Marcos Valle: Marcos Valle (half-speed remaster) [MR BONGO]

Why you'll love it

Miles Showell cut this limited Mr Bongo edition at half speed. The album pairs Valle with producer Lincoln Olivetti, and "Estrelar," written with Leon Ware, became a hit in Brazil and across Europe.

This edition

• Half-speed master
• Mastered by Miles Showell
• Limited edition
• Remastered

About the album

Marcos Valle had already given the world one standard in his early twenties: "Samba De Verao," better known as Summer Samba or So Nice, a US top 40 hit for Walter Wanderley in 1966. By the early '80s, after a spell in Los Angeles writing with Leon Ware and Chicago, he was back in Brazil and ready to make his most danceable record yet. He had first started on piano at five, studying classical music for thirteen years.

This 1983 album, produced by Lincoln Olivetti with his brother and lyricist Paulo Sérgio Valle, is pure Brazilian boogie: slap bass, glossy synths, horns and big sunny choruses. "Estrelar" is the one everyone knows, and Valle has said it mattered as much as Summer Samba because it won over a younger generation. "Fogo Do Sol" and "Naturalmente" keep the groove going, and he revisits "Samba De Verao" and "Viola Enluarada" in a fresh, '80s light.

Valle has called this era his way of reaching new generations, and on this evidence it worked. A half-speed cut means the lathe turns slower than usual; the music, we're pleased to report, does not.

Also at Kops: more Marcos Valle on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Mr Bongo (cat# MRBLP231), a reissue of the 1983 album.