IMPACIÊNCIA

For a country that has yielded an album like Afrociberdelia (Chico Science & Nação Zumbi), it is only natural that this Impaciência, debut album by Vulgue Tostoi, should come out now as the product of one of the most promising new acts to emerge from the underground rock scene in Rio de Janeiro. Not that the disc is going to change the future of national pop, although it does fit quite perfectly the way that music has been transformed since the days of Mutantes and Tropicalia. Bass, guitar, drums, intelligence and a will to innovate meet the electronic studio resources from the late 1990s in this album, made by a band that not only knows but also gives its own view of the space conquered by previous generations. In a bad comparison, it's as if Vulgue was giving sequence to the trail opened up by Picassos Falsos (also from Rio de Janeiro), in a sense that being Brazilian does not mean that the language used can't be rock'n'roll, and also that it is possible to make people dance, think and feel, all in one disc. Guided by the rich guitar played by Jr Tostoi, the voice and restless lyrics by Marcello H and the powerful bass by Victor Z, the album is based upon the organic/electronic ambiguity, smartly assembled in the studio. There are some fainted tints of the gothic 80s rock on the nightmarish Vozes and Mudo, as well as on the sick version of Vapor Barato (Jards Macalé/Waly Salomão). Controlled broken beats change the atmosphere in the dance-driven Esparro, Deleta and Quebra-Cara (sort of a twisted rap).

Impaciência (would it be some kind of response to Lenine's Paciência?) really is not an album that is easily digested. Nonetheless, it isn't hard, either, as noticed in songs like the ironic Piercing? or the almost pop Guri Zumbi. Echoes of Brazilian bards from the 70s are detected on the good Terrorismo Feliz, Impaciência and the semi-baião Estronave. Without making anything too evident through its musical and poetic message, Vulgue Tostoi has everything to enjoy a long career - it is rare to witness a band with a debut album so assertive, these days.


(Silvio Essinger)