Conferência Inferno have been exploring the depths of post-punk over the last years, figuratively digging into the genre’s grimy trends for dark tones, and more literally casting its gothic undertones through ritualistic approaches, sacrificing the never-existing drummer to the gods of drum machines and delivering heart-felt, hell-raiser performances. Their delving went further down after the debut release Bazar Esotérico with their first LP Ata Saturna, which led to a remix album done by fellow cultists. It is thus safe to say the Porto-based trio are very much versed in the dark arts of electric rock, and punk diatribes, and are leading the genre in Portugal.
Pós-Esmeralda, released by Porto main agitators Lovers & Lollypops, sets the record straight regarding their wits, and sets them apart from fellow post-punkers, delivering a unique object in the space of goth music. Conferência Inferno have grown to develop a unique, still very much electronic, bright approach to their genre, bringing in more vivid tonalities to their music, and creating more cheerful melodies, imbuing the whole record with a snarky mood. This ongoing tension between dark thoughts, cheerful melodies, and murky bass finally matches the never-ending irony of their lyrics, where a learned knowledge of Portuguese coexists with the more colloquial and regional use of the language, making it both scholarly and working class, a quantum superposition mess that not many have been able to reach.
The joyful use of major chords sets the tone early in the record, with Raul Mendiratta’s synths and José Silva’s keyboards defying Francisco Lima’s howls of desperation. The first side is a crescent in melodies, as much as in dancing energy, with rhythmic exhilaration helped by syncopated synths, and notorious heavy frequencies. The second side of Pós-Esmeralda delves deeper into the dark minds of the trio, with slower, minor melodies depicting hallucinatory experiences that lead to post-punk, upbeat anthems Alma and utmost ironic Distopia.
Conferência Inferno reunited once again to cast the gothic enchantments, practice dark rituals and draw the astral map of post-punk. All planets are now in retrograde, all ascendents in Saturn, and the moon is set in all darkest positions, all dancing to the macabre invocations of the trio with their new age, new wave, new tuga approach to irony, bleakness, ecstasy, and smirks. Let us dance together then — because we’re all bodies.
1. MayDay
2. Cowboy Bêbado
3. Auto-Pânico
4. Realidades
5. Fantasias
6. Pigmento
7. Alma
8. Distopia