Italian duo Nicolo Fortuni and Nico Vascellari were both members of influential hardcore band With Love (championed by the likes of At The Drive-In’s Omar Rodriguez-Lopez), but their collaboration together as Ninos Du Brasil has seen them spend the last five years grafting muscular samba and batucada percussion onto dark techno grooves, resulting in a ferocious hybrid that’s part warehouse rave, part Brazilian street party.
Three years on from the duo’s preceding album ‘Novos Misterios’ and their ‘Aromobates NDB’ EP for James Murphy’s DFA label, this third album ‘Vida Eterna’ sees them drawing influence from stories of vampirism and creatures of the night. There’s certainly a dark ritualistic feel to this collection, with opening track ‘O Vento Chama Seu Nome’ sending rattling tribal techno rhythms flexing against murderous-sounding incoherent whispers and snarls, before steely percussion rolls emerge into the foreground, tracing an almost militaristic figure against eerie ringing tones.
As the background howls swell into a mass of delay, things roll seamlessly into ‘No Melo Da Noite’s propulsive glide through pounding 4/4 techno rhythms and dark brass honks, introducing the feeling of a fluid live set as woody percussion fills contribute melodic accents to the massed drum rolls and kickdrums. There’s an emphasis on constant maximality and textural overload, with the sense of rising tension rarely letting up here.
‘A Magia Do Rei II’ arguably offers up this album’s most furious techno ride, scattering rapid-fire vocals against dark surging EBM bass and layers of rattling metallic percussion, before industrial drum breaks graft themselves onto the speeding undercarriage and eerie synth trails shimmer into the distance. As a bracing and enervating sensory experience, ‘Vida Eterna’ is hard to beat, and it’s easily one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.
