Nation Beat Embarks On A Carnival Caravan

Nation Beat's latest ep, Carnival Caravan featuring Cha Wa, is a five song trip to Brazil via New Orleans.    It's a crazy mash up of party atmospheres that lends itself to an upbeat, up-tempo, percussion fueled vibe that's filled with energy.  This short record is an ethnomusicologist’s dream of what cross cultural pollination is all about.   South American maracatu drumming meshes with New Orleans second line rhythms and funk to fuse a sound that's as celebratory as it is unique. If you were to look up quirky music in a dictionary Nation Beat would be next to the definition.

From the funky vibes of “Casa Diamante – Sew Sew Sew,” complete with fuzzed out guitars to the extremely catchy fun of the NOLA fueled march of, “Liza Jane,” you'll have no idea what continent you're on, what influences are playing off one another and why you can't stop tapping along.  National Beat are truly a Carnival Caravan and they're taking their party from the streets of the French Quarter to the carnivals of Brazil and everywhere in between.  Carnival Caravan is the sound of diversity and a lot of fun.

March To The Nation Beat

Holy diversity Batman...there are bands that mix genres and sounds and then there's Nation Beat. This American/Brazilian collective is a band that are unafraid to make musical gumbo and mince meat with their songs combining anything and everything into a melting pot to create a platter of globally informed sounds. Their album, Growing Stone, is an encyclopedic exploration of sound that's literally all over the map.

Coming from either side of the equator, Nation Beat switch between ideas so easily and so fluently it's almost difficult to determine where they are from. With equal parts South American vibes and North Americana, Growing Stone sounds like what would happen if Carnivale took place in a Cracker Barrel. With Brazilian maracatu drumming, Appalachian folk music, funk, country, and even blues making an appearance on the this record it's easy to see why these guys are all over the map. This is an album with international appeal that really doesn't sound like anything else; it's rootsy and groovy, it's tropical and rustic, it's diverse and new and old and familiar. Growing Stone as a result of all this is one heck of a record that couldn’t be more fun to listen to.

If you ever wondered what being open minded sounded like and what embracing the global community offers, look no further than Nation Beat. This is a band that clearly gets the idea of being part of a global community and has simply put a beat behind it. You'll be hard pressed to find another album like this one and especially one as good as Growing Stone.