FurmigaDub (formiga means ant in Portuguese) is a musical project based on partnerships from various musicians: some who donate their songs to be re-arranged and others who are part of the new arrangement. At the end the responsibility for mixing and editing is up to the music producer, Fabiano Formiga, who is the head of the project. He is a studied musician from the state of Paraiba, and is a classically trained violist. The motivation behind the project is for the artist to be able to valorize their personal musical identity — fusing regional beats with electronic resources. This means taking rhythms like coco, ciranda, caboclinho and even indigenous sounds and incorporate production elements from electronic music like drum’n’bass, dubstep and dub. This also allows them to highlight the similarities between reggaeton/dancehall and coco/Baião.
FurmigaDub is known as a prolific remixer of mashups, bootlegs as well as remixes of fellow musicians and artists from the Northeast. 2016 saw him release Ciranda de Maluco Remixes, a collaboration with the singer Escurinho from João Pessoa. More recently, he released “Furmigadub remixa Chico Correa,” highlighting his reworks of fellow Paraíban artist and close friend, Chico Correa.
One of the MCs, Fabiano, often teams up is Atômico MC who is from João Pessoa as well. He started rapping in 2001 and soon got into Raggamuffin vibes and Reggaeton when he travelled to Florida in 2007. After returning to Brazil, he made shows with BNegão, DuSouto, Black Alien and Totonho. He is just now producing his first solo CD, and he wants to continue with the mixing of ragga and Brazilian cultures with a Nordestino touch.
Coco, baião, cambindads de lucena, cavalo marinho and ciranda all coexist along side his characteristic synths and basslines. Futuristic wobbles, fiddle stylings and modal vocals eminating from the arid, equatorial interior of northeastern Brazil coexist and mingle. Not only a DJ/electronic musician, Furmigadub plays guitar and rabeca on his recordings and live performances, frequently teaming up with MCs and singers for on the spot improvisation, often times over sound systems set up in public spaces around São Paulo.