Boogarins – Sombrou Dúvida

Brazilian psychedelic band Boogarins have really taken off in the last couple of years. Currently in the middle of a long world tour, which sees them come back to the UK this July, they now have new album ‘Sombrou Dúvida’ to back this up. It’s quite something.

Carrying on in the same vein as on previous releases, it is hard to get away from the comparisons to tropicalia bands like Os Mutantes and modern psychedelic music like Animal Collective.

However Boogarins’ sound is very much their own. Opening track As Chances is a woozy psych pop song with pitch shifting guitars, echoing vocals and warbling effects all over it. Almost title track Sombra Ou Dúvida introduces glitchy electronics, stop start beats throughout and adds bass synth into the mix. 

Invenção is all dreamy effects and skittering drums pinned down by a bouncing synth bass line that wouldn’t be out of place on the Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The vocal melody could be mistaken for Os Mutantes. Dislexia ou Transe is somewhere between REM and Radiohead, with the guitar sounding almost like a mandolin and the Raphael Vaz’s bassline sounding very much Colin Greenwood-like.

A Tradição has a Super Furry Animals quality to it, in both production and song writing.

It would fit nicely on Rings Around The World. Nós is beautiful, with a structure and vocal melody straight out of the Shugo Tokumaru school of writing, only there are more tripped out textures. Tardança has probably the biggest pop hook in the chorus, whilst keeping the lyrics very minimal. Desandar has a satisfying sway with noodley guitars and another satisfying bassline. 

Te Quero Longe drifts for the most part, pleasant without perhaps being quite so essential as the rest of the songs here. Passeio closes the set with another downtempo track which becomes layers on the effects as it continues, ending the album on almost a sigh.

Although the final two tracks slightly lose the momentum, there is a lot to love about this record.

The use of effects on pretty much every component and the fantastic production do not come at the expense of their song writing. This is one of the best psychedelic pop albums I’ve heard in a long time.

Try this if you like: Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, Shugo Tokumaru, Super Furry Animals, Os Mutantes, Palm, Animal Collective