Bloco Electro - Marakatu EP

Bloco Electro burst onto the scene late last year with huge support from Radio One’s breaks queen Annie Nightingale and since then, everything’s happened really rather fast for the Reading outfit. In the short time since their demo aired on Nightingale’s show, they’ve managed to get onto the stage at Glastonbury and have released their debut album Global Beatbox Pt 1. On Marakatu they combine live percussion with electronic beats in a homage to the Brazilian maracatu rhythm. Sounding like the bastard love-child of Afro Celt Sound System and Pendulum, the EP definitely has a good groove to it and gets the foot tapping. But it all sounds a bit dated and a good deal of the textures used hark back to the late rave generation with little to place it in the present. Also, the vocal is just plain crap. Given a bit of time Bloco Electro could shine through but their production needs some development.[Don McVinnie]