News

dadá Joãozinho x Pai e Mãe

"Each song offers a different look at Joãozinho’s singular talent, and on “Pai e Mae” the artist introduces an entrancing samba with delightful lo-fi effects that meld with a renegade organ sound and the pulsing underbelly of bass-heavy percussion. The concoction is at once alien and delightfully inviting." - FLOOD Magazine

"A pretty common misconception about samba is that the music rarely goes beyond its limits. However, in the hands of visionaries like dadá Joãozinho, it can become something otherworldly. Take “Pai E Mãe,” a song deeply rooted in the Brazilian genre that twists it gently to give it an experimental edge. By adding pop melodies and glitchy production, Joãozinho elevates the track into something weird yet warm and catchy.  The song addresses some difficult times the singer had during his youth, and how he channels it through music is nothing short of superb, cathartic, and beautiful." - Remezcla 
“Paying homage to samba and bossa styles, Joãozinho sets modern production elements to his work by sampling the band he assembled, tearing it up, then chopping and flipping the arrangements” - KCRW
"With its assemblage of slouched vocals sparkly electronic flourishes, and breezy guitar, “Ô Lulu” is as laid back as it is endlessly replayable." - The FADER

São Paulo based artist João Rocha has shared “Pai e Mãe,” the third and final preview of his upcoming debut album as dadá Joãozinho. Where lead single “Cuidado!” flexed his hip-hop chops with invigorating bombast, “Pai e Mãe” is sweetly melodic, infusing classic Brazilian samba with experimental flourishes. It’s another excellent preview of tds bem Global, out Sept 1st, an album that unfolds like a genre-agnostic mixtape, front-loaded with irresistible and effortless rhythms, careening across musical universes like a psychedelic fever-dream. 

On the video Rocha explains “For this samba, that carries so much of our music’s tradition, and still sounds fresh, I wanted to strip things down and communicate through the rawness of the body language. Had my parents join the studio session, that was an emotional moment. I wrote this song about an episode we lived together, so it was a closing cycle to have them. This minimalist work in video expands the meanings of the album for me, that sometimes sounds so massive. Put things in a new perspective.”
BAMBII x INFINITY CLUB

"urgent, propulsive, and deliciously deviant" - The FADER

"the life and soul of Toronto’s club scene" - i-D

"Bambii brings a unique fusion to everything she creates while also actively speaking out..." Office Magazine

"Bambii turns a melting pot of influences into a throbbing, futuristic heater, where grime bass stabs intertwine with bashment rhythms" Pitchfork

BAMBII releases her debut EP INFINITY CLUB.  Following a streak of successes in this year alone, the Toronto-based DJ, producer and artist organically builds on her already-impressive sonic repertoire. She uses warped dancehall samples, as well as drum'n'bass, jungle, and pop sounds, to encapsulate her idea of an exploratory body of work that connects sounds of the Caribbean diaspora with electronic music, an effort she spoke about at length on The FADER Interview podcast earlier this week.

BAMBII formally welcomes listeners into her imagined club space with layered translations of the opening track's title, "You Are Now Entering the Infinity Club." This trance-inducing intro affirms the EP's intention to connect listeners from around the world, providing a physical and musical place of belonging, while shining a light on her own roots. On "Hooked," the DJ and producer enlists the U.K.'s dreamy electronic vocalist, Aluna, to curate a pop/R&B sound reminiscent of late 90s hits. BAMBII continues to build on the EP's underlying themes of storytelling, revelation, and identity, as she slips into the role of femme fatale on "WICKED GYAL" featuring North London's Lady Lykez later returning to Toronto with "Sydanie's Interlude" featuring fellow Canadian, Sydanie.

Similar to her work on Kelela's Raven, her feature heavy project demonstrates BAMBII's clear knack for showcasing her collaborators' unique talents. Speaking to this she shares, "When I first started, I was very focused on narrowly defining genre and thinking about music in terms of binaries. This project is the very beginning of me trying to tell more complex stories.” Though the uniting similarity between her features continues to be a shared Caribbean ancestry, BAMBII rejects attempts to tokenize and limit her artistic scope. Rather, Infinity Club, is BAMBII's way of asserting that genre is ultimately a social construct. On every track, she takes a left turn and makes an unlikely connection to show that nothing can be essentialized.

Listen to INFINITY CLUB.

Read the review on Pitchfork.

Buy an exclusive + limited 12" vinyl of the EP on our store.

 

dadá Joãozinho x Ô Lulu

São Paulo based artist João Rocha shares the second single, "Ô Lulu" from his upcoming debut album as dadá Joãozinho. Unfolding like a genre-agnostic mixtape, tds bem Global (out Sept 1st) is front-loaded with irresistible and effortless rhythms, careening across musical universes like a psychedelic fever-dream. 

The (upcoming) album title translates to “all too Global,” and chronicles Rocha’s move to the biggest city in South America during a time of intense isolation and toxic politics. Where his previous projects were steeped in Música Popular Brasileira, his new sound  “needed to feel more intense,” shoplifting from dub, hip hop, punk, and samba, and inventing a few future styles in the process. While a solo effort, the record features contributions from collaborators new and old, spotlighting the singular artist community Rocha is embedded in. 

"Ô Lulu" rides a dubby acoustic groove peppered by organ stabs, hand drums and glancing guitar ballistics, like if Arthur Russell and Lee Perry co-owned a recording studio. It’s a euphoric comedown compared to the bombast of lead single  “Cuidado!” which Remezcla described as “a dazzling collage of baile funk, hip-hop, and jazz that runs on an adrenaline rush fit for a cinematic heist scene.” Watch the videos for both singles below, which feature stunning scenes of dadá across São Paulo. 

As Fader puts it: 

"With its assemblage of slouched vocals sparkly electronic flourishes, and breezy guitar, “Ô Lulu” is as laid back as it is endlessly replayable."

 

BAMBII x One Touch

Toronto-based DJ and producer BAMBII has shared her new single “One Touch” -  a heady amalgamation of dancehall, jungle and garage, merging deep wonky basslines with smooth vocals and a ceaselessly propulsive and twisting beat.

Speaking on the nostalgia-filled single, BAMBII shares, “Years ago I was in Jamaica and was surprised to hear a jungle track blaring from someone's car that made me stop and listen. I’m trying to give listeners that raw feeling of the dancehall I grew up with but with all the rage and chaos of the rave.”

It makes perfect sense that BAMBII, who helped produce Kelela's recent album, alongside KAYTRANADA, would go on to make music that captures the ecstatic thrill, joy and release of the club. Her legendary queer night Jerk has not only helped build a safe space for queer POCs in her home city but also created a riotous and exhilarating party in the process.

The blend of dancehall, jungle, garage and R&B that permeates the record may be coming out of a unique space that Bambii has carved out for herself in Toronto but there’s also big hits of UK flavour in there too. Once again, this can be linked to BAMBII’s sonic explorations of her own heritage. “I am hugely influenced by the UK music scene,” she says. “I feel like it's one of the main places where Caribbean music has pushed the electronic realm at large. I am equally invested in nostalgia as much as the future and try to convey that on every track.”

Check Fader for more info.


Catch BAMBII on tour over spring/summer: 

6th April, Manchester, UK - 15 Years of PAN @ The White Hotel

7th, April, Amsterdam, NL - De School

8th, April, Glasgow, UK - Peach @ SWG3

27th, April, London, UK - Space 289

29th, April, Barcelona, Spain - Nitsa

5th, May, Berlin, Germany - Panorama Bar

28th, May, Bakersfield, CA - Lightning in a Bottle Festival

1st, June, Sydney, Australia - Settings @ Universal (Vivid Festival)

11th, June, Melbourne, Australia - Rising 2023 @ Melbourne INT Festival

8th, July, London, UK - Wireless

 

Maria Chiara Argirò x Unreal

 Maria Chiara Argirò is releasing a deluxe version of her acclaimed concept album Forest City, which includes brand new track "Unreal."

Something of a palette cleanser ahead of Maria's new album - which she is laying finishing touches to now - Unreal is a reworking of a track that found its way into Maria's live set whilst supporting Emma-Jean Thackray last year. It quickly became a crowd favourite and was recorded in the summer of 2022, beautifully merging hypnotic beats with swelling synths and a soaring brass section.

On the track, Maria offers: ‘This song is inspired by a tune I wrote a few years back. I explored the concept of real and unreal, blending and pushing both organic and electronic sounds. I wanted to create a steady rhythm blurred together with looped vocals and a synthy dreamlike soundscape.’

"Unreal" arrives alongside a mesmerising video, with AI generated visuals synchronising the timing and intensity of the noise in the animation to the rhythm and dynamics of the music using over 15,000 different images. Directed by Edoardo Ottone.

Forest City has graced Italian end of year polls, with radio support from BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, KCRW, KEXP, RAI 2, FiP, and has been featured in Vogue, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Fader and Pitchfork. With fans like Four-Tet, as well as album track Greenarp being featured on Netflix series Elite, Maria had an amazing 2022 and there is only more to come this year. She will be supporting Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith at Kings Place in April, and playing The Great Escape in May. Earlier this year, Forest City remixes dropped from Byron The Aquarius, Salami Rose Joe Louis and Terracassette.