It's not just American jazz musicians who have discovered the joys of Brazilian music. Ever since the Os Mutantes craze in the 1990s, rock'n'roll hipsters have been latching onto samba and tropicalia like it was going out of style. Here are a few records you might want to check out!

Portastatic "De Mel, De Melao" (Merge, 2000)
It seems that Merge's main man, Mac McCaughy, has been on a big Brazilian rock kick for a while and, after taking a trip down south, finally worked up the gumption to put out a tribute disc. This five-song EP is great: I'd love to hear a full-length follow up, maybe with some tropicalia-inspired original material as well as the classics... As it is, though, this is pretty engaging, with freshly translated versions of oldies by Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and other tropicalia legends, along with a nice ballad from bossa-jazz chanteuse, Joyce. These are heartfelt, sonically rich and musically perceptive. Check it out!

• Baratos Afins is an indie-oriented record store located in Sao Paulo that is a font of knowledge on Brazil's teensy-tiny indie scene... There website includes reviews (in Portuguese) and mailorder info on several hard-to-find titles, including the BRAZILIAN PEBBLES collection reviewed above. An invaluable resource for various off-the-beaten-track styles, such as Brazilian punk and prog.

• Midsummer Madness is an indie label started by some zinesters in Rio de Janeiro. Inspired by Creation Records and the Sarah label, they devoted themselves to wispier rock material than the Brazilian mainstream was into... and still make records today! (Website in English and Portuguese.)

Other Brazilian Styles
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