Elle Young interviews Melbourne based co-founder of Sabrosa and curator for world renowned Reissue label Analog Africa DJ/Producer Carlo Xavier on his whirlwind tour of Brazil and the rare record haul he brought back, soon to be going on sale via our online shop! Read the interview in full below...
CARLO XAVIER, INTERVIEW By Elle Young
"I was working for this crazy old record store/hoarding space in the Brisbane CBD, the Record Exchange. I was basically working there to go through the 50,000 records that were spilling into the aisles and the storage out back.”
How did your DJ and vinyl collection journey begin?
I was working for this crazy old record store/hoarding space in the late 90's after High School in Brisbane CBD called the Record Exchange. I was basically working there to go through the 50,000 records that were spilling into the aisles and the storage out back. That was an experience you can't really walk away from without a mild addiction to the smell of record cleaning fluid and aging record sleeves. My uncle was a working club DJ for Transformers in the early 90's and ran the Black Beat radio show Sunday's on 4ZZZ. Back then DJ's would pick up crates of promo records from distro every week, that's how the music circulated. I remember one of the first records I got from my uncle that I still have, it was a 12' promo single on Island/Mango Records with the infamous Colombian version of Fela Kuti's "Shacalao" by Wganda Kenya. Fast forward 20 years and here I am playing Champeta Africana sounds on Melbourne's very own EL Gran Mono Picó Sound System.
Tell us about your involvement with Analog Africa?
“I showed him some sounds from the North East and North of the country that would suit the label and in 2012 this took us to Belém do Pará, the gateway city and major port to the Amazon. ”
2011 I made my second trip to Colombia with a digging pit stop in Barranquilla and picked up some records that would later feature on the Los Diablos del Ritmo comp.
From here Samy asked me to work on some compilations of lesser known Brazilian sounds and was curious about the region. I showed him some sounds from the North East and North of the country that would suit the label and in 2012 this took us to Belém do Pará, the gateway city and major port to the Amazon. It was an amazing trip, at this stage the region hadn't really seen many outsiders looking for records so we got lucky and found the records you can now hear on the Jambú compilation "The Mythical Sounds of the Amazon.
If collectors are wanting to learn more about music from South America, what are your tips?
Learn the languages, get on a plane and immerse yourself in the culture. It's a big place to get lost in. I've been going for 13 years now and still finding new music. I mean you can scour through playlists online but nothing will compare to going to where the music was recorded and buying records. You will find things you never knew existed and make lifetime friendships and connect with the music on another level.
Tell us about your recent trip to Brazil and your record haul?
It was a bit of a whirlwind tour this trip, I only had limited time in the city but sniffed out some heat with my man João DJ Bill. A lot has changed since the pandemic and with this incompetent government, I have never seen so many people on the street, some people blame the pandemic but honestly the president has a lot to answer for, more hunger in the streets yet the country is recording more millionaires than ever. I spent half the trip this time in the city of Belo Horizonte located in the state of Minas Gerais, geographically it reminds me of Victoria in many ways. I could see myself living there one day, it's almost like a second home, so it's really depressing to see the misery and struggle of the real people that make Brasil turn. There is always a focus on finding new sounds from different eras and subcultures which Brasil has many and in fact, BH is seeing a new era of counter culture and music that had seemed a little stale until now and is flourishing predominantly from Black and LGBTQI+ communities but that's another story we should look into another time. Brasil never disappoints, believe me.
So the short time I had to hunt for music I managed to fill some holes in the collection and found some interesting pieces from the late 80's and 90's to try and align with what people are into here in Melbourne, check out the sales list.
