- A fascinating—and exhilarating—blend of neoperreo, techno and electroclash from a Parisian group to watch.
- Paris's cultural melting pot has produced awe-inspiring cross-continent club experiments for years. A recent case in point: Parisian-Carioca trio PPJ, whose new EP Bloco Vol. 1 moulds neoperreo and hard techno together, with a sly wink of pop and electroclash.
The disparate elements of "Bicha" make it almost feel like a mash-up. Its name means queer in Portuguese, and the track's starburst synths and bubblegum vocals from singer Páula rub against a mountainous techno thump that shouldn't work, but ends up as a thrilling surprise. The group's protean tendencies continue on "Calor," a piece of heavily eroticized (and aestheticized) neoperreo that reminds me of Arca's recent work.
Lyrically, PPJ flit between French and Portuguese. The stories on Bloco Vol. 1 are set around the tantalising first Rio carnival after the pandemic. The group purr sensually in the heat of the club ("Calor") and imagine days spent horizontally in Normandy fields ("Fourmis"). On "Dropi Dropa," a dark, calloused techno bouncer, Páula lays out her thoughts on a night out aloud over echoed whistles and flickering bass: "Three years ago I felt that it was going to be the last carnival / And I'm back here again," she says, before sounding a bit like Q-Tip in Brazil: "What's that, boy? I left my voice in Boi Tolo!" The group's renewed hunger for nightlife starts to rub off on you, and makes their music all the more infectious.
Tracklist01. Bicha
02. Fourmis
03. Calor
04. Dropi Dropa