Welshman Paul Ralphes, was a former Stock Exchange operator.
Since Bliss disbanded back in 1991, Paul Ralphes has been producing lots of successful artists in Brazil, with John Shaw of UB40, and doing remixes for bands such as Skank, Maskavo Roots, Black City, the Rappa and others, besides having produced five tracks of the last album by Biquíni Cavadão in 1997, and also for "The adventures of the Virgulóides".
Web links to more information :-
Below
are some roughly translated web pages related to these Brazilian bands,
with sections on Paul Ralphes highlighted.
The mining
band Skank, the most ccurred commercially from the country, returns with
its fusing of rhythms o the MPB and the Caribbean
á turned chavão in the universe popular music: except for raríssimas exceptions,
commercial success is thing that is not justified. Exactly with the dollar millions
that the great recorders spend with research of market, strategies of launching
and
mirabolantes marketing campaigns, nothing it guarantees that definitive artist
or
product will reach the Olimpo of the popular acceptance.
Thus, the examples are many - in Brazil and the world - of careers aborted despite
the high investments made in its production and spreading. As well as that artist
or band who arrived half by chance at a writing studio finishes surprising to
all,
becoming leader of vendas in the biggest multinationals it disk.
The Skank is one of these. Who could assume that that group formed for four
mining boys
without no great attractive special one would be changedded into a true commercial
phenomenon?
Therefore in only six years of career, beyond a passage of success initiated
in Chile & Spain,
the Skank already enters some disk millions vendidos in Brazil. Previous its
two CDs had
arrived the 1.3 million and 1.8 million, and Siderado already goes anticipatedly
for the
store with 500 a thousand vendidas copies.
In its room album, the band improves its well-succeeded music formula pra-to
jump Brazilian,
whose wire of the hank starts in the gafieira samba and empties in pop national
of the
present time. In general way, the Skank loses in the matching with the names
that
compose this scene, but in determined moments pop seems to have joined its proper
prescription of the perfect song, that servant to touch in the radio, that is
essentially popular and congregates at the same time simplicity melódica, efficient
array and opportune letter. Let us agree that one is not about easy task.
Without the force of Calango, COMPACT DISC launched for the Skank in 1994 and
that
it lined up impressive sequence of successes ("to see You", "Jack Tequila"),
and
far of the espontaneidade of Skank (1992, estréia disk), Siderado appears, however,
as most finished and uniform work of the band, showing an important evolution
it
leader Pink Samuel as composer. Moreover, very upper to the confused one and
previous
launching of the band, the Poconé Samba is little inspired.
With status of stars, the integrant ones of the Skank
had received handling VIP
from its recorder: the production of Siderado was delivers to the Paul Ralphes
and John Shaw - responsible, respectively, for the works of English bands Bliss
and UB40; the mixagem was made in célebres studios Abbey Road, whose walls had
testified the best moments of the Beatles.
In the
disk, one more time the Skank tries to mix Caribbean rhythms - reggae,
ska and calipso - with samba, calango, embolada baião and. Exactly that the
fusing rare exceeds the superficial one, the party is guaranteed by bands as
"Romance to noir", "Siderado", "Don Blás" and "In the way it sea", the two last
ones with participation, unhappyly very shy, of the singer Daúde and it Uakti
group.
Reggae of white? It is truth. Poetical naivety? With certainty.
But the new COMPACT DISC must guarantee to the Skank its surprising path of
success.
Less badly the artistic evolution to be remained and to continue occupying in
the
media the place before reserved to chinfrim imported commercial music.
Of this form, then it will be possible to explain the success of the Skank.
After all, against the light of the Sun it does not have arguments.
Márcio Caspar
MUSIC " PRA-pular "
Who made and makes music " pra-to jump " Brazilian, that is: MPB pop and dançante
Yesterday
Sambistas of gafieira
Yesterday and today
Mayan Tim, Jorge Ben Jor, Lulu Saints
Today
Fernanda Abreu, Black City, Daúde, Skank
PHOTO ALBUM
Skank in the Road has art book production
The author Stolen Fernando, entrepreneur of the group, made the photos in nine
countries
Publication of the DBA/Melhoramentos has 136 pages, hard layer and cost R$ 45
Ineditismo: no national band already was similar book object
The Rollback To The Disk Of Jota Quest
Mining group also is prominence in the scene of the Brazilian pop-dançante music
of the present time
The Jota Quest - former-J. Quest - she is another band with new COMPACT DISC
in the square.
After arriving at the Gold Disk (100 a thousand vendidas copies) with its album
of estréia,
quinteto launches a collection of candidates one more time hits in In return
to the Planet.
The band-heading already is having excellent execution in the radios.
Black music and rock are again enter the used ingredients for quinteto that
it has as
vocalista Rogério Flausino. Two producers collaborate in the definition of the
noise of the disk.
One of is requested currently: Dudu Marote - that it contributed, by the way,
for the last
success of the Skank. The other is Marcelo Sussekind.
Maskavo
Roots (Style: Rock/POP)
The censorship continues firm and strong in the Federal District. In musics
of If not
guenta why it came, as disk of the brasiliense group Maskavo Roots (the first
one for Sony),
politics is a forbidden subject. But for determination of the proper band.
It is that they know that to argue this type of subject hardly would be capable
to leave
somebody happy thing, what it would not match with the high astral of the sound
who make.
Marcelo Vourakis (voice and guitar base), Rodrigo Silver (alone guitar), Ricardo
Marrara (low)
and Joa Quim (battery, keyboard and vocal do not say besteira. Music is serious
thing for
they since 1993, when they had left of being the band of cover Cravo Rastafari
to adopt
the name of Maskavo Roots.
Following the example of the friends of the same country Raimundos and Little
Quail,
they had recorded its first tape demon, with compositions in English, who was
to stop in
the hands of the producer Carlos Eduardo Miranda. Second, with musics Storm,
Soft Crossbow and Fifth, it finished being passport for the first disk, launched
in February of 1995 for the Banguela stamp (WEA) _ that also it disclosed to
the Raimundos
and Mundo Livre S.a. The Storm clip, then turned hit in the MTV, and music was
adopted
by the Skank in its shows. Reggae Hatchway, enclosed in the sonorous track of
the novel
"Malhação", also arrived to frequent carrapetas of Djs.
But the Banguela finished, the band was without recorder and saw that it was
hour to
give one rethink. Three of the seven integrant originals had left and the ones
that
sobraram had decided to go to the fight matched by the same objective, as the
disk.
They had recorded for personal account an independent Compact disc with 12 unknown
musics,
"Melody That I Know", to concur for Russian the Renato Prize, promoted for the
Cultural
Foundation of the DF in the end of the last year.
The Maskavo finished being one them nine winners, contemplated the prensagem
of 1,500 CD's.
"Melody That I Know" was what it lacked so that Sony finally closed with the
group,
putting final happy to the initiated negotiations still in the first semester
of 1997.
The copies sponsored for the prize will be vendidas way InterNet, through the
site of the band www.maskavo.br
To produce the estréia of the Maskavo Roots in the
new recorder, the Welshman Paul Ralphes was scaled.
Former-stock exchange operator and producer of band Bliss (that one that in
years 80
it made success with ballad I Hear You Call), Ralphes deferred payment in Brazil
has
two years and came making remixes for musics of the Skank, Black City, the Rappa
and others,
besides having produced five bands of the last disk of the Biquíni Cavadão.
He was, therefore, the ideal producer to chip the side pop of the group, without
restricting
the rock musician footprint of its musics. With the bracket of Ralphes, the
Maskavo could
be ventured for the universe of sequenciadores, loops and samples, resulting
in a sound
more coeso and direct of that in the first disk.
The good work finished serving of show window for Ralphes, that was invited
to produce
the next disk to the Skank. For speaking in Skank, as the mining band had adopted
Storm,
the idea appeared to rewrite music with a new roupagem, dançante, with naipe
of metals
the position of the musicians who follow the Skank and co-production of Pink
Samuel,
who also participated in the vocal ones and the guitar. The group makes question
to say
that it does not want if filiar to no rhythm. "We make rock, reggae, ska, everything
this without intention to be restricted to a style. What it marks a band is
its personality.
The Maskavo has attitude", full the Marrara stock exchange operator.
It has exactly. As much that nor gives to ball for possible reactions
of feminists to the
amused song Man Does not have Amiga, one twist estilizado whose letter if summarizes
to
verses "I want to have thousand of Feminine hips / to have thousand of hips
/ I want pra
to be able to amuse me / Feminists pra to be able to amuse me". The music of
work of the disk,
Djouros, was composite at a time of much dries and heat in Brasilia (what it
is not very rare).
Traditional cervejinha costuma to be called goró there for those bands.
Certain day, in a table of bar, two friends of the group, already duly calibrated,
they did not obtain more speech goró e, for etílica derivation, had murmured:
"More djorous",
e the name caught. It is thus that, together, them they compose its musics.
All disk takes the signature of the band, except a honrosa exception: the rerecording
of the success of Luiz Gonzaga Qui nor jiló, whose version, in rhythm of forrok,
was made
for a special one of the MTV in the Day of the Boyfriends of 1995. according
to wise words
of the old Moon, "But nobody can say / That alive sad to cry / Homesickness
my remedy is to sing".
The Maskavo Roots knows very well what it wanted to say. E follows singing the
pleasures of the life.
Roughly translated text from the official site of the Maskavo Roots
Maskavo
A strong
feature in the sound and the proper history of the Maskavo is that they had
never had fear of mudanças revolutions. In 1993 they had left of being the band
Cravo Rastafari, who made covers of reggae roots, to make its proper compositions.
Marcelo, Quim, Silver, Marrara, Pinduca, Txoxa and Joana, had changed the name
of
the band for Maskavo Roots and, still singing in English, they had recorded
the first
tape demon that was to stop in the hands of the producer Carlos Eduardo Miranda.
It was with musics "Storm", "Soft Crossbow" and "Fifth" gifts in the second
tape demon,
that took the band until the Banguela stamp (WEA), where had recorded the first
disk
launched in February of 1995.
Music "Storm " touched direct in the radios. The clip turned hit in the MTV,
beyond music
being adopted by the Skank in its shows. Reggae "Hatchway" also touched well
in the
radios and was of the sonorous track of the Malhação series-novel of the Network
Globe.
The Banguela stamp finished for rollback of 96, and the band passed for a reorganization,
had left three the seven integrant ones of the original formation. Marcelo,
Quim, Prata
and Marrara had recorded with proper features the disk "Melody That I Know"
as the disk
of the band. With twelve unknown musics, the independent COMPACT DISC gained
Russian
the Renato Prize, promoted for the Cultural Foundation of the DF in the 1997
end.
They had been contemplated the prensagem of a thousand and five hundred CDs
of this as work.
The copies that had been ‘bancadas’ by the prize, they had been vendidas by
the InterNet
through the official site of the band. The disk also opened the gates of recorder
Sony Music for the band.
The writing of the third disk of the band, "If Not Aguenta, Why came?" if it
initiated
in November of 1997, already for Sony Music.
Betting strong in the band, the recorder scaled to
produce the disk the Welshman Paul
(former-stock exchange operator and producer of the Bliss band, who made success
in the eighty with ballad "I Hear You Call" . Ralphes brought new elements to
the band,
left it closer of the world of the sequenciadores, samples and loops; what that
in the
estréia disk resulted in a firmer and direct sound.
Ralphes was invited to produce the Siderado "disk" of the Skank, for the good
work that
made with the Maskavo. In ‘brodagem’ with the Skank, they had rewritten hit
"Storm"
with a dançante array, the participation of naipes of metals that follow the
mining band
and the participation of Pink Samuel in the vocal ones, guitar and co-production
of the band.
The first music of work of the disk, and success, was "Djorous " reference the
traditional
beer said for who already ordered several. Also a Night RSF "had detached "musics
"" "Go, Go Go"
(that also it entered in the track of "Malhação" and the version of the classic
of Luis Gonzaga
and Humberto Teixeira, "Qui nor Jiló" Soon after the its disk as launching,
the Maskavo was
invited to participate of the event and the COMPACT DISC that Chaos recorder
produced.
In the album "5 years of Chaos " had recorded "Zé Trindade " of the Skank, that
it one
more time repaid in ‘tabela’ rewriting "RSF " of the Maskavo. Despite the disk
having well
vendido, the situation of the country and by that it was invested in spreading
of the work,
it did not satisfy the expectation of the recorder, who waited an overflow of
vendas.
They had left Sony and they had been contracted by the Deck stamp, of the Music
April.
During the daily pay-production of the room disk, the vocalista Marcelo left
the band
to take care of of its personal life. One more time facing the changes with
courage,
and luck, the Maskavo enlisted more for vocal a young talent formed in ‘roots’
of reggae.
Marceleza sang in the band Lion of Judah, specialized in Bob Marley and other
pearls of reggae.
The new voice perfectly married the noise and the compositions of the band,
‘roots’ it was
so more evident in the sound that was not more necessary to be in the name.
They had moved of vocalista and they had changed the name of the band.
To the room disk, the Maskavo Roots started to be Maskavo.
Marceleza (voice), Silver (guitar), Marrara (low) and Quim (battery and keyboards)
had recorded thirteen (fourteen with a version dub bond) musics of the disk
"Already" in
February and March of 2000 in Rio De Janeiro. The album was produced by Rafael
Branches,
that besides being VJ of the MTV, also produced the disk of estréia of the Los
Hermanos
and the new work of the Innocents.
In the disk also it has the presence of some guests special, Fred (Raimundos),
Fauzi Baydun (Tribe of Jah), Its Jorge (former-Farofa Carioca), the percussionista
Suzano Landmarks and the Cia. Of Theater the Best ones of the World.
The first music of work of the disk "Already" is "an Angel in the Sky" that
is
enters all the most asked for in the radios of the country, and its videoclipe
rolling in the programming of the MTV.
Great Brasilia supplied to the country bands in years 80, and in the 90 it repeats
the dose.
Maskavo with certainty is enters the best come groups of central plateaus.
The city that was known as the capital of the rock in Brazil now sample that
also produces the best one of reggae. Maskavo in the head!
The adventures of the Virgulóides
Great possibilities have of that it was similar to this that the Virgulóides
is making
its third disk, The adventures of the Virgulóides. Little people must remember,
but rock already was a pleasure forbidden for the moral, milênios before if
becoming
the paradise of the politically correct ones that is today. A spree of sexuality
malandramente suggested, that not so rare arrived the apotheosis with a piano
set on
fire for Jerry Lee Lewis, or of the Jimi Hendrix touching fire in its guitar
reverenciando deuses. Enrique Rat, Beto DeMoureaux and Paulinho Jiraya, however,
had not been born in states. They are of the Dutra City, South Zone of São Paulo,
at least the one hour of carriage of the center. There what it rolls is the
old
samba - cavaco, tantã and surdão, the leather eating in one pagode watered the
beer
and fed with churras- quinho and the reality is well harder than in the American
rincões.
But, exactly with everything this, the rock arrived the Dutra City and for it
got used there.
Result: the stories of trickery of the Elvis, Chuck Berry, Litle Richard and
cia.
They had given place, in musics of the virgulóides, to histories of the ballads,
stolen,
xavecos, hard and drunknesses of the group - the spirit is the same and only
dumb the address.
The sound was behind, mixing of organic, spontaneous form, the batucadas ones
and guitarradas,
as if they never had been separate things. The result is samba-rock in an unknown
conception,
a pacing ahead of Jorge Ben, Di White Snow and excessively pioneering.
If to remember then that, beyond the trio-base - Enrique in the vocal guitar
and, Beto in the
low e Paulinho in the battery and cavaco, the virgulóides still count on the
ritmistas
Marcelo Smoke, Negrelli and Biroska, can say that we have there, the true originals
of the samba-rock.
Band who in 1997 left the tables of bars of the Dutra City for the TVs and radios
of entire
Brazil with music "Stolen good in the Bumba", who does not remember this stretch,
(In this bumba I do not walk I mais/Acharam a stolen good in the behind bank)
the clip then, that do. is very engraça-
They are in return with the new disk "the Adventures
Of the Virgulóides"
produced by the English Paul Ralphes (stock exchange operator of the Bliss band,
success in years 80 with "I Hear You Call", that she painted to touch in Brazil
and
finished being) that has in its resume disks of the Bikini Cavadão and Skank.
The compact disc is stuffed with the true Brazilian classic rock and travels
of the rock to the purest samba
