Interview: Batukizer - DJs from Rio and Copenhagen

The two DJs, Carla from Brazil and Rasmus from Denmark, have made a significant contribution to the discovery of amazing and often long lost Brazilian music.

They share their finds through a series of mixtapes that reveal a treasure trove of rare dance records that are still not available for streaming.

We were glad to talk with Batukizer about their unique experience of digging into Brazilian music heritage, DJing and sharing their music around the world.

RINARO: Can you tell us a bit about who Batukizer is, and what drives your passion with Brazilian music?

BATUKIZER: We are a DJ duo dedicated to play mostly Brazilian and diaspora sounds.

We have different backgrounds. Carla is Brazilian, she has an acting education from Martins Pena school in Rio and a Master in Portuguese Languages. She had a professional career as a dancer, singer and DJ - now also instructor at FFS - Future Female Sounds - International DJ Academy. Rasmus is Danish, has been a DJ, curated and arranged quality music events for over 2 decades. Rasmus has a bachelor in tourism and a brazilian guide education. Over the years he has conducted many private tours in Brazil mostly for schools, architects and musicians.

Batukizer was formerly known as Epic Vinyls from Brazil - a very explicatory name - but during the Covid lockdowns, we made the decision to change our name to an easier and simpler one - uniting the word batuque or batucada (which means Brazilian percussion) and the english ending -izer, known from words as energize or revitalize. So the name Batukizer means that we are rediscovering and activating the powerful Brazilian music.

The project started as a dogma concept wanting to prove that it was possible to DJ only Brazilian music in long, and highly energetic sets. Then in order to gain our grounds on the mixtape circuit, it became a strong challenge to find unknown Brazilian songs and artists between us. And you can believe that Carla knows A LOT of stuff. She knows not only the songs, but also the artists and often even the lyrics. And Rasmus from his trajectory provided the knowledge of how to make those tunes work on the dancefloors in Europe.

Our passion in it’s essence is to present amazing, unknown tunes to a open minded audience!

RINARO: How has this year been for you?

BATUKIZER: : We’ve come out of the bubble. We’ve had our residencies here in Copenhagen on/off throughout Covid, but in April 2022 we were finally travelling again and playing in France and we did a wonderful Brazilian tour. The summer has just been incredible with our residencies in Copenhagen - we play twice a month at open air venue Reffen - and we have played our first electronic gigs at Danish festivals this year. It’s been 3 tough years for culture and travel, but we are doing good - and our mixtapes are getting so many plays.

This year alone, we dropped two mixtapes on My Analog Journal, more on our own YouTube channel and did collaborations for channels in France, Palestine and Brazil of course.

Rasmus has just come home from another digging and reconnecting trip in Brazil bringing a lot of gems. We are gearing up for 2023.

We feel strongly that in 2023 it is time for Brazilians and people with a deep understanding of the culture and portuguese language should be highlighted more as representatives of Brazilian music. Until now the “Brazilian music DJ” circuit in Europe has been dominated by classical European structures and monetary interests as opposed to focus on heritage and culture. In this reality, we try to support and highlight DJs from Brazil and also support Brazilian and latin DJs touring in Europe.

RINARO: How has your DJ set evolved over the years?

BATUKIZER: : We’ve acquired more skills and the ability to play “deeper tunes” and trust in ourselves as we’ve built a massive catalogue of mixtapes. We can match the energy of many styles of music from all kinds of global grooves to funk, disco and house music. People often will book us for “brazilian” themed events, but we feel its no necessary. This music is so good that it is universal.

The long process of construction mixtapes, digging, listening, selecting the tunes, listening again and recording different versions of the mixes has been essential for our DJ gigs as well.

As our collection has grown, we can really dazzle people with the abundance of Brazilian music from the 60s, 70s and 80s by playing different (and epic) versions of the same songs, as well as remixes and strong percussive and capoeira tunes. Recently we started playing some hand percussion at the gigs and Carla sometimes adds vocal to our sets.

The mixtape tunes becomes a part of you, almost like your dear friends - and the audience can probably feel that love for the songs when we play them.

Source: Batukizer’s Instagram

RINARO: What was the first vinyl that launched your passion for collecting?

BATUKIZER: : We always found that record covers were more beautiful than CDs or jpegs. So to have the tangible experience of having a record in your hands is just great.

But the passion or dedication for collecting vinyl for us really comes from having music that has not yet been digitalized or is widely known.

To have and to play a great tune that lifts the dancefloor and only a few other people have is really something for every DJ. It was always a big part of club culture, whether is was bboy DJs hiding the secret funk break, the reggae “dub plate culture” or the electronic DJ doing edits and remixes.

It is only a small part of our live DJ audiences that really care about the fact that we play vinyl, but when people come up and ask to hear a specific, super rare Brazilian “compacto” (7” single) that you have - that’s just a great compliment in itself. For us it’s important.

We don’t collect an artist's entire catalogue or take pride in finding pristine, clean copies. Unfortunately original, tropical vinyl have in general suffered significant wear from heat, dust and sun. It’s a fact. But we care about sound and always prioritize the media above the packaging (cover), we also play reissues and digital from time to time.

RINARO: With vinyl becoming rarer, where do you go to dig for new records?

BATUKIZER: : We don’t think vinyl is becoming rarer as such, but unfortunately it is becoming a lot more expensive! Both new and old vinyl is seeing radical price changes these years and it’s always harder for (young) vinyl DJs that are beginning in the game to start a collection of original stuff unless they dig into the 80s, 90s or start 00s.

For digging it has always been about finding the unusual place with records.

We really appreciate most sellers and dedicated record stores, but also head out to smaller cities and flea markets and street digging.

We are not so much into “want lists” and private sellers you meet in hotel lobbies or airports. Too expensive and often too passionate about themselves.

In Brazil, where we dig a lot, Rasmus does a lot of street and market digging and sometimes I’m lucky, sometimes I’m not. Carla is more the deep researcher and sometimes she finds something that she MUST own. So the advice would be to be on top of your Discogs game, and remember to always look no matter where you are or how tired you are. We’ve found super rare and cheap records out of the blue in both Bruxelles and Manaus.

RINARO: How did the place you grew up in shape your musical outlook?

BATUKIZER:

Carla: The unique Brazilian sounds, ritualistic, soulful and rhythmic all the way, is practically why I am who I am. It shaped the way I move, think, and the way I communicate with the world.

Rasmus: I grew up in a house with a decent record collection of Danish, Swedish, US and UK pop music, but then I discovered hiphop and DJ’ing when I was 10-11 years old and that was the beginning of this journey going through hiphop, electronic and ultimately more organic music from all over the world. I speak fluent portuguese as well as decent french and spanish, so music has been a way for me to develop my language skills as well.

RINARO: What DJ equipment do you currently use?

BATUKIZER: At home we have Pioneer PLX-1000 record players. It’s a new and heavy version of the Technics 1210. We use a selection of Danish Ortofon DJ needles and our mixer is the Berlin hand built Resor Electronics model Darth (2500). It is based on Japanese components and delivers a clean and pure sound with a touch of warmth that really goes well with the majority of our records. Our amp is a Creek 5250 and our speakers are decent bookshelf models.

We have a listening set-up in our country house - also all 1990s units with a Pro-Ject turntable for digitalization of rare records. Sometimes we go there for some long cleaning and digitalizing sessions.

We also have a Pioneer XDJ-RX3 as Carla teachers digital DJing. Rasmus uses Danish AiAiAi headphones for DJing and Carla is a Sennheiser HD25 fanatic.

RINARO: You are well versed, playing at some incredible festivals all across the world. What’s the most memorable festival or music event you've played, and what made it special?

BATUKIZER: Three great 2022 experiences.

Rasmus: For me it was to DJ at the open air Azymuth (Brazilian jazz kings) concert in Copenhagen in August of 2022. Covid was far gone, the crowd was electric and the city was warm and beautiful. He prepared a special one hour set of non-shazammable tunes for the music lovers.

Carla: Super memorable festivals this year was “Bass under Buen” - the one day bass music Festival in Copenhagen - the bass sounds from Brazil are so groovy and I believe that we made a real difference in the lineup.

Carla at Bas Under Buen
Source: Batukizer’s Instagram

Carla: Definetly also Biarritz Latin Film Festival: The most amazing vibes, love to play with my DJ partner, and explore all our knowledge, competences to move the crowd and enjoy ourselves fully at the same time

RINARO: Rinaro Isodynamics is an Ukrainian company and as far as we know you once visited Ukraine to play at the festival. Could you tell us about this experience? Ukrainian culture is largely different from Brazilian culture due to its geographical distance, so what was the reaction of people to Brazilian music?

BATUKIZER: Rasmus actually went to Ukraine to see the FloorWars breakdance battles, with whom he worked with for a decade. It was amazing to see the amount of talent and dedication that Ukraine has within the culture. I also DJ’ed at 20ft Radio, at The Alchemist Bar and raved at Closer. I went for an extensive digging trip at the big Sunday market with 2 kilometers of street vendors - even though it was snowing! I met with a collector and swapped some Brazilian records for some really nice jazz, funk and breakbeats from the Soviet era. A nice experience.

I really loved Kiev. People were friendly and the coffee was cheap and crafted with love. Alchemist is a small bar but it was packed and people danced like crazy. I would love to go back!

RINARO: You have taken extensive digging trips through the Rio and São Paulo and through South Brazil, Northeast and the Amazon states with the mission to uncover rare gems and forgotten songs and present them to new and curious audiences worldwide. What interesting discoveries did you take from this trip?

BATUKIZER: There have been so many trips. To hear the discoveries, you should just listen to our mixtapes. Most of them are available on both Youtube and Soundcloud.

From the Amazon, there’s the Carimbó style mixtape.

And from the Northeast we have a mixtape on My Analog Journal with some amazing rarities.

We are still sitting on a lot of gems and many more mixes are to come!

RINARO: If you had to recommend 3 albums for someone looking to get into Brazilian music, what would you give them?

BATUKIZER: We selected four records from female artist with four years between each of them.

They are all groundbreaking in their own sense and are not obvious starter records if you don’t know Brazilian, but we want to promote a broader perception of the Brazilian musical heritage. All the artists except Dila (that tragically died after the release in 1971) are still alive and should be treated as royalty ❤️

Dila: S/T (1971)

Mythical rediscovery put out in 2019 that unites bossa, samba and raw soul with a voice so great and sincere that it moves mountains.

Geovana: Quem Tem Carinho Me Leva (1975)

Roots samba that talks about life, desires and heritage. Very strong grooves and excellent mid-70s stereo production.

Catia de França: Vinte Palavras ao Redor do Sol (1979)

One of the strongest Brazilian debut albums from the late 1970s. Northeastern music, folky vibes, epic lyrics and forró rhythms are brought together on this epic LP.

Sandra de Sá: Vale Tudo (1983)

Lincoln Olivetti / Robson Jorge who were the Brazilian kings of shimmery post-disco sounds, produced soul singer Sandra de Sá’s 1983 boogie masterpiece. An album full of dancefloor bangers and city life descriptions that are on point to this day! Guest feature by the mighty Tim Maia himself.