ninehertz

Black Noia are back! A band that made such an impression with their self-titled album back in 2021 it made our top 50 releases of the year, they ply an experimental concoction of sludge and psych with their native Brazilian percussion. Noia Agonia expands significantly on this wild fusion, a sound which is equally samba or baiao as it is anything from the doom spectrum.

Their inventiveness is immediately evident. The opening track has electro beginnings, building a dance beat which remains even as the increasingly organic instrumentation arrives and this brew of Brazilian music and raw garage rock evolves. It feels almost lazy to reference their countrymen Papangu, but it definitely has similarities to their brilliance.

There are a couple of moments where it sounds like you’re listening in on a Brazilian dance radio station (including the minute long final track) to truly reinforce that this is nothing like a standard heavy psych record. The national instrumentation adds to this sensation throughout. It plays with its core doom sounds, heavier at times, garage fuzz elsewhere, and some deep stoner grooves providing the base thrills.

This is a natural but still mightily impressive evolution for Black Noia, a record that feels unique and happy and interesting at every turn.