Originally issued by Phillips under the pseudonym Myriam Frances and long sought by vinyl collectors, Australian nun Sister Irene O’Connor’s 1973 album Fire of God’s Love sees official reissue this week via the always reliable Freedom to Spend label. Drenched in reverb and powered by organ and fuzzy drum machine, it sounds like a holy devotional side project by Broadcast—future music imbued with traditional faith.
Milton Nascimento :: Maria Maria (1976)
While Milton Nascimento is more known internationally for his role in Brazilian jazz fusion, he also composed landmark MPB records of his own, that often brought forth folkloric Brazilians genres like toada, lundu, moda de viola, and even some Medieval revivalism. Maria Maria is a highlight among those explosions of ancestral rhythms. Composed as the soundtrack to a 1976 ballet about a black female slave choreographed by Group Corpo, it would eventually culminate in the historic Missa dos Quilombos in 1982, when Milton led a drum-filled Catholic mass for a legion of Afro-Brazilians in the Praça do Carmo, Recife . . .













