Sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I went and bought the Bondo do Role album, 'With Lasers' yesterday. It's been produced by Diplo, who has been romantically linked with M.I.A and who contributed to 'Bucky Done Gun'. On first listen, 'With Lasers' sounded a lot like 'Arular'. But it also has the silliness of CSS, some typical Brazilian drumming, the electro-sex-funk of Peaches, and some pretty heavy guitars too. Personally, I think it will be a big hit with the Poptimists community, but I wanted to see if anyone else has got the album, or seen them live, and what they think? I'll hopefully be seeing them at Glastonbury (Saturday, 7.30pm Lounge Stage) so am intrigued to hear if anyone has seen their live set.

I was in a bit of a rush this morning, so only had time to upload one track, and it's probably the silliest on the album, featuring kazoos (yes, very Embrace)!
Bondo do Role - Geremia (Sendspace link)

Thoughts please.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I really hate this band. Like...yes, just what rio funk needed was a dose of fucking indie, with added shitty metal samples. Fuck off. They're shit live, too. And 'The Final Countdown' is one of the worst songs ever in any context.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Where is the 'indie' in their sound? And can you recommend some rio funk artists/tracks that are entirely untainted by such terrible things as guitars?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Zenith's right that loads of baile funk has rock/metal samples in it - Bonde Du Role seem to like the riffs being more upfront than the rhythms though, which I don't think works.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Most rio funk is more based on electro samples and kids' TV tunes. Or 'Papa Don't Preach'. Both of which make tons of sense given the roots of the genre and the other stuff it's related to! I haven't really come across much rock, and certainly no metal, in any of the comps I have...

But yeah you're right, most rio funk integrates its samples into itself in a way Bonde Do Role refuse to do - w/someone like Tati Quebra Barroco, the point first & foremost is the rio funk, and every so often a funny sample comes along to enhance or enliven it. With Bonde Do Role it seems the entire point of the project is to go "LOL WE HAVE WACKY SAMPLES ISN'T IT FUNNY TO MIX UP TWO THINGS WHICH DON'T WORK TOGETHER". It's v 'wacky', I hate that.

[zenith.livejournal.com]

Wait, so Bonde Do Role are self-consciously wacky and the stuff that samples kids TV themes (!) isn't?

I really don't get the wackiness thing, it just seems like messy fun to me. Yes, yes, fun is a moveable feast...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't really like messy fun! I like sleek fun. Which brings me back to the first point - BDR are self-conscious not because of what samples they use but in the way they use them, foregrounding them at the expense of the rio funk - it makes it sound like the rio funk is secondary to the sample. Rather like Rihanna's 'SOS' in fact, where the sample dwarfs Rihanna to the extent that she's subsumed in it. It should be the other way round, which I think most rio funk does v successfully.