“Recorded at Tenreiro’s living room, Expeão’s attic, Sérgio’s disco, Passos’ office and Kiko’s basement”. Under the credits for this EP on Bonfim’s Bandcamp page there are places and the people that live and work and create within them. You can feel yourself passing through them as you follow through the record, tracks like rooms to explore, a vague look into someone else’s life at a house party you went to yesterday or 20 years ago.
Released in 2020, «An extended-play record of assembled sounds for different kinds of moods» sees the return of Pedro Tenreiro, veteran Porto DJ, ex-A&R for NorteSul – discovering, among many, Portuguese hip hop group Mind da Gap – and all-around music enthusiast, after a 15-years hiatus from producing music. Alongside him there’s Hugo Passos, full-time furniture designer, hip hop connoisseur and beat-maker (check out 10 Anos Em Gaveta by him as Soma and rapper Maze), “gravitating around Mind da Gap in his youth”, as Tenreiro told in an interview detailing this release and its origins – including how he met Passos.
Armed with a sampler – specifically, for all you gear-heads, a trusty AKAI MPC 1000 – and Tenreiro’s exceptional record collection, him and Passos started meeting up regularly and going back in time through vinyl, slicing and shaping new sounds from a recognizable past, in a sense challenging time. The inspiration from the hip hop scene is clear – Apresentaçao, the first track, uses chopping beautifully to create an ethereal, yet syncopated, introduction to the rest of the record – and the funky synths, accompanied sometimes by soulful, uplifting vocals (U Know U Can (Dance), Dilittante), other times by hints of jazz (Big Ben Boy (where are you Peggy Gou?)), bring you back to that classic 90s deep house feel.
Whether you want to dance, chill or get lost into the music, this EP has got you covered.
First time in – stockfind from great 2020 release! 300 copies pressed
After a fifteen year hiatus from music making, Pedro Tenreiro, Porto’s veteran and legendary DJ, former A&R, producer and re-edit pioneer behind projects such as Mr. Spock, Illmatic+Phaser and Dancin’ Days, joins Hugo Passos, a key player of the city’s early Hip Hop scene, to form Bonfim.
In the last couple of years they met once a week to have some fun exploring Pedro’s record collection through Hugo’s MPC.
The result is a six track EP of sample based music that draws its inspiration from soulful and, so called, classic golden age Hip Hop, 90s House and leftfield jazzy sounds that reflects the duo’s eclectic tastes.
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