Pedra e Pena (14/08/08)

Delicadeza é uma arte. Em seu terreno, o fio entre o lindo e o afetado (entre o doce e o melado, entre o amargo e o intragável...) é finíssimo e arrebenta fácil. "Buscador", que tem lançamento esta quinta-feira no Cinemathèque, caminha por esse fio como quem anda distraidamente, de cabeça baixa, mão nos bolsos, viajando solto no fluxo de pensamentos. Leve. Mas sabendo que firmeza é valor: "Preciso ser pedra" é a sentença que abre o segundo disco de Momo. Versos abaixo, ele afirma que precisa também ser como pena...:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Pedra e pena, "Buscador" dá continuidade à trilha aberta em 2007 com o grande "A estética do rabisco" (Dubas), CD de estréia do Momo - projeto solo de Marcelo Frota, uma das seis cabeças do Fino Coletivo. Em 10 belas canções (uma instrumental), o novo álbum traz psicodelia filtrada pelo Clube da Esquina; a estranheza onírica/infantil do timbre do teclado Casiotone; uma tristeza em cores pastéis (mas nunca cinzas); bandolins, guitarras e violões fazendo uma trama de tapeçaria pop; e uma poética em que cabem passáros cantando, o sol que clareia o céu (nada menos que cinco faixas usam imagens do tipo), ao lado de corações sangrando sangue azedo, pés colados ao chão. "Vento que traz a fé/É o mesmo que traz a dor", canta Marcelo em "Nuvem negra".

Na atmosfera momística (lenta, lisérgica), há momentos onde a face folk se acentua ("O espinho desaguou"), outros tipo salão de baile dos 50 ("Bonita"), algo de "Midnight cowboy" ("Fin"), corinhos de "papapas" ("Se você vem")... Não é som de catarse, não é para dançar. É delicadeza das boas, rara.

Brazil claims its own slice of the psych-folk pie

In the last couple years obscure psychedelia from Brazil has become a touchstone for a new breed of psych-folk here in the US. Everyone knows the more pop-inclined mayhem of Os Mutantes, but I'm talking about the spacier stuff produced in the northeastern state of Pernambuco in the early 70s. Artists like Alceu Valenca and Geraldo Azevedo made some trippy records back then, but the cognoscenti has embraced the primal purr of people like Lulu Cortes & Ze Ramalho and Marconi Notaro, some of which has been reissued by the fine Portland, Maine imprint Time-Lag Records. Yet, I hadn't heard any contemporary takes on this stuff being made in Brazil itself—until now.

A Estetica do Rabisco (Dubas Musica), the debut album from MoMo (aka Marcelo Frota), taps into that loopy vibe in service of more conventional pop tunes, and the results are stunning. Along with Caetano Veloso's Ce, it's the best album I've heard from Brazil this year. Actually, it's among the best records I've heard from anywhere this year. Frota has made clear his admiration for folks like Devendra Banhart and Antony & the Johnsons, but I find his stuff more subtle, focused, and restrained. He was born in the state of Minas Gerais—which also produced the great Milton Nascimento—but his family soon moved to Rio de Janeiro. They later moved to Angola for three years, only to return to Rio. It was during high school that Frota developed a strong taste for underground rock, particularly the stuff coming out of Seattle in its heyday.

These days Frota has a solo career and he's also a member of a new pop band called Fino Coletivo with his pal Wado, former leader of the superb Wado E Realismo Fantástico; their debut drops later this month. MoMo sticks mostly to standard instrumentation—acoustic and electric guitars, kit drums, and keyboards, with only spare saxophone and flute lines offering a direct link to some flower-power past—but the arrangements incorporate plenty of space, so that each sound makes its mark. Frota's got a limited range, but by dialing down the volume and drama he gets plenty out of it, conveying an warm intimacy without getting all whispery and sensitive. Buried in the gorgeous murk of feedback, gentle guitar arpeggios, organ swells, jagged beats, and lovely harmony vocals are pretty melodies that ought to make American psych-folk hacks hang it up. You don't get any whiff of bossa nova, but there's no doubt that Frota has also absorbed indigenous lessons of lyric beauty from 70s icons like Veloso, Nascimento, Buarque, and Borges. He's currently seeking a U.S. label to license the record, but in the meantime copies of the import have turned up at Dusty Groove.

http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/post-no-bills/

MoMo - A Estética do Rabisco / Dubas Musica

I pride myself as being a good recommendee. While collaborating on Audiversity certainly testifies that I enjoy doing the recommending as well, I personally am much more interested in being recommended new music to enlighten my tastes. Luckily, I have done a pretty good job in putting myself in strategic positions to have new music as recommended by knowledgeable peers and colleagues continuously dumped into my ears. Being the Music Director of an independent radio station like WLUW-FM Chicago is most beneficial in this aspect. My job may be to use my personal knowledge to cultivate a quality eclectic library, but there is no way in hell that could be accomplished without 200 volunteers continuously giving me their opinions on the music they love the most. One of the most beneficial (for me at least) relationships I have established in the last year has been with music critic Peter Margasak, whose vast worldly knowledge fills me with envy and awe on almost a daily basis. Thankfully, he enjoys dishing out said knowledge and regularly sends music my way that I request after hearing on his internationally focused radio show, Mosaic, or on his blog, Post No Bills, for our library. His post on blossoming Brazilian singer/songwriter Marcelo Frota from a couple of weeks back immediately caught my attention, and to my pleasure, the slightly delayed request was merrily replied with "I was waiting for you to ask."

The music of Frota's debut album under his MoMo moniker, the aptly titled A Estética do Rabisco (The Art of Scribbling), was absolutely not what I was expecting—it is better. I try not to think that my knowledge of Brazilian music is completely concentrated on the Bossa Nova and Tropicailia scenes, but for the most part, it sadly is. Like I'm sure most of you reading do, I regularly snatch up the obscure psychedalia comps rampantly being culled from Brazil and love me some of the easily acquirable light-hearted Bossa Nova groove, but outside the occasional Afro-Brazilian, samba or MPB record, I rarely get schooled on the many, many, many niches of Brazilian music I am sure exist. And on the MPB subject, that tag is as vague as calling a record "pop," so it is hard to differentiate one sub-style from another. Well A Estética do Rabisco falls under none of those categories and contains none of the wily rhythms I was expecting that are usually associated with Brazilian music; it's psyche-folk heavily influenced by early 70s Brazilian recordings and late 60s American psychedelia as well as our contemporary freak-folk scene. Just check his MySpace page: Antony and the Johnsons, Devendra Banhart, Cat Power, CocoRosie, Feist, Isobel Campbell and even Nick Drake all reside in the coveted "Top Friend Space." Surprised me too; and yes, I feel bad about my ridiculous naivety.

In fact, Frota's MySpace page details just how influenced he is by his American contemporaries like Banhart and Antony, he lists them as inspiring forces to write A Estética do Rabisco. And Frota's non-descript psyche-folk not only lives up to such parallels, but surpasses them with his unassuming, laid-back vibe and mid-fi recordings that are much more effective to my ears than some of the grandiose arrangements being utilized in the American underground these days. Both Margasak and the Dusty Groove abstract of the album name Alceu Valenca and Geraldo Azevedo as Brazilian reference to his sound, but I have had trouble stirring up decent descriptions of those two artists other than that damn MPB vagueness (though allmusic has lengthy bios on each). Using very generic reference points we can all associate with to describe Frota's sound: strip away White Album-era Beatles or Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd to the barest melodic essentials, slow them down to a Nick Drake shuffle and intertwine some of that exotic Caetano Veloso charm, and you are starting to get an idea of what we're getting at.

The instrumentation on the album is nothing special but very effectively utilized; sparsely recorded kit drum, acoustic guitar picking and analog keyboards make up the majority of the music with Frota's wonderfully unpretentious croon leading the way. Pinwheels of feedbacking electric guitars, avant-garde sax yelps and light breezes of flute all occasionally color the sound with the psyche tag, and it's classic late 60s/early 70s psyche too, not the post-produced slop we get a lot of today. I can't too much speak for the lyricism, though his intimate tone and delicate phrasing certainly point in an endearing romantic direction if any. The music sweeps with sparse psychedelia, patters with gentle folk-pop and grooves melodiously rather than rhythmically. It's an album that you melt into, letting the musical swirls enchant your mind and lull you to relaxation.

Marcelo Frota and his MoMo moniker are definitely names to keep on your to-get-a-hold-of list. If you reside in the States, my guess that it will be tough to come by at the moment, but he is apparently seeking a U.S. license to grace us with his psyche-folk seduction. Did you hear that Gnomonsong? For now though, you are going to have to take my route and rely on knowledgeable friends. There is no shame in being the recommendee, and if you play the role long enough, you'll be switching sides before you realize it.

link: http://audiversity.com/2007/05/momo-esttica-do-rabisco.html

O selo carioca Dubas lança "A Estética do Rabisco", de Momos, produção competente e solitária do estilo folk no Brasil

De início, imagine uma voz suave, a dizer da melancolia do mundo, do "comércio de asas" entre os homens. Depois, faça acompanhar de guitarras, craviolas - um violão de 12 cordas de aço - bateria, um brinquedinho chamado casiotone, mini-sintetizador a pilha da Casio, e outros instrumentos. Isso tudo direto de um estúdio quase caseiro, sem passar pela remasterização. O resultado é o folk de Momo, codinome de Marcelo Frota, no disco "A Estética do Rabisco", lançado recentemente pelo selo Dubas .

O disco combina com solidão. Não a solidão dolorida, carregada de ausência, mas aquela vontade de curtir não ter ninguém por perto. Vai bem com dias introspectivos, para ficar "bem perto da cama/meio palmo de luz/penúltima página", como canta ele na delicada "Soluço a dois". Apesar de sentir, dolorosamente, a aspereza, a força do tempo, ("o tempo vai tragar meu pensamento", canta ele na primeira faixa do disco, "Comprimido"), Momo insiste numa tomada de postura, na não entrega. "Benditas flores / sem vocês não sou ninguém", canta ele em "Flores do Bem", uma das onde faixas do projeto.

Marcelo já morou em Angola, na infância, nos Estados Unidos, quando começou a pensar como músico, e em Barcelona, quando amadureceu a idéia de um disco folk contemporâneo. Entre as influências ele lembra Antony & The Johnsons, Devendra Banhart, Cat Power, Belle & Sebastian. Em terras brasileiras, Cidadão Instigado está na lista, embora não seja fácil encontrar grupos de sonoridade semelhante a de Momo.

No Rio de Janeiro, onde vive atualmente, Marcelo também integra o Fino Coletivo, grupo que mistura músicos alagoanos e cariocas, numa leitura particular do samba. Wado, um dos nordestinos do coletivo, assina, em parceria com Momo, quatro das composiões e escreve um texto de apresentação do disco. "Não se trata de macaquear o que está posto (no mercado internacional) e sim da escolha de uma estética que cabe como luva em belíssimas canções melancólicas". A originalidade do disco, dos caminhos escolhidos por Momo, fazem com que o CD continue tocando, instigando a descoberta deste e daquele elemento ainda não observado. Ou seja: para ouvir inúmeras vezes.

JÚLIA LOPES
Repórter

link: http://diariodonordeste.globo.com/materia.asp?codigo=427106

Crítica por Antônio Carlos Miguel - O Globo:

http://oglobo.globo.com/blogs/antonio/post.asp?cod_Post=47153

Crítica por Bruno Porto - O Globo:

http://www.experimenteoglobo.com.br/flip/?idEdicao=bcac18a8109736cf0daaa547b3e641a9&idCaderno=15299680a63b1d1eb2526ef626f607c6&page2go=1&origem=4&ran=bPHGCfev9GhWLtN2SrrfQeie7u7DNVUv7xI7q6CjKuHIgfA0RP

O Cd  'estética do rabisco' acaba de sair! Está a venda nas lojas e sites como:

submarino: http://www.submarino.com.br/cds_productdetails.asp?Query=&ProdTypeId=2&CatId=10992&PrevCatId=10991&ProdId=1774311&ST=BL10992&OperId=0&CellType=0&nocheck=1&nocheck=1

e saraiva: http://www.livrariasaraiva.com.br/produto/produto.dll/detalhe?pro_id=1568872&ID=C9330BFA7D60B19161B1C1063

A Estética do Rabisco
Momo

Esse é pros apreciadores de folk. Pros fãs de Nick Drake,Tim Hardin e Elliot Smith. Devo dizer que não consigo lembrar de ninguém cantando em português que se aproxime tanto dessa escola. E digo isso tanto no quesito estética quanto no conteúdo. Não se trata de macaquear o que está posto e sim da escolha de uma estética que cabe como luva em belíssimas canções melancólicas.
Este disco é em carne viva. O engraçado é que mesmo ele sendo assim intenso não é um disco difícil de ouvir. Ele carrega uma tristeza novidadeira pra nossa surrada música brasileira. É novidade madura já caindo do pé para um disco de estréia. Timbres arriscados e classudos e muito em consonância com o momento rock que o mundo está vivendo.
Marcelo, mentor do Momo, diz que privilegiou a espontaneidade dos primeiros takes de gravação partindo do Automatismo Psíquico, conceito do Surrealismo. O resultado é bem interessante, pois parece um rascunho de algo que poderia ser até pomposo dados seus assuntos, mas que se encerra num clima despojado e bastante charmoso. É bem ríspido, cru mesmo, como quando fala em aceitar levar uns socos na letra de Flores do Bem, bela metáfora de expectativas familiares. Disco bastante recomendado pra momentos de reflexão e também por sua coragem civil, de se arriscar nas captações e temas que andam raros na cena brasileira dos dias de hoje.

Abraço,
Wado