Madredeus On Crack: A Naifa

September 13, 2004 11:09 PM

As God Is My Cleaning Lady: Crypto-Fado For Bohemian Pagan Popsters. They can't play their classical Fado guitars very well; they have a punky drummer and the Fado singer not only smiles pouts and shakes her hips, but actually seems to enjoy herself! What's become of this country? Are they mad? Reckless, certainly. They call themselves A Naifa and what they've done is taken a massive, ice-crunching Waring Pro blender to all the sacred potions, fruits and flavours of Portuguese traditional music and poured out a vulgar, shameless, disrespectful and utterly delicious shambles of a Pop cocktail. Heresy in old Lisbon? I nearly choked on my 30-year-old aguardente velha, but then realized I was dancing merrily and had already spilt most of it anyway. [Probably not fun for those unfamiliar with the Fado. QuickTime required.]
posted by MiguelCardoso (10 comments total)

That sounds good. It was fun. Of course, now I'll have to hunt down some "real" fado in order to make comparisons. Any suggestions?
posted by seanyboy at 12:15 AM on September 14, 2004

Funny you should ask, seanyboy: here's a real Fado thread I prepared earlier. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:31 AM on September 14, 2004 [1 favorite]

It's pretty, and I'd like to hear more, but I was hoping for the tradition to be given more of a kicking, a la The Pogues or Hedningarna. Not that I have anything against the tradition, heaven forfend. Actually it seems less radical than Madredeus or the Paolo Bragança album that Luaka Pop released (although, obviously Bragança is a bloke, and this seems to be diva music). That said, I know enough about fado to make a complete fool of myself and I'm up against Cardoso Himself on this one.

But it is pretty. And I would like to hear more. So.

(Oh, and weren't you preparing another Fado thread with up-to-the-minute fadistas?)
posted by Grangousier at 3:19 AM on September 14, 2004

As soon as Mariza marries me I'll go on a crusade against wahtever false fado is plaguing the world. Mark my words, there shall be revenge.
posted by Space Coyote at 4:51 AM on September 14, 2004

This is good.

Thanks Miguel.
posted by loquacious at 4:59 AM on September 14, 2004

[derail]
Hi Miguel! I've missed you!
[/derail]
posted by nofundy at 6:04 AM on September 14, 2004

Miguel, this post is downright un-American.
posted by troutfishing at 6:54 AM on September 14, 2004

Miguel, this post is downright un-American

Thank goodness.

And than YOU Miguel, you are my hero!
posted by kamylyon at 6:56 AM on September 14, 2004

cool ... now all they need is a mirror ball and an electric guitar here and there and the desecration will be complete
posted by pyramid termite at 4:07 PM on September 14, 2004

If only they had longer samples up online...

Fantastic stuff, though, even though to my uneducated ears it doesn't sound quite as radical as you describe it, Miguel. Maybe I'm a little more used to the modern-day North American notion of folk music as a living, breathing entity that takes freely from all styles of pop music, though--I remember a few years back at the Calgary folk festival, seeing a workshop performance that was something of a revelation to me: Njava, from Madagascar, and Wimme, from Finland, jamming together. Two groups representing extremely disparate musical traditions, and the musical common ground they found was techno and trip-hop!

and welcome back to the front page!
posted by arto at 12:44 PM on September 15, 2004