Bonde Do Role

Favela tech is the best way to label the sound purveyed by Bondo Do Role (who were discovered by Diplo), which emanated from the shantytowns of Rio, combining Miami bass with punk-y Portuguese chants and all-round Brazilian flavouring. With the average track weighing in at two-and-a-half minutes, it extends a helping hand to the simple but catchy hooks that might wear thin if they were to last much longer. It feels lacking in sophistication and development musically, but the blend of 808 beats with indigenous percussion is endearing and there is enough energy to the grooves and variety between tracks to sustain interest. Some of the themes are playfully immature, with the nursery rhyme kazoo melody of "Geremia” or the adaptation of the Tetris theme on "Caminhao De Gas” exemplifying the tongue-in-cheek nature of the music. With the primary vocalist coming across like a Latin American Uffie, regardless of the language barrier, Bondo Do Role are a bizarre marriage of intuitively contradicting influences that find an unlikely but self-satisfied medium.