Brazilian Girls - Self-titled
With a name that generates more porn site hits than legitimate musical information in your favorite search engine, Brazilian Girls are definitely not what you’d expect. For starters, they’re not Brazilian, and only one of them is a girl. Their music is not easily classifiable and tends to borrow from the likes of Thievery Corporation and Massive Attack, at least in terms of wandering all over the musical map. Frontwoman Sabina Sciubba sings in five different languages (none of which is Portuguese), but this isn’t just world music. The songs are heavy on the synthesizers and beats, but it’s not just dance music, either. It’s an intriguing blend of both, with a little pop thrown in for a good measure, and it’s one addictive party.
Though they currently call New York home, band members hail from all over the world. Sciubba, though born in Rome, was raised in France and Germany. Bassist Jesse Murphy is from California, keyboardist Didi Gutman grew up in Germany, and drummer Aaron Johnston is from Kansas City. They each bring a little bit of the music with which they grew up, merging them together with a distinctively cosmopolitan New York sound. Sciubba particularly draws from her background, singing lyrics in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and English, while Gutman’s expertise on the keys is reminiscent of some of the best DJ/producers in Europe.
Brazilian Girls are primarily a live band, and there’s always a risk when such a band creates a studio album. Can a CD stay true to the organic, earthy feel of a live performance? Will slick production value override the true essence of the music? Well, it seems Brazilian Girls have managed to successfully translate the live experience to a digital one.
For a debut, this record is impressive. They’ve taken the less conventional approach to studio production, by mixing their live instrumentation with pre-produced beats and samples. In addition, their global mix essentially guarantees that no two tracks sound the same. The result is slightly paradoxical, slightly schizophrenic. The music is diverse and each track is unique, but they still manage to blend into each other perfectly.
The first track, “Homme”, features Sciubba in the first of her foreign languages, and the opening notes bring to mind a film noir score. The pace picks up a bit towards the end before just falling off, but without sounding too abrupt. If there’s one thing the Girls have down perfectly, it’s deftly maneuvering each song through its denouement in such a way that the next track seems to almost just pick up where the previous one left off. “Don’t Stop” is a more upbeat second track with a feel-good beat, while the chorus is fun and trippy. The Girls slow it down again with “Lazy Lover”, a song that definitely lives up to its name. It has the lilting laziness of an island summer and invites daydreams of dozing away in hammocks on white sandy beaches.
Brazilian Girls are exceptionally skilled at conjuring up appropriate imagery for each of their tracks, partly due to the organic, slightly improvisational quality of their music. On the playful “Pussy”, the vaguely reggae-esque beat mixes well with the ingenuous lyrics, giving off an impression of sheer fun and, well, irie. “Dance til the Morning Sun” feels a bit like they did just that (and with a lot of party favors), as the music weaves back and forth between harmony and dissonance. It has the slight hint of a claustrophobic dance club at 4 am, and the feeling like it could go on forever. Each song has its strength and the relative variety amongst the tracks ensures that everyone will find something they’ll appreciate. There are a few weaknesses for sure, but they’re practically negligible.
On “Corner Store”, the track drags just a bit as the horns blaze long and heavy, but Sciubba’s smoky vocals keep the bump going to the end. But then finally on the beautiful-arranged and perfectly-placed “Ships in the Night”, the gentle lilt and slow melody have the effect of a lullaby – a fitting end to this CD-long party.
