…..and if you happen to reside in Brazil right now, it`s Baile funk, samba and half naked ladies.

Daniel Haaksman just came back from Rio. And it`s no coincidence, as this guy is THE guy responsible for the Baile Funk eruption in Europe. He`s been around for a long time, done a lot of things, but since he started his own label Man Recordings, it`s all about booty shaking and bass… And then some more bass on top of that!

If you`ve never heard Daniel Dj’ing, it`s a shame. The guy likes to mix a lot of styles, and you never know what to expect. Even now, while he`s the Brazilian beat guru, he might sneak in some soul classic, or electronic newbie. He is also very stylish, always elegant and looks like he just escaped some VIP room bash. But don`t let the looks fool you, he`s got cred on the Brazilian funk scene. Last year he released EDU K´s - “Mr.Popozuda Rock n´Roll”- album, and while hosting his own ‘Berlin Baile Funk Sessions’ he has played with everyone who`s anyone on the scene like: Mr. Catara, DJ Edgar, Sandrinho DJ, Diplo and of course the legendary DJ Malboro.

Since he just got back from Rio, we decided to talk to him about his plans for 2007.

FMCS: Ok, so recently you came back from Rio, what exactly did you do there?

Daniel: I went to record funk MCs for a series on Man Recordings (Daniels label) called “Funk Mundial”, where a platform for a transatlantic musical dialogue is established. In “Funk Mundial” the MCs from Brazil team up with producers from Europe. Funk Mundial is extending the concept of baile funk - which until very recently was a much regionalized sound, only existing in Rio - into an international, worldwide sound.

Volume 1 of “Funk Mundial” was released in November 2006 and featured beats by Viennas Stereotyp and MCs like EDU K (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and Joyce Muniz (Rio, Vienna).

Volume 2 will feature the female MC crew Gaiolas As Popozudas and the lady MC Xana, backed by beats from Makossa+Megablast from Vienna and Frederic Galliano, a producer from France. Other volumes are soon to follow.

Besides that, I also met up with various Rio DJs and had a listen to what they recently produced, in order to release 12″ vinyl in another series called “Baile Funk Masters”, in which tracks by the top producers of baile funk see a release on vinyl. #1 is by Dj Sandrinho from the favela of Borel in Rio de Janeiro (to be released March 2nd), #2 will be Dj Edgar, the Dj of Mr.Catra.

But while I was Rio, I of course also enjoyed the beaches, the samba school preparations and the very yummy Churascos – the big beef extravaganzas Brazilians enjoy. Meat is so delicious in Brazil, it´s amazing!

FMCS: Any other cool acts you will be releasing on Man Recordings, besides the 12”?

Daniel: There´s an EP by the great Deize Tigrona coming up, another Brazilian beat EP by Stereotyp, maybe Max Skiba will also provide a track in the Funk Mundial series, so there´s a few hot things in the oven….

FMCS: So, tell us how the parties look like?

The baile funk parties in Rio come in all different forms. There´s the spontaneous block party with a small ghetto blaster where MCs or kids from the neighborhood sing over beats. Or the midsized parties in the favelas where DJs spin, heavily guarded by armed drug traffickers, who run the parties to attract the inhabitants of the asphalt (the middle class people of Rio) to the favelas where they can consume and buy drugs openly. And then there´s the rave type baile funk parties, where up to 5000 people gather in gymnasiums, or open market squares, where giant bass speaker sound systems are installed, and live MCs appear, and there´s a light show too. All parties are for people who search to have fun and dance, and with that music full of magnificent beats and colossal bass – there´s nothing else you can do but boogie.

FMCS: And what other cool stuff coming from that area we should be on the lookout for in 2007?

Daniel: Oh, there´s so much regional music styles in Brazil it´s hard to say what´s going to be big in the future. Certainly baile funk will become bigger in 2007. Slowly, the funk scene outside of Brazil is gaining a critical mass with enough promoters/DJs in Europe propagating the sound, running parties and/or playing funk.

I think this will allow more Rio protagonists to come over and play in Europe. DJ Sandrinho will play gigs in spring, as is MC Deize Tigrona and Edu K. Mr.Catra and DJ Edgar will come for another European tour in the summer.

With Bonde Do Role, a baile funk inspired group of white kids with an art school background from the South of Brazil, who were discovered by US DJ Diplo, the baile funk fever will increase more. They will release an album on Indie giant Domino records early June, and this label surely has the marketing and PR power to blast the sound of baile funk to a much bigger audience. It´s good for small labels like mine, as I will be able to deliver the “real shit”, i.e. the stuff that comes from Rio - the city where it all started, and this will also allow the Rio artists to play in Europe more often.

I´m also sure there soon will be European adaptors of funk, artists/MCs that will work with the baile funk style to create their own, Europeanized or even regionalized version of funk.

Recently I got send a track by a MC from Switzerland who does baile funk with a Swytzerdeutsch accent. And a friend of mine recently saw a gypsy MC in Bucharest who did funk in Romanian. So there´s much more funk to come. It´s very interesting to watch.

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HAAKSMAN+HAAKSMAN
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