P031 – NÍDIA – Não Fales Nela Que A Mentes

Vinyl LP / Digital
Written and produced by Nídia;
Mastered by Tó Pinheiro da Silva, Artwork by Márcio Matos;
Released May, 2020;

VINYL/DIGITAL: Order from us

A1 – Intro
A2 – Popo
A3 – RAP Complet
A4 – Nik Com
A5 – Raps

B1 – Tarraxo do Guetto ft. Gamboa
B2 – Rap Tentativa
B3 – Capacidades
B4 – Royal
B5 – Emotions

PRESS RELEASE

In typical Nídia fashion, we come in touch with a moody, unsettling tone over the first couple of minutes, successful in conveying an automatic sense of respect for the remainder of the album. And you might call it mature, reflective, contained, slow-paced. And we might call it individual, rich in songwriting ability (we call them songs), 2 steps forward or sideways from Nídia’s body of work,

Any way we approach it, it’s a rich and emotive take on much loved afro styles, blended with Life guiding the producer’s hand and a resolute sense of direction in a career already full of high points. Check the late acid on “Tarraxo Do Guetto” and the trilogy of “Rap”-titled songs, sounding like intimate moments in the bedroom, details maybe lost in the fog of memory but retaining all the passion. Fittingly, the last song is titled “Emotions”, featuring an epic progression that makes it hard to decide if it’s uplifting or profoundly melancholic.

Vinyl LP; individually hand-painted, 500 copies available for the world.

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Five years on from Nídia’s debut 12”, and notable recent production and remix work for Fever Ray, Kelela and Yaeji, the Lisbon/Bordeaux-based wunderkind’s 2nd album lays out a supremely supple and crisply defined sound placing a critical, dare-to-be-different spin on elements of the African Zouk, Kuduro, Tarraxho and US R&B sounds she grew up with. Now after becoming something of a cult one-to-watch, and still only barely in her 20’s, Nídia’s sound has patently matured in terms of its emotional levity and pacing, but at no expense to the thrilling, rude angularity of her early 12” and 2017 debut LP ‘Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida’. Nídia’s music is now just cooler, concentrated and on-point stylish in a remarkable way that uncannily matches the mood of the times.

Showing off sharply honed melodic sensibilities and nudging her drums into singular syncopations, Nídia’s subtle but radical alteration to her sound now calls to mind beats by Timbaland, Lenky, The Neptunes or Equiknoxx (even LL Cool J) as much as her label mates on Príncipe. By stripping her sound down to its essence, rather than cluttering with FX or bait sounds, she’s arrived at a raw dancefloor blueprint that’s tough playing but sensitive, unafraid to go slow, heavy and heads-down in the club while also packing combustible peaks of excitement.

With effortless suss, Nídia shifts from an ‘Intro’ of experimental rave minimalism comparable to Rian Treanor, to a mix of Arabic wind motifs and clipped Deep South bounce recalling Virginia Beach’s best on ‘Popo’, while a trio of ‘Rap’ instrumentals tilt the game from mutant drill to 3-step sickness and a super strong nod to LL Cool J’s ‘I Need Love’. Zipped in with the a bubbling 8-bit slow banger ’Tarraxo do Guetto’ and grimy shockout eruption of ‘Capacidades’, Nídia’s cool hand on the pressure gauge keeps interest rapt until the finalé fanfare of ‘Emotions’, which surely matches the likes of Lex Luger or The Dream’s brassy mini-symphonies for emotive grip, but in a less muscular, more sensitively ambiguous way that Nídia coolly owns.
Boomkat, May 2020

E a verdade é que escutando Não Fales… se justifica plenamente essa aposta no material com que Nídia vai dilatando a sua obra. Confirmando o seu domínio das ferramentas de criação que elegeu, Nídia estende a sua visão no álbum por 10 momentos distintos, ainda que complementares. Há três “raps”, um tríptico de faixas em que a produtora aborda uma cadência que, de facto, poderia receber rimas em cima: L-ALI poderia adornar com a sua rebuscada ginástica verbal o pulsar de “RAP Complet”; seria maravilhoso escutar a vibração juvenil de Nenny na mais luminosa “Raps” que até inclui uma daquelas melodias que é meio-refrão; e “Rap Tentativa” poderia certamente acomodar o flow sinuoso de alguém como Landim e ser um daqueles bangers que inundam “ear pods” brancos em hora de ponta. Nada mais justo.

E Nídia mostra igualmente refinada mestria na forma como gere a tensão sensual dos padrões mais lentos, alinhando em “Popo”, “Royal” ou, e talvez sobretudo, “Emotions” argumentos que reforçam a originalidade da sua visão, com a gestão dos pulsares rítmicos (sempre imaginativa, diga-se, com Nídia a aplicar uma ideia de “arranjo” mesmo aos elementos percussivos) a ser somada a uma clara dimensão emocional exposta no plano melódico e feita em iguais partes de melancolia (“Popo”) e de uma certa exuberância de prazer (como em “Emotions”).

As pistas em pico horário (lá voltaremos) também encontram por aqui combustível com alta concentração de refinadas octanas, como é o caso do imparável “Tarraxo do Guetto” (com Gamboa) ou de “Capacidades”, tema em que Nídia explora o reluzente cromado pós-R&B capaz de deixar o sangue a ferver a qualquer um quando o passo acelera no refrão.
Rimas E Batidas, May 2020

With their spacious arrangements and shuddering, 808-style bass blasts, the 10 tracks owe more to rap and grime instrumentals, or the street sounds of the global South, than they do to the heat and frenzy of the club. (The title, taken from a poem by Jorge de Sena, roughly translates as, “Don’t talk about her or you’ll end up lying about her.”) Nídia’s approach to sound is efficient and elemental, taking recognizable material—hand claps, crash cymbals, plasticky brass—and creating complexity through arrangement rather than signal manipulation. She paints in bold, black lines before filling in the gaps with heavy pigments. On “capacidades,” a distorted voice pops up like a cartoon speech bubble, chanting “Go! Go! Go!” as the beat topples forward. On “rap-tentativa,” the rhythm is spelled out like a schoolyard clapping game while a pair of two-note melodies circle each other like a team chant.

The track titles read like hastily chosen placeholders—“popo,” “intro,” “RAP-complet”—as if they’ve come from a sample pack of “Nídia-Type-Beats” for prospective MCs. That doesn’t necessarily reflect on their contents; the interplay of breathy flute and twanged strings on “popo,” for instance, provides enough narrative without the need for human input. But other tracks do seem to be making space for a guest who never shows up, whether it’s a vocalist or simply a further development of melody or dynamics.
Pitchfork, May 2020

Nídia’s rhythms move in and out of familiarity. “Tarraxo De Guetto” has the sticky stomp associated with tarraxo. The trilogy of “Rap” tracks play with contemporary hip-hop and trap forms, like the Metro Boomin-style synths of highlight “Rap Tentativa.” It’s in these three tunes that you can hear the duality of her music, caught between macho trap swagger and a romantic waltz. Her music has plenty of space, which makes the drums hit hard without overwhelming the elegant arrangements. Listen to the outsized drum hits in “Intro,” or how the snares and hats feel like they’re stalking around corners in “Popo,” as if they were trying to sneak up on you.

Não Fales Nela Que A Mentes is the first record that Borges made after moving back from Bordeaux to her childhood Lisbon home. There’s a newfound comfort in these tracks, which extends to lightheartedness (the Lex Luger synth wash in “Royal”) to what sounds like contentment. The closing track “Emotions,” with its triumphant horns and peppy handclaps, is one of her most striking tracks to date. The album feels like her smoothest chapter yet, but it comes alongside a 7-inch that packs more of a wallop.

The tracks on the Badjuda Sukulbembe 7-inch are the two longest productions in her catalogue. “Cheirinho” is swung and seductive, while “Tarraxoz Academy” is a wonderfully unstable track, like a tarraxo rhythm that’s drunk and unable to stay on its feet. The effect is intoxicating. These two tracks hit harder, faster and weirder than the prettier music of Não Fales Nela Que A Mentes, extending the range that has always defined Nídia’s music to two different records: one light, one heavy. Both are complex, hinting at the toughness Nídia has said was necessary to grow up in the projects around Lisbon. She bares her heart with her music’s lilting melodies, but there’s usually a stomp or forceful push behind it.
Resident Advisor, May 2020

Nídia’s new record – Não Fales Nela Que a Mentes – is a more meditative affair, ridden with intimacy, introspection and bittersweet melancholia. The melody on mid-album cut Raps demonstrates this well, beginning with licks of uncertainty and paranoia before unfurling into a progression cooler and calmer than any summer evening. Percussion across the release is consistent in quality yet varied in style, from the shuffle and sway driving lead single Capacidades to the thrilling clap and hand-drum beat of Nik Com and the moody, captivating rumble underpinning Popo. Nídia’s best is saved for last on Emotions, a triumphant fanfare tinged with inner turmoil, where the vulnerability that connects artists to listeners becomes a two-way street.
The Guardian, May 2020

Brilliantly inventive, Lisbon/Bordeaux-based producer Nídia’s crafted a formidable combination of dance music and soul in second album Nao Fales Nela Que A Mentes. Across the album, she explored Afro-Portuguese dance music and percussions, as well as showcasing the growing maturity of her production style and influences. For example, the album’s intro weaves a melancholic, driving beats with silence. Elsewhere, ‘Popo’ moves through the sensibilities of trap, bouncing alongside waves of traditional Egyptian instrumentals, whilst ‘Capacidades’ invokes feelings of joy and nostalgia, all of which feeds into the final fanfare of ‘Emotions’. In just twenty-nine minutes, Nídia sustains, and effortlessly nods at, a wide range of sounds, creating a sensational album along the way.
The Vinyl Factory, December 2020

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• 2020
• Nídia