A globe-spanning collaborative recording, recorded partly in Brazil and partly at Kamo High School in Whangarei, ‘Brazilian Groove’ is a laid-back jam of an album. The groove is strong in this one. James ‘JimmyRed’ Marshall currently lives in Brazil, and from there he assembled a group of musicians to help him realise his vision of a multicultural selection of songs. The songs are fairly evenly split between the genres of smoky blues and upbeat Latin American styles, although Jack C. starts with a haunting vocal in Te Reo and then explodes into fast punk! The track Rio, which JimmyRed wrote in support of Kiwi athletes at the Olympic Games, has a ska vibe with its upstroke rhythm and punctuating horn parts. In trying to mention every event, the song does end up being a bit of a laundry list lyrically, but that doesn’t detract from the positive message and the happy feel. On Dreams, JimmyRed and crew pay very close homage to Hendrix’s Machine Gun. Once again, the lyrics have a positive message, this time about following your dreams. The album is a mixed bag of Kiwi-meets-Latin American, and the artist obviously had a blast making it. Due to the jammy nature there are the odd unpolished parts, but JimmyRed’s joyful exhortation to follow your dreams is infectious.