Scene Report: Brazil October 2008 with Cerebro Eletronico
By: Eduardo Curi
How versatile and diverse can a band be these days? Well, what about a band that has a double life? You might see this lot playing rock and roll, singing in Portuguese, unleashing chords full of 7ths and 9ths all over Brazil, or catch yourself thrashing to their electro beats and heavy power chords while they sing in French, English, Japanese, or whatever.
This is Cérebro Eletrônico, and an outfit like this is rarely seen in this country. Although formed by the same members as the band Jumbo Elektro (the name being a pun with a supermarket brand), this other part has its own defined proposals, and their works are kept completely apart.
We are talking here about Cérebro Eltrônico only. Coming from São Paulo, they recently released their second album, Pareço Moderno, and with it what we hear is a blow of fresh air coming in to their music. If Tropicália were invented nowadays it probably would sound like Cérebro. The music is a mix of what seems to be modern, with their circuit bending experimentation rolling aside the traditional sounds of Brazilian pop music, and traditional - though the 't' word here doesn't mean usual, since it has a richness of harmonies and melodies like few musicians in the world are able to cope with, or indeed copy.
Pareço Moderno is also groundbreaking in the Brazilian national music market since it was released in nothing less than 9(!) different formats. You can go from the usual MP3 download to a deluxe special edition film box. We need bands like this, bands who are capable of reinventing the market in order to keep it alive and kicking.
Rockfeedback spoke to the brain of it all, Tatá Aeroplano:
Rockfeedback: Was your first album released on CD only, or did you do it in different ways as well?
Tatá Aeroplano: "It was released on CD only, and then the tracks were uploaded for digital sale as MP3s."
RFB: Pareço Moderno was released in several formats. How did you choose those medias, and what are their advantages?
TA: "The record was released by the Phonobase label. The idea came from their CEO, Juliano Polimeno. We thought of all possible formats to offer it to the public: from download cards, where the customer receives a PIN number and is allowed to download the album from the internet for about £2.00, to a special Box set which is a cinema film shaped tin containing the record in digipack format, a booklet telling the story for each song, T-shirt, postcards from the band, stickers and a remixes CD. Retailers are getting the album in the digipack format and, also, the jewel case, which is the traditional format. I see no disadvantages whatsoever on this, only advantages, because we are reaching a good public with it - some fans get the record, enjoy it, and buy the special box set afterwards, some buy the download card and then the CD, and, by the end of the day, that proves that one single person can get more than one format of the same album.
RFB: Speaking of the music, Cérebro sounds to me like a rock and roll Tropicália. How can you keep the musical unity with such a range of influences?
TA: "We do have the Tropicália´s influence, and also, rock and roll. We manage to keep our unity because we've been playing together for so long (six years, at least) that when we work on a song we put all our influences in it, it's all very natural."
RFB: São Paulo is the biggest city in the country, how is the market for the independent artists in town?
TA: "São Paulo has an interesting and diverse musical scene. We've got venues that can satisfy all musical tastes. We play a lot at the Studio SP, a wonderful venue that catches up with an audience really interested in music. We also play in other places such as the Inferno, Clube Belfiore, Outs and more. Market-wise, it's open and I believe that new artists must pay attention to the possibilities of interacting with it."
Have a taste of Cérebro Eltrônico on their MySpace HERE.