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DJ Wesley Gonzaga's "Sarra Nela Com Fuzil" may be the greatest example I've got of a particular strain of funk carioca, the tendency to subordinate or delete the bass entirely and make the rhythm come down from the top, voices or clave or handclaps or mouth farts or beeps or screeches or samples or squiggles. 2021 might turn out to have been the peak year for this – the hot upper register – prior to everything giving way to the deep rural beats from the north or the reverberating trap thuds from the even farther north.
But this isn't my post – if the post ever comes – on that tendency. I may not have a lot more to say about it than the phrase "rhythm comes down from the top," actually.*
—Dave's already written this better than I'll be able to: "For a good stretch this song is propelled primarily by a gun being cocked and a synth piano line that sounds like what happens when you're about to change the battery in your smoke detector and it chirps right in your face. And it fucking rocks." And, about baile funk in general: "Sounds and timbres that don't belong in songs at all that somehow *anchor* them, verses shouted in from the back of the room that still take the spotlight, horrible noise that can somehow stay horrible even as it makes you want to dance." (Read his full comment here.)
When "Sarra Nela Com Fuzil" was getting drubbed in the 2021 People's Pop Poll, and LZM wrote, "I like the rawness but I still think it could do with better mixing,"** I countered with "This does tap something primal. But I think it's a pretty well-honed aesthetic, esp. how Gonzaga uses one set of piercing chirps as the architecture, then doubles in with another set."
Jake Linford, who's 20 years younger than I am, delighted me with this complaint:
Anyhow, just remember, when someone talks about Wesley Gonzaga's screaming ear-shattering laser fire, on the one hand, and someone talks about Wesley Gonzaga's severe but serene sonic architecture, on the other, we're talking about the exact same notes.
So, "rhythm comes down from the top," "piercing," "architectural severity."
( Noite De Crime )
( Footnotes )
But this isn't my post – if the post ever comes – on that tendency. I may not have a lot more to say about it than the phrase "rhythm comes down from the top," actually.*
—Dave's already written this better than I'll be able to: "For a good stretch this song is propelled primarily by a gun being cocked and a synth piano line that sounds like what happens when you're about to change the battery in your smoke detector and it chirps right in your face. And it fucking rocks." And, about baile funk in general: "Sounds and timbres that don't belong in songs at all that somehow *anchor* them, verses shouted in from the back of the room that still take the spotlight, horrible noise that can somehow stay horrible even as it makes you want to dance." (Read his full comment here.)
When "Sarra Nela Com Fuzil" was getting drubbed in the 2021 People's Pop Poll, and LZM wrote, "I like the rawness but I still think it could do with better mixing,"** I countered with "This does tap something primal. But I think it's a pretty well-honed aesthetic, esp. how Gonzaga uses one set of piercing chirps as the architecture, then doubles in with another set."
Jake Linford, who's 20 years younger than I am, delighted me with this complaint:
Okay, that DJ Wesley Gonzaga single is the second song I've heard this year that sample a super hot piano tone that just sets my teeth on edge. Swamps every other element of the song. If this is the future, it's time to concede my age and post the Get Off My Lawn signs.
— Jake Linford (@LinfordInfo) January 10, 2022
Anyhow, just remember, when someone talks about Wesley Gonzaga's screaming ear-shattering laser fire, on the one hand, and someone talks about Wesley Gonzaga's severe but serene sonic architecture, on the other, we're talking about the exact same notes.
So, "rhythm comes down from the top," "piercing," "architectural severity."
( Noite De Crime )
( Footnotes )
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CROSSPOST: https://koganbot.substack.com/p/noite-de-crime-dj-wesley-gonzaga
