Critic's evaluation
She is seen as one of the great promises of the new generation of rock exponents in Brazil. Indira Castillo, a singer who was featured on the show Canta Comigo and who now takes over the microphone in the band Malvada, announces her first EP at the end of the third quarter of the year. Entitled Êxtase, the material was completely recorded and produced in the Canil Recrods studio.
It's like being in a blues bar in the center of New Orleans. The freshness of the wooden furniture, the drinks on the counter and a tattered piano on a stage in the center of the room are subjective factors, but from the strumming of the instrument's keys by Geovanni Leite, they are felt and created in the listener's imagination. Curiously, the piano itself is presented as an adjunct that brightens the harmony of a sound already solidified by the double smoothness of Victor Guilherme's guitar and Ian Bueno's drums. With a standard blues, swinging in its intense velvet, the title track features, as its lyrical narrator, a voice full of melismas and drives that gives, at the same time, different textures to the melody. It's Indira Castillo being provocative, consistent and precise, making the title track a dangerously seductive and powerful product that, with surprising rhythmic breaks that move freely between embryonic metal transfigured into alternative rock and sexy hard rock, even manages to paraphrase, sonically and lyrically, with Puro Êxtase, Frejat's single. The title track, with psychedelic refinements provided by the hypnotic sound of the mellotron brought by the keyboard and with a vocal corpulence offered by the help of Igor Godoi in the bridge and closing phase, shows that we all have problems to face in life, but that if we rely on our essence and, in Indira's own words, on our truths and reasons, everything will be fine. Even so, its melodic apexes underpin that the song's main legacy is simply to follow your identity, be it intense, crazy or controlled. Be yourself is the song's main summary.
Fresh, beachy and featuring a summer sunset sky, this song already has a soft rock feel reminiscent of that played by the likes of Cali and Red Hot Chili Peppers. With the guitar playing a leading role, the song doesn't hide the pressure coming from its melodic base which, thanks to Henrique Nunes, the bass makes this track sound firmer and more consistent than the title track. From very timid flirtations with the reggae proposal, Tempo explodes into a lively, intense and electric hardcore chorus that provides the basis for a storyline that deals with overcoming a relationship based on uncertainties and controversial reasons.
It's a completely different atmosphere to what we've experienced before. It is classical, dense, dramatic, waltzing and serious, thanks to the union between the timid lightness of the piano, the acidity of the hammond delivered by the keyboard, the intensity of the cello and the weeping waltz of Custella's violin. With clear influences from names like Cazuza and Cássia Eller, Delírio portrays the character's search for the different, the challenging, but above all, for an escape from routine and a sense of comfort.
The work is short, but it's only its length that makes it simple. Êxtase is an EP that does the unimaginable with just three tracks. It brings freshness, smoothness, intensity, provocation, sensuality and drama with such consistency that it's enough to send shivers down the spine. But the main thing is that the material highlights Indira Castillo's versatility and power.
In this work, the singer manages to be as delicate as an MPB singer, but suddenly she transforms into a lioness with the strength, presence and consistency of a rock and roll frontgirl. In these moments, she transfigures into something that sounds like a fusion between Amy Winehouse, Rita Lee, Janis Joplin and Cássia Eller.
Dealing with self-knowledge, the search for freedom and the unknown, as well as moving away from what isn't good for you, Indira's work in Êxtase is about making the listener know themselves, be proud and unleash their own essence as a way of having the strength and courage to break away from blind tradition and search for the new. It is undoubtedly an empowering piece of work aimed at exhorting freedom.
On this path, the EP features the presence of Rodrigo Cunha in the mix, an indispensable figure for the regimentation of the melody presented in the work. With him, each song sounds like a unique product. Clean, equalized and precise, all the instruments are in perfect harmony, allowing the listener to identify musical genres such as blues, soft rock, hardcore, hard rock, alternative rock, psychedelia and flirtations with reggae.
Rounding off the technical scope is the cover artwork. Signed by Ricardo Bancalero, it brings a touch of mysticism by presenting the heart, in the center, as the only colored figure amidst the hypnotic combination of black and white. A figure that appears like the carpel of a flower. This strategy allows the listener to understand that the heart is the artifice that helps each individual find their self. And in the case of the EP, it is on full display because its flower has blossomed due to the willpower exuded by Indira.
Released on 09/01/ 2023 via Canil Records, Êxtase is a theatrical EP that is versatile, sensual, electrifying and, at the same time, delicate. It's a work that, rather than encouraging the search for self-knowledge, shows a woman's process of finding herself. Êxtase is simply the perspiration of freedom and the cry of emancipation from insecurity.
