Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A great party record, 14 Aug 2007
Whilst constantly lumped in with Cansei De Ser Sexy, Bonde Do Rolé are going to struggle to match the worldwide success that their fellow Brazillians have acquired.
For a start, whilst the sound is similar, on the surface at least, With Lasers lacks the out and out pop genius of, say, Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above, and its this lack of a killer tune that will preclude this from making the kind of splash that CSS did.
Still, that is not to say that this is entirely without merits. Those that do listen to it will immediately find this a likeable and rowdy experience, like all good party's should be.
Whether its the kazoo (and indeed the Hollaback Girl-esque drum beat) that accompanies Geremia, the Fannypack style minimalism of Solta O Frango or the 80's Hair metal intro to Bondallica you'll be having fun, even if it's difficult to ever be fully aware of what exactly is going on. Indeed, you don't need to be fluent in Portugese to know what territory we're delving into here and, if I'm being honest, that's half the fun.
Of course you might well decide that one Synth-heavy Brazillian disco pop troupe is enough for your life, but if you did you might be missing out on something quite special indeed.
|
|
|
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Those lasers are making their mark, 8 Jun 2007
Anyone thinking that all Brazilians do is party , apart from play foot ball that is , is unlikely to have their opinion changed by With Lasers. Hot on the pirouetting heels of CCS come Brazilian band Bonde Do Role who have produced thirteen tracks that cover thirty minutes , every single second of which is rambunctious party music . By the way that's party music in the wilful irresistible delight of sheer inventive fun sense rather than some horrific cheesy meticulously contrived sense.
The combination of effervescent shouty vocalist Marina ( A Latina tuneful Davina McCall with non of her irritating peccadilloes) and DJ/producers Gorky and Pedro has produced a version of Baile Funk-the music mash up associated with Brazilian ghetto's that also cannily jemmy's some more Western musical genres into the mix.
So gleefully screwball heavy metal riffs or funked up grunge licks carouse over the top of bottom heavy bass beats and programmed drum beats produced on something so cheap it might run on steam. There are cartoonish bursts of cheesy keyboards , random blasts of noise from sci-fi ray guns and silly vocoded vocal effects . The album title is surely ironic , a comment on the music's attempt to grasp at some modernistic nirvana via the discounted slightly retro instrumentation. Or maybe they just like lasers?
What can come under no scrutiny what so ever is that some of the songs on With Lasers are so infectious they would distract Bush and Putin from discussing missile sites and get them jigging around like Beyonce standing on a nest of fire ants which is surely a good thing. "Divine Gosa" is so funky I dismantled my chair prancing around to it. Single "Office Boy " revels in a hip swivelling guitar and neatly sequenced vocal interplay while the punning "James Bonde" is built around a massive coarse surf guitar riff. "Tieto" is a gleefully truncated burst of tinny tropical horns and twanging south sea rhythms.
Occasionally a track will fail to become anything other than the sum of it's parts and slightly disrupt the flow of the albums merry ambience. "Geremia" while having some contagious military percussion and fat gobbets of squashy bass is let down by the inane stabs of childish sound effects. It all ends splendidly though with the huge reticulated Megadeath guitars of "Bondillica" .If only heavy metal was as much fun as the music on this album but most metal bands take them selves far too seriously to have anything like fun.
Sung entirely in Portuguese -something that affects the albums enjoyable tones not one jot With Lasers , while indisputably a good time album, is also a valuable snapshot of panoramic musical influences being tossed into the melting pot and stirred relentlessly till hot and frothy . While you cannot whistle the tunes or sing along ,unless you excel in bellowing Portuguese , it will stick in your head and has a longevity that belies it's hedonistic vibes. Those lasers certainly make their mark.
|
|
|
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Negative review - ignore if you like the album, 24 Jun 2007
I like to think I have reasonably accepting tastes in music and that I try and give everything a good chance of being enjoyed, but this album is absolutely terrible.
There has been a selection of decent (but not great) things said about this album, and it seemed like it might be worth a shot, but I'd suggest for people to move on and find something else.
Fortunately the album is reasonably short (just over 30 minutes) so you don't have to sit through it for too long, but whilst you do you'll be subjected to a host of bad songs. Samples seem to be put out of time with the tunes, vocals are (at points) as bad as vocals get, and the songs really are horrible. The only track I'd give a possible exception to is track 11 ('Quero Te Amar') and possibly the single ('Office Boy'), but other than that it provides the reason why digital download shops were created (so you don't have to buy the skippable). I personally don't think I've heard an album I don't like this much since I bought Slipknot's 'Iowa'.
Of course this is just one person's opinion, and many people are likely to disagree with it, but I'd recommend you think twice before spending £9 on your own copy.
|
|
|
|
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home