Radio personality, DJ, and all round legend Gilles Peterson is thankfully back in our lives again today, with the release of ‘Brasil Bam Bam Bam’, a documentary he hosted back in 2014. While until now it’d only been seen by a lucky few at festivals and rare screenings, it’s now online for all to enjoy via Brownswood Recordings, Gilles’ label, who’ve hosted it on Vimeo to time in with Rio’s Olympics.

Directed by Ben Holman and Charlie Inman, ‘Brasil Bam Bam’ follows Gilles’ recording of the debut Sonzeira album alongside members Floating Points and Earl Zinger, with appearances by local musos Marcos Valle, Elza Soares, Seu Jorge and Ed Motta. It also covers a lot of great information about the history of Rio’s favelas, and the birth of samba. Being filmed in 2014, you can imagine it also contrasts super heavily with the Brazilian effort to prepare for the Olympics – timely.

Gilles, as you would expect, is also constantly searching for records while on his travels, particularly José Prates’ ‘Tam… Tam… Tam..!’ I’ve already had the ending of that story completely ruined for me in reading about the doco, so I won’t do the same thing to you here. F**k spoilers, seriously.

Sit back, relax, and take two hours off to enjoy this visually and musically dazzling piece of cinema. Also check out Sonzeira’s latest release ‘Tam Tam Tam Reimagined’, which should get you in the mood just right.

https://vimeo.com/177677059