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Jose Mauro

Obnoxios

Far Out Recordings presents the peerless and criminally undervalued Quartin catalogue, beginning with the reissue of Jose Mauro’s forgotten masterpiece ‘Obnoxious’. Over the course of the 60s, Roberto Quartin released more than 20 albums in Brazil on his label Forma, by artists including the likes of Eumir Deodato and Quateto Em Cy. Selling the rights of Forma to Polygram in 1969, Quartin struck out for pastures new at the dawn of the 1970s with the launch of his self-titled label. Significant works and high-water marks for Brazilian music overall followed in that decade’s first year, with Victor Assis Brasil Plays Antonio Carlos Jobim and the aforementioned Obnoxious. These rare and unique gems in Brazilian music, difficult to categorise yet compellingly haunting, have for too long gone unheard. Far Out Recordings hopes that listeners out there, be they seasoned Brazilian music aficionados or simply those in thrall to bewitching, hypnotic powers of music from the outer reaches, will appreciate and enjoy these works as much as we appreciate having the opportunity to present them to you.

There is very little information to be found about Jose Mauro and as a result those searching for some kind of insight on the man behind the music must attempt to glean what they can from the music itself. In a musical landscape in which the context from music emerges can often overshadow the music itself, Jose Mauro is an increasingly rare phenomenon. Mauro is said to have died in a car accident shortly before the release of ‘Obnoxious’ in 1970, a fact that could have lent his brief musical career a touch of mythology were it not for how scant the details concerning any other aspects of his life are. All tracks on the record were composed by Mauro and Ana Maria Bahiana… Production on the record was cancelled after Mauro’s death and it was never sold commercially until it was rereleased decades later. What appeal does Mauro’s music stand to hold to today’s listeners, forty-something years removed from its conception? Simply put, there is very little else, even within the realm of contemporaneous Brazilian music employing similar tropes, that sounds much like it all. Take the title track of the ‘Obnoxious’ LP, included here. A wholly singular piece of music, it blends string-drenched melancholia with orchestral pomp, sunny psychedelic strumming with propulsive percussion, topped off with Mauro’s yearning vocals. The result is indicative of Mauro’s unique blend of sounds from Latin Jazz and samba to psychedelic folk and baroque orchestration.

Today, Obnoxious retains its strange, otherworldly appeal – A firm favourite amongst a small circle of deep diggers including Madlib, Gilles Peterson, Floating Points and DJ Nuts. Jose Mauro’s mournful and melancholic vocals create a dark, brooding atmosphere that stands in contrast to the usual joyfulness and high-spirited rhythm of the more prominent Brazilian music of the era. Despite this air of foreboding, Mauro’s confident baritones, chord patterns and sumptuous arrangements have the ability to induce in the listener in an almost trance-like state of ecstasy. Mauro’s long hidden masterpiece, a complex and uniquely stunning work is being offered the chance to be heard by the wider audience it has always deserved. A second Jose Mauro release, A Viagem Des Horas, compiling more incredible tracks unreleased in Mauro’s lifetime, will follow, alongside other unreleased jewels from the Quartin catalogue, from the likes of Piri and Victor Assis Brasil…