Fila Brazillia Thread

I thought I'd make a topic for these guys. A project from the wonderful Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry. I thank my anime-loving sisters for making me discover Fila. I remember years ago they would play this remix Fila did for DJ Food's "Freedom" (I think it was used for Cartoon Network's Toonami at one point??). I relistened to it last year and since I was aware that Fila Brazillia was a whole different artist (I was not really into music back in 2012 to really know what "Fila Brazillia Mix" meant lmao), I decided to start their discography. I was tired that night to try out their long player, Old Codes New Chaos, a neat album that's more house than downtempo, so I went to their most famous release, Maim That Tune, and I was in LOVE. Tracks like A Zed and Two L's and At Home in Space are amazing. So after loving Maim That Tune, I went back to Old Codes then worked my way up in order after.

Listening to where Fila Brazillia went with their albums is a fun experience. The many styles and fun ideas they bring to the downtempo electronica sound makes them my favorite in the genre. I enjoy all of their output and highly recommend them to anyone who's into downtempo. They're apparently more well-known out of the more obscure of the genre, compared to other labelmates such as say, Bullitnuts or Baby Mammoth.

Sadly, Fila Brazillia was no more after 2007 with the amazing One Track Mind EP. It's not too bad though, since Cobby still makes amazing music after Fila. I love The Cutler and Hey, Rube! a lot, same with his solo albums this decade. McSherry is a music teacher currently. Even though a Fila live album from 2000 came out last year, the future of a Fila reunion is still understandably bleak.

But yeah enough history, anyone here listened to this wonderful group?

I fucking love fila brazillia.  You're spot on about the many styles bit, I loved the way they perfected their alchemy of the electronic and the organic in a way that was so definitively theirs, and yeah, hella fun.
Their first remix collection, Brazilification (featuring that great DJ Food remix you mentioned) is by far my favorite thing of theirs (B2 is decent as well but can't compare). Maim, Power Clown, and Touch of Cloth are go-to albums but they're all great.  If I ever change my watmm moniker it'll be to Lieut. Gingivitis Shit!

Where can this live album of which you speak be acquired?? I wouldn't mind seeing them get back together, but the older/wiser part of me understands how seasons change, and besides, they had an amazing run of it.  Sad I didn't get to see them live when they were a thing.

Also, I was a fan of theirs for like 10+ years before it finally dawned on me what the track title "a zed and two l's" means! 

  On 11/6/2019 at 3:24 AM, BobDobalina said:

I fucking love fila brazillia.  You're spot on about the many styles bit, I loved the way they perfected their alchemy of the electronic and the organic in a way that was so definitively theirs, and yeah, hella fun.
Their first remix collection, Brazilification (featuring that great DJ Food remix you mentioned) is by far my favorite thing of theirs (B2 is decent as well but can't compare). Maim, Power Clown, and Touch of Cloth are go-to albums but they're all great.  If I ever change my watmm moniker it'll be to Lieut. Gingivitis Shit!

Where can this live album of which you speak be acquired?? I wouldn't mind seeing them get back together, but the older/wiser part of me understands how seasons change, and besides, they had an amazing run of it.  Sad I didn't get to see them live when they were a thing.

Also, I was a fan of theirs for like 10+ years before it finally dawned on me what the track title "a zed and two l's" means! 

 

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Gladly. The live album is "Played in Japan", it's available on Bandcamp. It's also available on youtube topic links and Spotify too but to purchase it Bandcamp is the best place to support it. It's a pretty enjoyable listen, I also love the two videos of the performance they uploaded on YouTube.

I've been meaning to listen to the remix compilations but there's so much music I discover that keep getting in the way of that. XD And is the title a reference to Led Zeppelin?

  On 11/6/2019 at 4:04 AM, President Squidward said:

Gladly. The live album is "Played in Japan", it's available on Bandcamp. It's also available on youtube topic links and Spotify too but to purchase it Bandcamp is the best place to support it. It's a pretty enjoyable listen, I also love the two videos of the performance they uploaded on YouTube.

I've been meaning to listen to the remix compilations but there's so much music I discover that keep getting in the way of that. XD And is the title a reference to Led Zeppelin?

It's a reference to the band's misspelling of Brasilia. 

This thread really takes me back. My first foray beyond radio hits and hip hop was right after the turn of the millennium. MTV played Portishead one night and it really opened a can of worms. I soon stumbled upon the old winamp-powered station Monkeyradio, playing the ninjatune roster and everything else triphop, and FB was a mainstaple. I consider them part of that weird almost-famous movement that nobody knew but still made it on the CSI and Sex and the City soundtracks. They didn't really expand or revolutionized things but have some really good laid back tracks. My taste eventually shifted towards the darker and more abstract stylings of artists like Amon Tobin and DJ Cam, and soon enough more explicitly electronic music... but I'll always have a soft spot for these acts. 

 
rude the reals 

"Slacker" was selected for the Fuse: Fifteen Years compilation, always thought it was really good without digging into their discography.

My only experience with Fila Brazillia is basically with the Black Market Gardening which I bought back in 2003. I like it and still listen to it occasionally but never really got so interested that I would have forayed to the other albums. It was an impulse purchase on a day trip to Andorra from Barcelona so it definitely brings back memories.

i like

  On 11/6/2019 at 4:04 AM, President Squidward said:

Gladly. The live album is "Played in Japan", it's available on Bandcamp. It's also available on youtube topic links and Spotify too but to purchase it Bandcamp is the best place to support it. It's a pretty enjoyable listen, I also love the two videos of the performance they uploaded on YouTube.

I've been meaning to listen to the remix compilations but there's so much music I discover that keep getting in the way of that. XD And is the title a reference to Led Zeppelin?

Thanks dude, I will most definitely be copping this on bandcamp.  You need to get on Brazilification stat!  Not only is some of their best work is on their remixes, but the way they self-mix the tracks on this compilation is almost magical - the transitions into "Freedom" and out of Lamb's "Cottonwool" still give me the chills.

This is an unmixed version (image is unrelated, weird bwoy does not appear to have anything to do with Fila or Lamb)

  On 11/6/2019 at 2:08 PM, chim said:

It's a reference to the band's misspelling of Brasilia. 

This thread really takes me back. My first foray beyond radio hits and hip hop was right after the turn of the millennium. MTV played Portishead one night and it really opened a can of worms. I soon stumbled upon the old winamp-powered station Monkeyradio, playing the ninjatune roster and everything else triphop, and FB was a mainstaple. I consider them part of that weird almost-famous movement that nobody knew but still made it on the CSI and Sex and the City soundtracks. They didn't really expand or revolutionized things but have some really good laid back tracks. My taste eventually shifted towards the darker and more abstract stylings of artists like Amon Tobin and DJ Cam, and soon enough more explicitly electronic music... but I'll always have a soft spot for these acts. 

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PM to claim your prize, two best-rolled Ls!  Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead.

Ha! I listened to Monkeyradio way back when too!  Creepy how similar my foray in into electronica was to yours.  Fila were definitely part of the gateway drug scheme, but I especially liked how they and other Pork artists pulled the sound in a much different direction.

  On 11/6/2019 at 2:17 PM, cwmbrancity said:

 
rude the reals 

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Condolences bran, I've had old threads of mine passed over like a two-bit whore too.  Just kick off your shoes and pour yourself some cognac m8!

Booze free, bad spirits come out if the brandy appears

Bought everything up to Power Clown. The cd came with a brutally funny booklet sleeve of cartoon strips, god I’d love to thumb through that again but sadly lost to time. If anyone has that copy and fancies scanning it, my cousin is a proper goer & you’ll get first dibs:
 

Maim That Tune, Black Market Gardening, Mess & Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight (that rabbit!) put all the contemporary big-beat shit to shame & still sound marvellous. Cobby’s long-form mixes are always worth rummaging through too:
 

My fave... So warm

  On 11/6/2019 at 2:17 PM, cwmbrancity said:

 
rude the reals 

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Ah sorry m8. Shall I keep using this new topic for Fila or move it to there along with the Pork talk? because I have a few things to say about Pork.  

I shall mention Mess is one of my favorite albums of all time. Jump Leads is also a classic. 2000's Fila is quite underrated

Crack on....they’ve a wicked body of work that deserve a fist bump. Cobby helped out at an infamous Monday night session called Serve Chilled that ran for a while, ideal post-weekend experimentation chamber later morphed into a 3 volume series of tracks on DiY. If you’re looking for music v much related to that Hull sound, try these on for size

https://www.discogs.com/Various-DIY-Serve-Chilled-Volume-1/release/33261

https://www.discogs.com/Various-DiY-Serve-Chilled-Vol-2/release/104743

https://www.discogs.com/Various-DIY-Serve-Chilled-Vol-3/release/65823
 

Tangent but for cross-pollination between Hull & Notts (when Pork were pretty much nailing gem after gem too,) you’ll hear what I’m trying to articulate poorly

https://www.discogs.com/label/1158179-Diyersions

https://www.discogs.com/artist/46966-Caia

https://www.discogs.com/label/931-emt

Power Clown is a fucking belter. Feathery Legs off that album is so damn good.

first head them here:

fav from them atm is probably:

I’ve concluded Butter My Mask is one of their greatest, most pretty songs ever. That fucking DnB influence as well as how the track just makes a turn around in the last couple minutes with a disco bit, hitting you with hauntingly yet heavenly ambient choirs, it just adds more brilliance.

  On 12/24/2019 at 2:01 PM, cwmbrancity said:

 

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This and Hairy Insides are the best tracks on Mess 

Fila's cover on Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" is pure fucking bliss 

I'm as big a FBoi as y'all and yet was hereto unaware this existed...

In tracking down what this appeared on, I just noticed that they have 244 remix credits on Discogs... damn.  If all that licensing shit wasn't a chore they've got material for like 6 more Brazilifications at least!

  On 12/24/2019 at 10:38 AM, President Squidward said:

I’ve concluded Butter My Mask is one of their greatest, most pretty songs ever. That fucking DnB influence as well as how the track just makes a turn around in the last couple minutes with a disco bit, hitting you with hauntingly yet heavenly ambient choirs, it just adds more brilliance.

As far as Fila goes I really didn't feel this track at first, in part b/c a lot of it felt way too simplistic, especially that pad part... but that's Fila for you, take the time & you'll find the beauty seeping thru crevasses everywhere, like a fractal pattern you can zoom into infinitely.  Black Market Gardening is a triiip!

Well guys. Fila Brazillia did something no one expected to after years of uncertain responses if Dave and Steve would bring the project back.

And today, after showcasing their old stuff for the 30th anniversary of the project last month, THEY RELEASE A BRAND NEW EP ON BANDCAMP.

Here's the Bandcamp link. Vinyl and digital. IT'S AMAZING. 

https://filabraz.bandcamp.com/album/mmxx-ep

Nice. Very unexpected.

Got my evening listening sorted.

Did you guys like Cobby’s Sweet Jesus? Great little album there.

oh yes, nothing but love for fila, lovely new ep, lovely return, fila is back & me is lovin' it! 

Awesome and unexpected, happy Fila Friday fellow fuckers!