Felipe Neiva - "Conte Comigo"

For years Carioca netlabel Transfusão Noise Records has been the name behind Brazil’s most unique noise-revivalist, punk, and lo-fi albums. The catalogue is still going strong, pushing forward by rejecting a boutique mindset that relies too heavily on nostalgia. On the contrary, there is always something challenging or idiosyncratic to discover.

Through Escritório, an extension of Transfusão, we are learning about more and more fresh Brazilian acts to follow. Escritório’s ongoing Cassete Club series is releasing exclusive songs recorded on tape and streaming them through Soundcloud. This third offering comes from Felipe Neiva, an artist that caught our attention thanks to his song’s somber, wounded spirit laced in affecting guitars. The track initially offers pure indie rock which then timehops back into a 60s freak out, a move that works because it places the vocal’s garbled pleas in the proper context.

Produced by Lê Almeida, "Conte Comigo" will be included in an EP from Felipe Neiva due later this year.

Video: Gaax - "Manual"

Last year's lo-fi revelation Campo dos Sonhos from Brazilian composer and one-man-band Felipe Oliveira (Gaax) continues to attract repeated listens. Oliveira filled his record with a number of short songs, testing all kinds of moods or just indulging in noise. Most fell between 1-2 minutes, making them disposable in the long run. Still, others held up better. Consider "Manual," which submits in its brief runtime a somber bellow and a statement about feeling everything. With it now is a worthy clip coated in twilight and animations and also has me thinking about Chris Marker. These types of micro-shorts are fascinating for all sorts of inexplicable reasons. We felt the same upon watching Baby Nelson & The Philistines' "Ansiosos / Ociosos" and even Gepe's "Lluvia, diente, lluvia." Gaax doesn't revolutionize the format, but this entry is still quite unique and repeatable.

Trash No Star - Stay Creepy (no) Summer Hits

Stay Creepy (no) Summer Hits, Trash No Star
Transfusao Noise Records, Brazil
Rating: 69
by Carlos Reyes

You must give it to Lê Almeida for keeping Transfusão Noise Records as faithful to noise punk as it has been over the years. Most producers would’ve polished the sound by now, but Lê Almeida's entrepreneurship subscribes all of his tapes to the same agency of short-lived, raptured sonoridade. The Brazilian imprint’s sense of brotherhood is evident in all its releases. Bands like Treli Feli Repi, Wallace Costa, and our favorite, Babe Florida, share so much in their approach to their music that it’s sometimes difficult to tell them apart. You won’t have that problem with Trash No Star, a band that stands at another wavelength of intensity and whose mostly-female vocals stick out.

Self-proclaimed feminists, Trash No Star (under the production assistance of Lê Almeida) present a disarray of riot grrrl shoutings. In some numbers, the band excels at discharging urgency, and on others, they fall into plot-holes of social exhaustions. When a band chooses to bluntly ask, “Hey how are you bitch?” on the first track of their record, you know they’re looking for your attention. In the following track "Let's Go," the three-member band bolds its power and speed if only to go into a vocal rumbling of nothingness and absoluteness. Divisive bands like Descartes A Kant and Le Butcherettes share the same line of attack, but fail to provide the warmth that a band like Trash No Star offers. The first two tracks of Stay Creepy (no) Summer Hits are nothing more than personalized templates, but serve the band with the accreditation to wonder on more challenging (if not less traveled) lands on the rest of the EP.

If we had to go through a semi-jarring provocation like that of “Let’s Go” to get to something as deeply staggering to the sense as the meta-vocal chorus of “Miss Me” then it was all worth it. We could accuse Trash No Star of revivalist mimicry and working with overly simple lyrics like we did to Hawaiian Gremlins recently, but what makes the Brazilian act more convincing is the absence of posture and self-glorification. Not to mention the topics of a phantom summer romance increase the chances for careful, repeated listens. At around ten minutes long, Stay Creepy is still hard to hold on to. Particularly as there’s not much room for scatter and dispersion to happen –both sonic developments that have elevated contemporary bands like Selma Oxor and Las Robertas to the next league. Not that Trash No Star would care to sound like their contemporaries, as confessed in the album, they belong to a “Lost Generation” and choose to be completely unapologetic about it.

Treli Feli Repi - Massacre EP

Massacre EP, Treli Feli Repi
Transufão Noise Records, Brazil
Rating: 71
by Pierre Lestruhaut

You wouldn’t think that extremely short releases of a few under-2-minute scuzzy lo-fi numbers sung in a language none of us really understand would be motivation enough to write a whole review, yet what the kids from Brazilian label Transfusão Noise Records have been doing with the awkward form is riveting enough to have another CF writer excited about discussing it. A few months after Babe Florida’s ten-minute, 14-people-involved EP, Treli Feli Repi comes out as a more personal enterprise (the increasingly common one-man rock band), with Lê Almeida himself taking on all vocal, instrumental, and songwriting duties.

Because of this EP’s striking similarities, in form and references, to Babe Florida’s debut EP, I could have probably gotten away with just paraphrasing everything Carlos said in his review of Depois Eu Te Explico Melhor about the use of track timing as a narrative tool for short lived experiences, that judging by the album description and song titles, are apparently related to women (“Muitas Garotas,” “Laura”), death (“Cardiopatia,” “23 Suicidio”), and alcohol (?).

But, as much as I like both EPs for their strict adherence to a seemingly unpolished and unusual M.O., the guy's lack of interest in long-form composition makes it hard to like it specifically for this concept. Which is why, as obvious as it may seem to drop a Guided by Voices reference right when their “classic lineup” releases a new record, this is an album that’s held together by the charm of the individual riff, the killer chorus, or even the 30-second fuzzy outro - all the elements and loose ideas spread around the EP that have you constantly coming back to it for the same reason die-hard GBV fans keep randomly coming back to individual tracks in any of their “classic” records.

This is not the kind of album you need to go to if you’re looking for a satisfying front-to-back listening experience or a well thought out concept record, or even the occasional two or three hit singles you’ll be playing on repeat. But, despite the album’s general lack of focus and development, you might just find yourself interrupting your daily activities to rediscover that melody you were humming all day, or that riff you couldn’t get out of your head. Even if it’s only for a minute and a half.

♫♫♫ "Muitas Garotas" | Download EP

Babe Florida - Depois Eu Te Explico Melhor

Depois Eu Te Explico Melhor, Babe Florida
Transfusão Noise Records, Brazil
Rating: 74
by Carlos Reyes

Unlike album length, individual track timings are often discarded as narrative tools, even by the bands that employ them. Rather than swallowing the idea of it being pure personal choice, I prefer to romanticize this palpable artistic preference. In his debut film Asi, Mexican filmmaker Jesus Mario Lozano applied a 32-second margin to all of the shots of his film, on the studied notion that that's the amount of time needed to breach someone’s attention span. Hailing from the lovely lo-fi house of Transfusão Noise Records (our favorite Brazilian print), Babe Florida's latest EP, Depois Eu Te Explico Melhor, approaches track timing with that same celebratory tone of glowing, short-lived experiences.

Pointing to the same pocket-sized narrative structures of bands like Argentina’s 107 Faunos and Spain’s SraSrSra, all the eight tracks that comprise Babe Florida’s sophomore release are about a minute long. The title of the album (“I’ll explain better later”) immediately suggests these intentional exercises of cursory melodies (in exceptionally tiny pieces) are only strips of something bigger to come. Babe Florida is the vehicle and the excuse for a group of friends to create fuzzy and compelling music, one they have so fittingly described as an “organized mess.” Opening track “Gigante Vermelha” does a fine job introducing the band’s forte: stomping rock harmonies and ascending chord progressions. The oomph is carried on to the next few tracks, but, eventually, it’s hard to come to terms with some tracks that lack narrative appendages and fall into the interlude archetype.

With such shortened conditions, the band exploits its own survival with the same urgency that is felt in our youth. For the band members, living and dying next to your music siblings is the only option. These might be tiny songs, but they’re wholehearted. It may not seem like a reasonable number, but the band member credits enlists a total of 14 names that include Lê Almeida, Wallace Costa, and I would assume everyone involved in the music production and mesmerizing aesthetic work. The album’s most accomplished tracks, “Balas Mastigaveis” and “Coleção de Amigos," succeed because of the vigorous disposition to carry on with a concept as well the tremendous use of group-like backing vocals. According to the label, this EP was conceived as a chapter of a soon-to-arrive full-length. If the preliminary plan is still in action, we can confidently say Depois Eu Te Explico Melhor is a confident 10-minute contribution of ecstatic lo-fi.

♫♫♫ "Coleção de Amigos" | Download EP

Transfusão Noise Records - Coração Transfusionado

Coração Transfusionado

Transfusao Noise Records, Brazil

Rating: 69

By Jean-Stephane Beriot



Chatting with our editor last week, we contemplated the idea of generating Club Fonograma’s very first meme: Brazilian Bands Y U NO like Fonogramaticos. According to our stats, the amount of track entries from that country only adds up to 1% of our stock, compared that to the 124 entries from the omnipresent Chile, or the 15 submissions from the also yet-to-be-represented Ecuador.



Despite being the largest country in Latin America and having some of the most exportable rhythms of the continent, it would seem as if Brazil was stuck in samba hiatus (the same way Argentina was stuck with gold rock up until two years ago). We recently stumbled upon Transfusão Noise Records, and we can only say it is the answer to our prayers. The label is a complete Martian on its region, but we could claim it’s as if Nene Records crossed into the lo-fi waters of Captured Tracks, which would be like a first cousin of Fat Possum.



Transfusão Noise Records (based in Rio de Janeiro), founded by the half-innovator, half-renaissance man Lê Almeida in 2004 is Brazil’s leading voice of ‘gravações caseiras.’ The music collective has been resourceful, and after 30 ‘improvised’ releases, it’s has now imprinted its synthesis in the form of a compilation. Coração Transfusionado is a wonderful 7’’ vinyl featuring six of the label’s most emblematic members. Like most of the netlabels from our region, you can feel the warm of a family that breathes at the same altitude. The album highlights include the very Elliott Smith-esque “More Than Cool” by Top Surprise, the folksy “My Charm” by Wallace Costa, and the catchy opener “Computação-Automação” by Fujimo. Although we’re still waiting for these artists to drive beyond the lo-fi channel, and loop into the noise-pop, we’re certain the label will provide us with plenty of surprises in a near future, and hopefully, a couple of tracks for our generational music boxes as well.

♫♫♫ “Computação-Automação”

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MP3: Lê Almeida - “Eles estão na minha rua”

Lê Almeida
“Eles estão na minha rua”
Weepop Records
Lê Almeida is one of the coolest Brazilian dudes we’ve come across; he lives the lo-fi style life like very few know how to, starting with the fact he’s the founder/head of Brazil's youth-rushed netlabel Transfusão Noise Records. After dedicating time to his side projects, and a handful of EPs under his arm, his debut LP Mono Maçã has finally seen the commercial light. “Eles estão na minha rua” is an extract from the record, a track that finds Almeida on its most structured moment yet. Beyond the noise-revivalist sound, he definitely shares the lo-fi aesthetic and the urgency to tell stories in very short timings. This song breaks most of those principles. Like some of his fellow Latin American lo-fiers (Las Robertas, Babe Florida, Hypnomango), there are tropical flairs embedded with the sound, so often confused as psychedelic. Mono Maçã is out now on London’s Weepop Records.

♫♫♫ “Eles estão na minha rua”
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Wallace Costa - Crossing Fields

Crossing Fields, Wallace Costa
Transfusão Noise Records, Brazil
Rating: 63
By Carlos Reyes

For some reason, most international debuts self-classified as indie-folk performers fail to realize they’re doing country music with minimal adjustments. Folk music is too difficult to translate; it requires the contribution from its locality as well as its language. We can add Wallace Costa to the list of global-aspiring artists making a form of left-hand folk that’s also a romanticized rendition of their local ‘sound.’ Luckily, Costa is conscious of what’s he’s doing beyond the personal artistry, he is literally crossing the fields of music, in solitude.

The album’s opener “My Charm” is intuitive to the global blue-collar worker, but it’s also, a song for the suburbs. You can pretty much feel Beck, Sufjan Stevens and The Strokes on the plucked strings, except we’re dealing with an album built around low-fi (a lot of its charm comes from its working conditions). Throughout the album, he unveils good tunes, but not a whole lot of emotional discharge in the lyrics, “Nothing is wrong, except myself” just doesn’t do it. Like Suave As Hell or Francois Peglau, Costa’s wording in English is messy and hard to deliver (and its not on its grammar). He includes three songs in Portuguese, perhaps the peak moments on the album (especially the raspy “Notas”). On the surface, Costa is like your local downtown artwalk aficionado, at least in spirit, but look down deeper and you’ll find a concise beauty in the sturdy cords, the melodic swells and shimmering coming-of-age themes. Crossing Fields is uneven, but Costa is definitely into something.

♫♫♫ "My Charm"

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MP3: Babe Florida - "Pé de Amoras"

We rarely blog about Brazilian bands, there’s probably a bunch of good ones, but always very hard to keep track of. Lately, we’ve been digging a handful of releases by Brazilian netlabel Transfusão Noise Records, whose catalog is mainly made of edgy avant-pop EPs. We’re particularly attentive of the very intriguing lo-fi, almost punk band Babe Florida. The Rio de Janeiro-based band is fuzzy and compelling, like a clear-minded Bam Bam or a friendlier Wavves. The band describes its sound as an “organized mess”, and they’re right. “Pé de Amoras” is barely a minute long, yet thrilling enough to hold its genre down-low. The band has a tiny Vol.1 EP available for download; 8 songs in 8 minutes. Babe Florida is still on diapers, but they're wearing their influences with incredible confidence.

♫♫♫ "Pé De Amoras"

MySpace