For the past couple of weeks I’ve mostly been listening to two CDs: Medicine Show Vol. 2: Flight To Brazil and Speto da Rua, a pair of incredible Brazilian mixes put together by LA-based beat-maker Madlib.

Both work along the same lines. Madlib is an obsessive crate-digger who cites the legendary Azymuth among his favourite bands, so when he selects a bunch of old and mostly obscure Brazilian tracks and chucks them together, it’s always going to be worth a listen.

Flight to Brazil was released this month via one of the world’s finest record labels, Stones Throw, as part of the one-a-month Medicine Show series.

Speto da Rua is a little bit older and, in my humble, slightly the more interesting of the two. Apparently it came off the back of the producer’s first visit to Brazil with Mochilla, during the filming of the phenomenal Brasilintime DVD.

Apart from a couple of more well-known tracks on each mix, and a few of the samples used on the Madvillainy album, the majority of the music is of the obscure/religious/psychedelic/jazz variety. It’s all great though, so if you can help identify any of the tracks then let me know.

Both CDs were fairly limited-edition, but they definitely crop up online from time to time. I recommend keeping an eye on Sounds of the Universe if you want to pick ‘em up in the UK.