Menahan Street Band & Rogê "Tropical Man" 12" EP

It's the origin story for a Samba Super Hero: Rogȇ, a mild-mannered sambista is accidentally exposed to intense levels of funk and transforms into . . . "Tropical Man." The song isn't his first collaboration with Tommy "TNT" Brenneck, the producer behind Budos Band, Charles Bradley, Molly Lewis, and Menahan Street and more, but it's the perfect introduction to the Brazilian singer, songwriter and guitarist. Building off of last year's Curyman, Rogȇ's international debut on Diamond West Records, the Tropical Man 12" EP documents one insane night in the studio with the Menahan Street Band as they unlock a previously unreachable hybrid of samba and soul music.  Over one insane night sandwiched between two weekends of Coachella performances for the east coast-based El Michels Affair (many of whose members overlap with the Menahan Street Band) Roge, Tommy and gang wrote and recorded two new songs live to tape at Diamond West studios in Pasadena, California. In addition to a few different mixes of "Tropical Man," the 12" EP features two versions of "Mis Filos," a slinky mid-tempo ode to Roge's children that could easily pass for a previously undiscovered early-seventies slice of syncopated, soft-psych samba soul.