Brazilian Post Punk
To be honest, post-punk isn't strictly my thing, but I reckon I can point you in the right direction. I'm guessing this is for either Não Wave or The Sexual Life of the Savages, yes? A "Brazil Post Punk" google sent me to http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/comp/brazil/nao-wave-sexual-life-of-the-savages.shtml, which set the scene a bit.
Two eras of post-punk. It first came about in the late 70s/early 80s, sandwiched between punk (Sex Pistols, Ramones) and New Romantics (Human League, Adam Ant). Your basic namedrops are Gang Of Four, Public Image Ltd, early Cure and (I think) Neu. Lately, it's had a bit of a revival with Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, the Futureheads and the Rapture among others.
The music is a sort of dance version of indie, but with the anger of techno and house rather than the baggy trippy nonsense that the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream espoused in the early nineties. Instead, you get angular guitars, tight 4/4 drumming and repeated phrases in an yelped English accent. Post punk took the energy and ideas of punk, and bolted on a arty intellectual and philosophical framework. So, taking Franz Ferdinand as an example: Take Me Out has angular guitars, repeated phrases and you can dance to it; the band is named after the Duke whose shooting kicked off WWI; and Matinee contains the word "deference". Tick vg gold star, Franz Ferdinand. You are post punk.
The papers have been fawning over a book called Rip It Up And Start Again, which is all about post punk and is supposed to be very good. The author's website is at www.simonreynolds.net, and is likely to contain much more accurate information than this email. Run to Borders and steal it (or just read it in the shop).
In terms of style, my impression is that they all used to dress in sharp suits and thin ties, although that might be just how they dress nowadays. In terms of icons and images, there's a lot of angular shapes and bold, bright colours - have a look at the cover of the Futureheads album (http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0007U8XIE.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) and the cover of Rip It Up And Start Again (http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0571215696.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) to see what I mean. Colourways are generally yellows, pinks, blues - also neon colours. There's also a focus on the music equipment of the 70s/80s, especially big clunky microphones and C90 cassette tapes. Also takes the cut & paste style of fanzines from regular punk, I think (sort of Bugs n Drugz?), and makes it a bit smarter.
I suppose that the thing about Brazilian post punk is that you don't really expect the two of them to go together. Post punk is very English, guitary, spiky, smartly-dressed, political - you expect Brazilian music to be flowing, fun, good time samba-type stuff. Friendly bongo players with ties and porkpie hats on? Or maybe you could do something with the tape cassette in one corner, with the tape pulled out and tangled up into an image of carnivals or birambaus?
Have you had a listen to the music on the album? There's a few samples on the Soul Jazz website (http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/release.php?ReleaseId=228&NavId=1&Section=1&SearchTerm=Search).
So, er, yes. That's what I know about post punk.
Two eras of post-punk. It first came about in the late 70s/early 80s, sandwiched between punk (Sex Pistols, Ramones) and New Romantics (Human League, Adam Ant). Your basic namedrops are Gang Of Four, Public Image Ltd, early Cure and (I think) Neu. Lately, it's had a bit of a revival with Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, the Futureheads and the Rapture among others.
The music is a sort of dance version of indie, but with the anger of techno and house rather than the baggy trippy nonsense that the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream espoused in the early nineties. Instead, you get angular guitars, tight 4/4 drumming and repeated phrases in an yelped English accent. Post punk took the energy and ideas of punk, and bolted on a arty intellectual and philosophical framework. So, taking Franz Ferdinand as an example: Take Me Out has angular guitars, repeated phrases and you can dance to it; the band is named after the Duke whose shooting kicked off WWI; and Matinee contains the word "deference". Tick vg gold star, Franz Ferdinand. You are post punk.
The papers have been fawning over a book called Rip It Up And Start Again, which is all about post punk and is supposed to be very good. The author's website is at www.simonreynolds.net, and is likely to contain much more accurate information than this email. Run to Borders and steal it (or just read it in the shop).
In terms of style, my impression is that they all used to dress in sharp suits and thin ties, although that might be just how they dress nowadays. In terms of icons and images, there's a lot of angular shapes and bold, bright colours - have a look at the cover of the Futureheads album (http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0007U8XIE.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) and the cover of Rip It Up And Start Again (http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0571215696.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) to see what I mean. Colourways are generally yellows, pinks, blues - also neon colours. There's also a focus on the music equipment of the 70s/80s, especially big clunky microphones and C90 cassette tapes. Also takes the cut & paste style of fanzines from regular punk, I think (sort of Bugs n Drugz?), and makes it a bit smarter.
I suppose that the thing about Brazilian post punk is that you don't really expect the two of them to go together. Post punk is very English, guitary, spiky, smartly-dressed, political - you expect Brazilian music to be flowing, fun, good time samba-type stuff. Friendly bongo players with ties and porkpie hats on? Or maybe you could do something with the tape cassette in one corner, with the tape pulled out and tangled up into an image of carnivals or birambaus?
Have you had a listen to the music on the album? There's a few samples on the Soul Jazz website (http://www.souljazzrecords.co.uk/release.php?ReleaseId=228&NavId=1&Section=1&SearchTerm=Search).
So, er, yes. That's what I know about post punk.
posted by Rowan at 1:25 AM
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