Imada

From Brazil, via Belgium: Canadian DJ Nick Fiorucci has built a healthy label home with Hi-Bias Records, his budding roster a good match for his remix successes, which include work with Britney Spears, Michelle Branch, Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez and TLC. Hi-Bias's latest offering comes from the enigmatic Belgian dance troupe Imada and their double CD, Wild Tapes From Bahia & Playground Do Brazil. Fans of Café Del Mar, Buddha Bar and Hotel Costes will latch onto Imada like a carioca to Ipanema, the CD's banging tracks equal parts Brazilian folk melodies and driving dance rhythms. Gilles Peterson's In Brazil and Back In Brazil educated many to the joys of classic Brazilian sounds (Quarteto em Cy, Mario Castro Neves & Samba SA Jorge Ben, Wilson Simonal), and Imada, while less concerned with tradition, alludes to similar sources. Though obviously built from samples and sequenced synths,