Rating: NNN
Way back in 1977, Unio Black were Brazil’s answer to Parliament, and though they haven’t been doing much for the past two decades, their self-titled debut from that year is a funky classic of the Black Rio movement. Enter New York DJs Daniel Collas — who produced Joe Bataan’s surprisingly tough Call My Name comeback album — and Brazilian Beat Brooklyn’s Sean Marquand, and suddenly Banda Unio Black are back in action like the 90s never happened. While the goal seems to be to recapture the funky glory of their late-70s prime, the sessions come up short on solid compositions, and they’re left sprucing up the pounding grooves with analog synth squeal. Padding out the disc with a half-assed cover of Hot Chocolate’s Everyone’s A Winner seems woefully ill-advised.
