Al Green and Talking Heads once demanded: »Take Me To The River«; The Clash sang about the city »Down by the River«. The river lends itself to being immortalised musically; it is more difficult with lakes. Mostly there is little movement and even the banks are characterised by standstill – if it is not a house on the lake. On their debut LP, the Brazilian duo Xique-Xique makes a virtue out of necessity and wrest all kinds of facets from the titular »Lagoa«. Of course, the predominant paradigm is that of the fluid interweaving of the sounds of nature and electronic dance music. Field recordings of wind, animals and shaking flora meet driving beats and dreamy ostinatos. There is a lot of ringing and tinkling; the little bells, which have become signature sounds for Bibiana Graeff and Xavier Dunwich, can also be heard here. Heavy percussion and always flirting with folklore: Xique-Xique are clearly part of the ongoing boom in South American-influenced electro sounds. With each number you dive deeper into an idealised (sound) landscape of jungle and frog croaking, fish burps and humidity beyond 90%. The title track can be read and heard like a recipe for the total of ten pieces: Sink into the night in the hip spectrum between 105 and 115 BPM, always with the accelerator down and the handbrake on.
Na Lagoa
