CD Reviews

Bonde do Rolê

With Lasers | Domino

By RENÉ SPENCER SALLER | July 9, 2007

3.0 Stars

PURE ID: Bonde do Rolê’s cheerleader chants are as crude as crunk and as blunt as punk.

Bonde do Rolê, "James Bond"

You don’t need to be fluent in Portuguese to understand Bonde do Rolê’s message: these barely legal Brazilians speak the universal language of crotch. MC and not-so-secret weapon Marina Vello is the perfect mouthpiece for these sexed-up party jams: whether she’s simulating orgasm, snarling punkishly, or barking out horndog imperatives, the gravel-voiced moppet — imagine the bastard daughter of Li’l Jon and Kathleen Hanna — has charisma to spare. Vello and her cohort, MC/producer Pedro D’Eyrot and DJ/producer Rodrigo Gorky, make music that’s as crude as crunk and as blunt as punk, more like tarted-up cheerleader chants than full-fledged songs. Teeming with cheesy 808s, hair-metal guitars, and sue-us-already samples, With Lasers sounds defiantly cheap. Dig the deranged kazoo voluntary on “Geremia,” the sly Malcolm McLaren shout-out on “Caminhao de gas,” the deliciously incongruous Afropop hook on “Tieta”: art-school experimentalism, meet favela ingenuity. These Diplo protégés are in theory rocking some kind of indie-friendly variation on baile funk, that wildly popular fusion of Miami bass, gangsta rap, and Latin dance music that sprang from the slums of Rio de Janeiro. But why spoil the party with world-beat dorkisms? You’re better off letting Bonde do Rolê drop their glorious little dumb bombs directly on your id.