In the 1980's, while urban centers of the Brazilian south like Sao Paulo, Brasília and Rio were inundated with homegrown rock movements, Pernambuco didn't have much of a music scene at all. Vowing to jump-start the local scene Fred Zero Four got together with Chico Science and a collective of local bands and visual artists to found the Mangue Beat movement - the most significant musical and aesthetic movement in Brazil since Tropicalia. The music is an explosion of punk-rock-funk-rap-electronic sound, infused with the maracatu, coco, ciranda and embolada rhythmic traditions of the rural northeast.
"What's Happening in Pernambuco?" (volume 7 of Luaka Bop's influential Brazil Classics series) presents 13 amazing artists creating a new genre-defying party.