Cajú e Castanha – Sensação Estranha (1982)

Cajú e Castanha
“Sensação Estranha”
Released 1982 on Copacabana (COELP-41786) {this pressing}
Reissued subsequently on Beverly Records (CLP-81768)

01. Pensei que não pensava (Caju / Castanha / Walter de Afogados)
02. Vindo lá da lagoa (Caju / Castanha / Walter de Afogados)
03. Casamento do meu avô (Caju / Castanha / Ronaldo Café)
04. Bezouro mangagá (Caju / Castanha)
05. Homenagem à Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Caju / Castanha / Amélia Felicidade da Silva)
06. Coco de São João (Caju / Castanha)
07. Sensação estranha (Caju / Castanha / Walter de Afogados)
08. Calango e desafio (Téo Azevedo)
09. Pato gamela (Caju / Castanha / Oliveira)
10. Veja que besteira (Caju / Castanha / Walter de Afogados / Josan)
11. Roda rodete rodiado (Caju / Castanha)
12. Meu amor fez um balanço (Caju / Castanha / Ede Cury)
13. Pra ver o olho do sol (Caju / Castanha / Oliveira

Transcription Notes:
Vinyl -> Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntable (with Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge, Speedbox power supply) > Creek Audio OBH-15 -> M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Soundcard -> Adobe Audition 3.0 at 24-bits 96khz -> Click Repair light settings, additional clicks and pops removed in Audition -> Normalized to -1db -> dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced -> ID Tags done in foobar2000 v.1.0.1
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This is the second album by Cajú e Castanha, natives of São Lourenço, Pernambuco, and masters of the embolada. The album opens up with a couple of forró numbers that good enough, and still highlight the pair’s rhythmic singing style (especially the opener “Pensei que não pensava”), but for anybody who is already somewhat familiar with these guys you will just be impatiently waiting to get to what is coming around the corner with the third tune, “Casamento do meu avô.” This is the type of tune for which these two got famous – clever, witty lyrics with infectiously funky pandeiro playing. (It is worth noting how well the recording engineers captured this by proper microphone placement and getting a crapload of low-end out of those instruments).

Taking public transit in Pernambuco has one fringe benefit that compensates for the irregular service and crowded discomfort – you have a slim chance of having a random guy armed with a pandeiro get on board and start singing improvised embolada and making up verses about the people on board in hopes of getting some loose change. If you have any humanity whatsoever you really have to give these guys a dollar or two, because not only did they just make your day a lot more lively (even if they aren’t particularly good), but if you fail to give anything you will be cursed by the Embolada Gnomes (sort of like a union which regulates their pay scale and right to strike) and when you die you will spend eternity in a brightly lit room listening to Eagles records over and over.

Allegedly, Cajú and Castanha had migrated to São Paulo – like a great deal of Northeasterners including the outgoing president – in search of a better life, and spent some time doing their thing on buses as well. When done in pairs the embolada was and is still played mostly like this – just two guys trading verbal ripostes and rocking out on tambourines, uh, I mean, pandeiros. The genre often gets rather saucy, raunchy, or downright filthy, but these guys keep it mostly “ribald.” Yes, “ribald” is how they roll. And whereas emboladas are often a trading of insults quite a bit like the North American genre of “playing the dozens”, Cajú and Castanha are more storytellers than sparring partners. The melodic forró that makes the title track here, ‘Sensação Estranha’, is however an upbeat little number about gonorrhea.

This particular record contains one of their best-known tunes, “Roda, Rodete, Rodiano”

These guys have featured in a couple of documentaries over the course of their long career. The easiest one to find is a rather horrible, awful film called “Eu moro no Brasil” made by some Norweigan or German or Swede (sorry I can’t call, one of those really tall blokes from a very Aryan place). In spite of the film’s overall awfulness it is worth checking out for some of the performance footage and particularly in the case of Cajú e Castanha, since the original Castanha died in 2001 shortly after the film was completed. The “duo” lives on, however, as his son has taken his place as well as the moniker of Castanha, and so they continue to perform and record under that name. I guess Castanha II or Castaninha just don’t sound as bitchin’ cool.

This is not the best-sounding vinyl rip I have done in my life. It actually took two different copies of this album to get it this good – one for the audio, the other for the album cover. The music was taken off the original Copacabana pressing from 1982, but the cover for that one was graced with an absurdly huge adhesive sticker on it with the number “863” plastered over Caju’s head in accordance with a former owner’s “cataloging” system. I know it is a “system” because I bought another record (also by Caju e Castanha) from the same place, and IT has the number “864” on it. In any case I went out of my way to get my hands on a decent copy of just the album cover to photograph for the beloved community here. Unfortunately the vinyl was equally beaten as the first pressing. In truth it isn’t too terrible, but the embolada numbers are very sibilant (pandeiro and voice, think about it..) and thus coupled with surface noise it can be a little fatiguing on the ears. Since I refuse to use EQ, dynamics compression, or any heavy-handed filtering other than the wonderful Click Repair algorithm, you will just have to make adjustments at home if you feel the need.

Caju e Castanha – Sensação Estranha (1982) in 320kbs em pee tree

Caju e Castanha – Sensação Estranha (1982) in FLAC LOSSLESS AUDIO

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