Certainly, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year or so, the internationally renowned Brazilian psych rock quartet Boogarins quickly became a JOVM mainstay artist; in fact, you’ve likely seen several posts on the material off their most recent album Manual. Now, you may recall that during the band’s 2014 European tour, the members of the band spent two weeks in Jorge Explosion’s Estudio Circo Perrotti in Gijón, Spain, where they began tracking material, which would wind up comprising their sophomore effort, Manual,ou guia livre de dissolução dossonhos, which translates into English as Manual, or Free Guide to the Dissolution of Dreams. The material on the album is specifically meant to viewed as a diary — or a sort of dream journal. And as a result, the material is not only much more personal than their debut effort, it’s also their most socially conscious effort, as it draws from the socioeconomic and political issues that affected their homeland before, during and after the 2014 World Cup as entire neighborhoods were pushed aside and destroyed for massive commercial developments that helped wealthy global corporations make even more money, instead of uplifting those who desperately needed socioeconomic uplift — an uplift that the country’s poorest, most vulnerable and most at risk were promised. Thematically speaking, the phenomenon that informs Manual should feel frighteningly familiar as there’s a growing chasm between the haves and the have nots, while the world’s major cities are experiencing the effects of gentrification.
New Video: Boogarins Returns with Yet Another Breezy and Contemplative Song, and Gorgeous Visuals
Manual‘s latest single “Tempo” is an contemplative song with an expansive song structure consisting of alternating dreamy and moody section with a loud, anthemic section featuring buzzing guitar chords and feedback — and much like the album’s previously released singles the latest single sounds as thought it draws from Pink Floyd, 60s garage psych, Tropicalia and jazz, which gives the song a breeziness that belies its thoughtful and psychedelic nature. According to press notes, the song’s lyrics speak about stopping time and freeing yourself from the everyday grind of work, school and obligations and escaping from the pressures of daily life.
Interestingly, the members of the band reached out to their fans on social media and asked them to shoot footage of two different moods: the first being “man’s world,” a world full of soul-crushing and demeaning imagery of urban life — commuting and rushing about, working, studying and starting at computer screens; and the second being images of sanctuary and safe places — friends, being out in nature, music, art and anything that would make you feel open, free and whole. As a result of their open call, the band received hundreds of submissions, which were then edited and crafted into a gorgeous, surreal and coherent whole by Cobrandit Films‘ Owen Mack.