Fachada

Fachada is the musical persona of autodidact, musician, and visionary artist Rob Smith. A D.C. native, Smith grew up on the sounds of the local 70s radio, immersed in funk, R&B, jazz, hip hop, and the city’s trademark Go-Go music. By the late 70s and early 80s he found himself at the center of DC’s emerging punk/DIY music scene; going to shows, drumming in bands, and being an artist at the ground zero of the city’s zeitgeist. A chance discovery of a stack of discarded Brazilian records at the city dump one day proved to be a catalyst, offering him a fortuitous portal to a “secret world” of rhythm and sound.

Mundos Secretos is the decades-long culmination of humble interpretations, personal innovations, and late night recording sessions with select collaborators who move and groove in the margins of the DC underground arts scene. Mundos Secretos is the DIY remnant of an obscure and exotic personal vision that celebrates a love affair with Brazilian music, progressive jazz, and unfiltered free expression. Mundos Secretos is infused with 70s-era MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), jazz, and the organic sounds and rhythms of Brazil. Tastefully placed sprinkles of synthesizers, keyboards, and electric guitar weave themselves through a mosaic of grooves focused by funk and the sounds of Brazil, swung with influences from across the African diaspora, pushing them all through a mighty cool psych-styled filter.