I have been a huge DeafKids fan from the first time I heard their record 6 Heretic Anthems For The Deaf when it came out in 2012. I had never heard D-Beat played in such a way, and I knew that this band was special. This Brazilian unit started out as a one man band, Douglas, but has grown into a three-piece with Marian on drums and Marcelo on bass . I was so impressed with 6 Heretic Anthems For The Deaf, I almost started a tape label so we could release it, but we just did not have the funds to do it at the time. 2013 marked another shift in their sound that found them going into a more doom/psychedelic vibe which can be heard on their debut LP The Upper Hand. In the years since, they would change with each release while also becoming stronger, and expand the way heavy music can be created. From where I stand the only band that could top this record would be the Deaf Kids themselves. When they released Configuração do Lamento in 2016, I lost my shit!!! One of the best things I have ever seen was when we put on the tape of Configuração Do Lamento and our 3 year old daughter lost it in the whirlwind of dance moves. Peep what I wrote right after I heard it:
Yesterday, Douglas sent me his new LP entitled Configuração do Lamento – and to say that it’s a game changer is a mammoth understatement. This record sounds like nothing I have ever heard before, because of all of the changes and sonic textures that I have encountered while listening to it! DEAFKIDS are able to blend noise, d-beat, tribal drumming and psychadelic energy into an audio force that will leave you wanting more! I’m so fucking amazed by Configuração do Lamento that I think it’s best that you hear it for yourself, because nothing I can write about it will do it justice!
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Fast forward a couple months, Meghan and I were watching Neurosis perform in Vancouver, BC. Before the show, we were talking to Steve Von Till when he told us heard had heard this amazing band on our site from Brazil – Deaf Kids, a band I had been championing for 4 years. A couple weeks later, I got a message from Steve asking for Doug’s info, and next thing I knew DEAFKIDS were signed to Neurot Records, and will be releasing Configuração Do Lamento on vinyl/cd for the first time on October 6th. Check out below what Steve had to say about Deaf Kids first hand:
I first read about DEAFKIDS when I saw a headline from Cvlt Nation that read, “This Band Sounds Like No Other!” My cynical nature believed that to be a tall order, so I decided to call their bluff and clicked on the stream…MIND BLOWN. I was not prepared for how much I would love this record. Raw, powerful, and explosive heavy psych. I think I listened to it 3 times in a row right then and there. I played it for my bandmates the first time we were all in a room together and we all agreed, “We need to put out a DEAFKIDS record.” So here it is, for the first time on vinyl and cd, that very same DEAFKIDS recording that first lured me into their sonic world.
Check out how Neurot Recordings describes this record:
Configuração Do Lamento is an untamed release, happy to juxtapose monolithic drone riffage with frantic polyrhythmic detours, the band citing the syncopated beats of African drums as a major influence. It is a guttural, scorched mutation of psychedelia, that similar intent of frying the listener’s perception, whilst void of anything approaching earthy wistfulness, wholly fluid in nature, paying no heed to any musical expectations other than the creators own internal logic. A bombardment of clanging percussion sits below relentless guitar battering, and a whole host of electronic tamperings, effects which in practice manage to further confound the proceedings. Using the term psychedelic in the absolute loosest sense is apt, as the band claim that ‘non-genre genres’ are a chief source of inspiration, referencing anything from their own background in punk, right the way through to spiritual jazz, practically any form which allows the artist to experiment with the utter extremes of musical expression.
A key theme at the heart of this singular record is the crisis of identity within a colonised country, the conflict that arises when an imperialist culture is enforced, resulting in a drastic feeling of displacement. The music alone illuminates this theme, various contrasting influences seeping into the bands sound. As a project, they speak of the ramifications of cultural hegemony specific to Brazil, specifying that “thanks to the way colonisation happened here, a certain part of the Brazilian experience is bounded by a sense of fracture – we’re sons of the border… here and there.”Though the contextual aspects of the band are fascinating, they also insist that with music, there is a vital importance in surrendering to a degree of “non-rationality, on the sense that it should not be used as a narrative resource for spreading verbal/mental ideas“. It’s this collision of political outrage set against complete bodily and mental release, that makes Configuração Do Lamento an undoubtedly fearless and inspiring piece of work.
This is the kind of story that make living this beautiful struggle we call CVLT Nation worth it! It took 5 years, but the promise we made to DEAFKIDS that we would always support their creative output is paying off. They will be opening for Neurosis’s first South American show ever in São Paulo, Brazil on Dec. 8th, 2017. CVLT Nation would like to salute Neurosis, Neurot Recordings and all of our readers for the support! This is a message to the Deaf Kids crew: we look forward to the day we can give you a BIG HUG!!!
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