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LP
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CREP 087LP
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Somewhere in the middle of the first track, "Torres e Baldios", there's a sudden change of pace with percussion rhythms interfering with the trance-like sound of the first six minutes. It sounds like steps, people running away on a corridor bashing their feet. It dazzles you because of how unexpected it is, how unpredictable those sounds sound like and, most of all, how it makes perfect sense. It is a monstrous piece. And the beginning of a new age for Ondness, in the same year he defied his Serpente moniker to create an absolute classic, Dias da Aranha (SOUK 009LP). What makes Oeste A.D. so remarkable is the intangible idea of nostalgia. "Aqua Matrix Alternative Nation" recreates with a slowed down mentality the theme of one of the main events of the Expo 98 in Lisbon. It's nowhere similar to the original, what it does is to mess around with the global ideas that were such a big part of that event. The Portuguese musicians that were invited to collaborate with Expo 98 were mesmerized by the ideas of union and globalization, creating overpriced music that sounds like shit today. "Aqua Matrix Alternative Nation" messes around with that vibe in a positive way. Think Mark Leckey playing around with his rave memories. Same thing, but in Portugal we had Expo 98. Jokes aside, the B side is more futuristic with "Torres e Baldios II" and "Endless Domingo", a nod to Endless Summer (EMEGO 135CD/LP), by Fennesz, and "Endless Happiness" (from Beaches And Canyons), by Black Dice, mashing up -- freely -- both covers and reminding of how great 2001-2002 was for experimental music. Both tracks are full of sci-fi drama and this sickness of the future that has been traveling with Ondness since its early days. But the approach here is somehow different. Before Oeste A.D. the Ondness sound was fragmented, sparse and intensively reflexive. There was this uncertainty to it that made the previously releases so good. But Oeste A.D. is full of clarity, the phrases are straightforward, and the music moves in one direction, continuously. Before, there were loads of unanswered questions. The only doubt is when will the world start to care and listen to Bruno's brilliant music. Now sounds like a good time. Mastered by Carlos Nascimento. Front cover by Evan Crankshaw. Back cover by Filipe Felizardo.
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LP
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SOUK 006LP
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Portuguese electronic alchemist Bruno Silva, aka Ondness, aka Serpente, lands his first ever vinyl release as Ondness on the ever-evolving Souk imprint. 2018 couldn't have been better for Bruno Silva. Two major releases under his moniker Serpente, A Noiva (Tormenta Eléctrica) and Parada (Ecstatic, ELP 044LP) and a Ondness tape, Not Really Now Not Any More (Holuzam). Meio Que Sumiu is the first vinyl release by Ondness, following more than a dozen releases on tape, CDRs, and digital. He's also graduating to vinyl on the Discrepant family, after his 2018 tape Celas Death Squad combining Serpente and Ondness works as a split (SUC 020CS). "Meio Que Sumiu" can be translated as the "community that disappeared" and it alludes to the disappearance of outdoors communities and how it affects the music we listen (and how we listen to it). Ondness wanted to release an album less about himself and his inspirations, and more about his aspirations about how dance music could be in an era of constant interactivity and information. But also, how it fails to be that aspiration. Once again, like in Not Really Now Not Any More, Bruno works in the territory of science fiction. Investigating the present and future with nostalgia about how things could be and could evolve. It's music in the realm of non- existing, instead of raving nostalgia about dance music from the 1990s, Bruno explores the idea of possible futures with different approaches to dance/electronic music in each song. In Meio Que Sumiu it's obvious his music has matured and found its listeners. Bruno is no longer a bedroom musician. (He never was, but he sure worked on that idea. And very well, you might say). The dancefloor is now his, with music that explores the deeper immersion of ourselves. Communities may be changing, but the principles of dance music are always the same. Even with motion sickness for future nostalgia, like the music in Meio Que Sumiu.
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