S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Jo\u00e3o Ten\u00f3rio enjoyed a former life as drum & bass producer Telefunken, back in the early oughts, but the comparisons to what\u2019s been up to in recent years, cultivating this Semper Volt project, would be tenuous at best. Following two EPs in recent years, Ten\u00f3rio now presents his first full album under the name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barefoot folk-pop in a Brazilian vernacular is intimately and inextricably tangled up here in a rich tapestry of electronic beats and sounds, strange but benign electro-funk mutations, lurching, leftfield, raw, and rather organic. Substantial stuff, but never too weighty or unwieldy. The production help of Ivan \u201cBoi\u201d Gomes likely went a long way in this respect. He\u2019s got a decent resume in this field of \u201cnova MPB\u201d, the next generation in m\u00fasica popular brasileira, taking greater liberties than ever with the rooted yet cosmopolitan hybrid sound that followed bossa nova. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ten\u00f3rio\u2019s personality comes through in his affable and easygoing delivery, and the simple but effective poetry of his lyrics. A good example is the memorable third single \u201cSe Juntou\u201d, appealingly pluralist in its perspective. \u201cMassa Cr\u00edtica\u201d, meanwhile, is a reflection in the aftermath of Bolsonaro\u2019s election. The spirit is deflated, but not broken. \u201cQuando forma multid\u00e3o \u00e9 for\u00e7a m\u00edstica\u201d, guest singer S\u00e3o Yant\u00f3 earnestly intones \u2013 \u201cWhen forming a crowd is a mystical force\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s also just nice to note that Ten\u00f3rio\u2019s father Carlos Balla, a drummer who\u2019s worked with Djavan and Gal Costa, plays on two tracks here\u2026 keeping an eye on the boy, one assumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n