Mangue Bit

Manguebeat
Stylistic origins	Alternative rock art rock maracatu frevo coco forró funk hip hop electronic hardcore punk heavy metal
Cultural origins	Early 1990s, Northeast Brazil
Typical instruments	Vocals guitar bass samplers alfaia drums custom percussion

The mangue bit or manguebeat movement is a cultural movement created circa 1991 in the city of Recife in Northeast Brazil in reaction to the cultural and economical stagnation of the city. The movement largely focuses on music, mixing regional rhythms of Brazilian Northeast, such as maracatu, frevo, coco and forró, with rock, hip hop, funk and electronic music.

The movement has its own manifesto, Caranguejos com Cérebro (or "Crabs with Brains" in English), written in 1992 by singer Fred 04 and DJ Renato L. Its title refers to Recife's inhabitants as crabs living in Recife's mangrove environment. A major symbol associated with mangue bit is that of an antenna stuck in the mud receiving signals from all over the world.

Mangue bit can be divided into two distinct waves: the first in the early 1990s led by the music groups Chico Science & Nação Zumbi (Zumbi's Nation) and Mundo Livre S/A (Free World Inc.), and the second in the early 2000s led by Re:Combo (a copyleft movement that uploads half-sampled music for download) and Cordel do Fogo Encantado (a music group that started as a roving theatre troupe with roots in a form of literature known as literatura de cordel ("twine literature")).

The original movement named itself mangue bit, mangue referring to Recife's mangroves and bit to the computer bit central to the movement's electronic music influences. Since then, mangue bit has far more commonly, albeit mistakenly, been referred as mangue beat.

External links

• Movimento Manguebit (Wayback Machine archive of the MangueBit movement website) (Portuguese)
• Caranguejos com Cérebro Manifesto (original manifesto) (Portuguese)
• Movimento Manguebit (Wayback Machine archive of the MangueBit movement website) (Portuguese)
• Caranguejos com Cérebro Manifesto (original manifesto) (Portuguese)
• Crabs with Brains Manifesto (trans. by Philip Galinsky). (English)
• In a Nutshell guide to Mangue Beat (Sounds and Colours magazine article on MangueBit) (English)
• Manguebeat (English)