LINDA MARTINI

This EP, released after the debut, brings a different sound, there's very little vocals on it, in three of the songs the vocals are just small quiet pieces and in another it's just screaming by the end of the song, this EP has a quieter sound and even explores other fields like electronic music.

A Corda Do Elefante Sem Corda is a beautiful song with great lyrics, really quiet voice and largely instrumental, it is followed by Raposo Manhoso a fantastic song, a quiet instrumental during almost all the song until in the end it explodes into a choir of screaming, really epic. Parada is a small electronic instrumental interlude, it's different and interesting. As Putas Dançam Slows is another really different song, it starts off really really quiet, with voice only until it becomes and almost all instrumental.

A great EP, with new and very interesting sounds but a little too instrumental, essencial for fans, but not for a general listener.

The first sample of the Linda Martini sound is shown in this first EP, more experimental and noise than their 2007 debut Olhos De Mongol, Amor Combate is a good example of this, the song is almost the same as the two year later album version but with the exception of the solos in the middle of the song being much more noisy and psychedelic, with strange effects, and the fantastic Lição de Voo Nº1 which progresses from a really slow part, with beautiful lyrics, to an explosion and then really long psychedelic sounds. This album also features two instrumental pieces, the powerful Este Mar and the not-so-great Efémera. A great EP but Efémera and its happy sound are kind of off the album. This is certainly essencial for Linda Martini fans, it contains very imporant pieces Este Mar and Lição De Voo Nº1 which weren't on their album, but if you're starting to listen to them star with Olhos De Mongol.

This is one of my favorite Portuguese albums, by one of my favorite Portuguese bands. Linda Martini are a mix of post-rock with really heavy prog, they make a really heavy and intense sound with amazing passionate vocals, really heart-felt music. After the slow spacey intro "Sinto A Cabeça Cair", the powerful guitars of "Cronófago" kick in, this is one of my favorite songs, although very short, it is really strong and potent. "Dá-me A Tua Melhor Faca" starts as an heavy instrumental until at the middle of the songs turns to a beautiful post-rock melody, with heartbreaking vocals on top, beautiful music really. "Estuque" is the post-rock peek in the album, really spacey music, again with beautiful sad vocals and an epic chorus, another one of the greatest, but the best is to come, "O Amor É Não Haver Polícia" is the most intense, heartbreaking and passionate song I ever heard, it starts with noise accompanied by almost spoken-word vocals and slowly grows to the heaviest piece and an epic ending with earthmoving cries of desperation, the best I ever heard. At last, "A Severa", one of the greatest songs, four lines of pure poetry slowly open for this 7 minutes instrumental, really heavy passages mixed with beautiful lines with harmonicas, really intense music (i'm tired of repeating this adjective but it is the adjective of this album!). This is an absolutely fantastic album, I advise it to everyone, I think it's a very personal album from a band with a very distinct sound.