119: Soyo, by Dom La Nena

Dom La Nena (Brazil)
Soyo (2015)
11 tracks, 39 minutes
Bandcamp • Spotify • iTunes

Although I try to be as open-eared as possible, there are certain cultures in the world whose music I just struggle to connect with. I’ve mentioned it before in regards to South Africa, but there’s still a few South African musical styles that I enjoy more often than not. Less so with music from Brazil. For such a huge country with so many subcultures within, I can’t help but find the vast majority of Brazilian music that I’ve heard completely uninspiring, at best. The chords and their changes are too smooth, the rhythms repetitive and the melodies either lacking in personality or filled with smugness. Even the massed percussion of the samba leaves me bored, and don’t get me started on bossa nova. These are definitely sweeping statements, probably unfair ones at that, but it’s disappointing how widely they seem to ring true.

What’s weird is that, in Soyo, Dom La Nena’s music has all the elements that I usually dislike in Brazilian music. The music here is nice – and that’s usually a bad thing! But…it’s good! Really good. So what gives? No idea. In fact, there’s also a really twee pop sensibility about it, too: there’s ukuleles, glockenspiels, half-whispered vocals and loads of compression, to the degree that most of the tracks wouldn’t feel too out-of-place on an advert for organic yoghurt. So much of the stylistic influence on offer here is inoffensive, but Dom brings an edge to it. I’m not sure what it is. I think it may be that the execution is less overly earnest than others of its style, while still being obviously heartfelt.

It’s really lovely music for relaxing to. It makes me think of a sunny Sunday morning in the summer, eating breakfast on the cool grass. There’s nothing too energetic, but it’s not sleepy either, the atmospheres are constructed so well. There always seems to be quite a lot going on in terms of chords, melodies, countermelodies, shuffling samba-esque rhythms, little ephemeral production elements here and there, but it never sounds busy. It all slots in just right. Then of course there’s Dom’s voice, which is really soft and fragile, and complements those textures well; there's even a touch of Billie Holiday about her. It’s especially pleasing when she adds her own vocal harmonies by the miracle of overdubs.

So yeah. Twee pop with a distinctly Brazilian edge with airy vocals over the top…despite it being everything I’d usually avoid, this album hits me exactly right. Never be afraid to listen to that artist you think you’ll hate, whoever it may be. They may surprise you.