Cortada is yard and surprise.
Yard, in the most speedy and muscular sense of the word, raw music with no time to waste, an indie punk-hardcore derivation of some Black Flag; bastards from Big Black, Rapeman, The Jesus Lizard and the rest of the pigfuckers (RIP Steve Albini), the instruments sharp as saws, the voice defiant and guttural. But there’s also a yard of jangling, the guitar releasing psychedelic vapours, the rhythm section sounding amphetamine, a mixture of looseness and vigour.
And a surprise because, damn it, we didn’t expect this from them. Nothing we’d heard from Pedro Pimenta Almeida in Hercules or in the electronic productions he signs as Dusmond suggested that the man was born to be the lead singer of a hardcore band. And the same goes for drummer Bernardo Pereira’s work with Mordo Mia or Trovador Falcão; even ex-Aerogasmo Lourenço Abecasis, who recorded Magz’s first solo album and is his right-hand man live, and Daniel Fonseca, who accompanied Vaiapraia for a few years, despite his work with MEIA/FÉ recently.
Surprise, too, that on the first mini-EP, just released, it seems as if they’ve spent their whole lives making this glorious chinwag and nothing else. Produced by Miguel Abras and Leonardo Bindilatti, one half of Putas Bêbadas and key members of Cafetra Records, which provided the studio, it has just three tracks and lasts just over seven minutes. But, like a good fuck, it doesn’t need to last longer. It hits where and how it needs to, without losing its hard-on or slowing down the pace. In the end, everyone is satisfied. Looking forward to round two.
