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Music

Toast Dawg Embraces the Darker Sounds of Rio For His New EP 'Brazivilain II'

Listen to the Brazillian infused effort that could put the Montreal beatmaker on everyone’s map.

Photo by Le Pigeon

Let’s be real: sequels rarely live up to first installments. Grease 2 disappointed an entire generation of singalong hopefuls; Michael Jordan’s 02-03 season with the Wizards was, for all intents and purposes, a joke; and has anyone even watched the entire 89 minutes of Jaws: The Revenge? But once in a blue moon, a sequel has the potential to upstage the original. Toast Dawg’s new EP, Brazivilain II, is one of those sequels. Obscure Brazilian jazz-fusion samples run through all seven tracks, which include a vocal reprise featuring the great Illa J. The beats all tie together so well, the whole thing sounds like a dark, contemporary symphony; a long piece made up of several distinct movements. Transitions between songs are seamless, but that’s a skill that comes with being in the game for almost 20 years, as is the case with Toast Dawg, though his name still might not ring a bell for everyone. A veteran of the Quebec music scene, his work has mostly remained local, until now. Each of the six tracks on Brazivilain II, which will namely be distributed in New York by Fat Beats and is available on [" target="_blank">vinyl](http://<iframe width=), are meant to reach a broader audience while retaining Toast Dawg's ear for unique fusion beats.

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For Brazivilain II, had you already thought about making it while working on the first volume?
Toast Dawg: I didn’t actually plan the second volume right away. I knew I wanted to get something else started in the year following the first EP but I didn’t know what yet. In November [2014], I won an award at the GAMIQ Gala [Gala Alternatif de la Musique Independante du Quebec, Quebec’s Indie music awards], which is sort of like the ADISQ Gala, except geared towards more underground music. Brazivilain won “EP of the Year”, so I kind of thought “why not” and decided to give the second volume a go and take home the same award next year! [laughs]

But in all seriousness, long-term I want to put out a full LP with 10-15 songs or so. I don’t have much time right now but that’s my goal. In the meantime, however, I did this album to have material for festivals this year. I also happened to find a ton of new samples that were great for what I wanted to do.

For sure. I’ve been listening to it on a loop since I got it and it feels a lot darker than the original record. Is that what you were going for?
Dawg: For sure. That’s really how the EP took shape as I was working on it. Since I started focusing on creating beats in the early 2000s, I’ve always stuck to things that are sort of sweet, funky and all. I thought it would be cool to do something a little more in-your-face, kinda badass. So I ended up creating something a darker. The samples that I found also pointed me towards that direction. I found a lot of stuff in record conventions, stuff that had never been released in Canada—a lot of Brazilian stuff, of course, like jazz-fusion and the likes. It gave me a whole new template for the second volume, different from bossa-nova and the other stuff I’d used in the past. It’s really different and I thought it was pretty cool. I didn’t want to do the same thing twice, that’s for sure.

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Now, let’s talk about the video for “At Night”, which definitely has some dark humour going on.
Dawg: That video kind of flew under the radar. It’s an edited version of a Brazilian film from the 70s. We didn’t have much of a budget to make a video so I reached out to the guy who made the video for the last album, and who I’ve worked with for a while now. He found that footage and edited a specific scene, which is what you see in the video. I didn’t get much feedback for it, probably because jokes in Québécois-French have a limited appeal. But the reactions I’ve gotten seem pretty split down the middle; half the people found it funny and the other half didn’t.

I can definitely see it having a polarizing effect.
Dawg: I honestly don’t worry too much about videos. I’m personally not really a fan of watching them in general so I don’t really mind. I know they’re important and everything, but oh well. We’re also releasing another video shortly for the “Finale - Fim” featuring Illa J. It’s made of shots from the night we spent recording the track. It won’t be a normal video, but the images look great so I’m excited for that to come out. It’s important for me to push that song because it’s a good way to ease into my music and get a broader reach since Brazivilain II is also being distributed in New York by Fat Beats.

Can we expect you to “revisit” and do a kind of remix for Brazivilain II like you did the first volume?
Dawg: Definitely, it’s already in the works. I can’t tell you who’ll be on it but some of the guys who were on the last Revisited are going to make an appearance, and some new faces too.

Martha Cote is a Boss-a Nova. - @martcte