Fumaça Preta

These Latinate loonies are a joyous force of nature – a galvanising mash of 1970s rock, psychedelic grooves and infectious Cape Verde bop that could get a two-legged tortoise dancing better than Bez. Fumaça Preta (pronounced Foomassa Pretta – meaning Black Smoke) started as a studio experiment when Alex Figueira, a Portuguese-Venezuelan producer and percussionist, invited some old friends to join him in a tiny analogue studio in Amsterdam. Since then they’ve astonished audiences worldwide with their energy, charisma and an impressive subcortex-slaying smorgasbord that takes in free jazz, metal shredding and such totally tropical musical sensations as tambú and funaná.