Ana Frango Elétrico is the most effervescent and innovative voice to surge up from Brazil’s new wave. Already with two critically acclaimed albums and a swathe of award-winning production turns under their belt, Ana will present their most confident and accomplished work to date on October 20th: Me Chama De Gato Que Eu Sou Sua / Call Me They That I’m Yours. Gesturing to a tradition of Brazilian boogie music, but bouncing with modern pop ebullience, the album sees the Rio artist evolve from a captivating upstart into a surefooted scene leader in full stride.
At just 25, the prolific artist and producer has already garnered worldwide admirers. Ana’s sophomore Little Electric Chicken Heart was nominated at the 2020 Latin Grammys, and found support in the shape of Gilles Peterson and The Needle Drop – as well as from major global media. Since then, standalone singles “Mama Planta Baby” and “Mulher Homem Bicho” have received the WME ‘Best Music Producer’ Award, recognising Ana’s deep passion for music production – a passion which has led to collaborations with nascent Brazilian stars Dora Morelenbaum, Illy and Sophia Chablau. Most recently, Ana was hailed for their co-production of Bala Desejo’s 2022 Latin Grammy-winning album Sim Sim Sim.
With a string of celebrated collaborations and productions added to their CV since Little Electric Chicken Heart, it is unsurprising that Me Chama De Gato Que Eu Sou Sua finds Ana at their most assured and full-voiced. A fresh swagger – first teased on 2020’s disco stomper “Mulher Homem Bicho” – is immediately present. Album opener “Electric Fish”, with Nile Rodgers bass and shimmering backing vocals, sets a buoyant tone. “Boy of Stranger Things” is its bombastic counterpart. It’s the grooviest Ana has ever sounded. And the most brazen. Lyrically, where Ana was once oblique on personal matters, they are now forthright – lucidly exploring their gender identity, citing accessible cultural reference points (from Stranger Things to Camel Blue cigarettes), and often singing in English. “I’m the boy of the Stranger Things/ I’m not the girl that you think”, they proclaim over funk organ and syncopated percussion. Both sonics and sentiment are rooted in disco – certainly the expansive arrangements and unabashed grooviness; but also Ana taps into disco’s history as music of queer expression.
“I started this album in 2021 with the intention of showing, in means of sound, understandings and feelings about queer love, subjectively exposing myself,” the non-binary artist states – before qualifying that though “feeling was its driving force, the album is really about musical production.”