Header: Complotto e Mezzo

As you can maybe guess from his name, and even more from the title of his album (“Um Fim De Semana No Pònei Dourado”), B Fachada is a Portugese-singing artist. And in fact he’s really Portugese, not Brazilian: and it would be a shame to overlook him because of the language. There’s even an entire entire “portugese scene” to discover, so welcome to this first one.

There’s no fado here, but a risky martini of (ehm) Brazilian styles with an Indie-rock approach. The result is far from being cheesy: languid and sentimental without doubt, but rhythmically sparkling and spread of vocal transgressions. And where the bearing gets lamest, like in “Beijitos”, B Fachada can be quite outstanding.

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“If you like Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and all the other bearded hippies, this is for you”.

Or maybe, as for me, if you don’t like Fleet Foxes and even less Devendra Banhart, this is for you. I even ignore if this English guy known as Silent Paper Radios has got a beard. Oh, whatever. He came out last year with “Reborn As A Wind Chime”, and now he’s back with “The Willow Tree” EP (both available for free). “Calm acoustic songs, sometimes with banjo or some other kling klang instrumentation”, as mblogger DFBM explains.

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First of all, I feel ashamed of writing this entry in English. So, why am I doing this? Because I think that, for non-Italian-people, an awful English will still make more sense than a well written Italian: and I see no reason for which the present column should be limited to my fellow berluscolandia readers.

And now, let’s talk about Ye Olde Maids. They are a “duo” with one real person and his imaginary friend. Both of them sing: one with a male voice, the other with a faux feminine, screeching falsetto.

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I Givers sono un allegro collettivo della Louisiana, e risultano dall’innesto di una jungle guitar dentro una piantagione di cotone.

L’anno scorso se ne sono usciti con un ep dal titolo “Givers (EP)”, con cinque pezzi che sono di fatto quattro più un remix. Balli campagnoli, spensierati, divertenti, anche un po’ zotici, ma al tempo stesso memori di quello stile che una volta si chiamava “indie”. Melodie muscolose, sorriso pucci, struttura elementare, insomma un trionfo per il network del LOL. Se lo scoprissero certi bloggers di nostra conoscenza, guiderebbero il trenino di capodanno su “Ceiling Of Plankton”, mentre squinzie-hipster e sfitinzie-strappone fanno finalmente la pace.

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L’hiphop strumentale dovrebbe essere una contraddizione in termini, dato che dell’hiphop manca l’elemento più importante (il flow intendo, non le parolacce). Ma almeno Endtroducing di Dj Shadow aveva dimostrato, nei remoti anni ‘90, che tale mancanza poteva paradossalmente ridare vitalità ad un genere che già allora si stava avviando ad una triste vecchiaia.

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