A dynamic interplay of distorted Brazilian rhythms, meticulously fashioned electronic atmospheres and provocative, unsettling voices, Kupalua’s sophomore album focuses, refines and mutates the sounds and themes she’s been investigating for the last few years in both her musical work and her academic research. MAIS PUTA picks up where 2024’s tight but hard-hitting PUTA EP left off, continuing a deeply personal account of Kupalua’s previously separate lives as an artist and as a sex worker.
On the EP, she devised challenging ways to approach sex, love, and gender roles that were braided into her experience as a Brazilian living in Europe – unraveling the continent’s very different cultural and moral expectations. And that interplay is still very much at the root of MAIS PUTA; its lyrical content is steered by the profound insights she’s accessed from her visceral lived experiences, but shot through with raw, tongue-in-cheek humor, surrealism, and, most importantly, carnivalesque dancefloor energy.
Corroded Portuguese shouts and disjointed drum hits introduce listeners to opener ‚Ama porra nenhuma‘ (doesn’t love shit), and Kupalua’s sensual, cynical whispers fizz over a textured backdrop of resonant hand drums and subtle funk echoes. Metallic and cavernous, it paints a vivid, cinematic backdrop before Kupalua stokes the fire on ‚Taxa traição‘ (cheating fee), a sardonic modern love story that’s set to deafening Brazilian rhythmic distortions and neck-snapping bass twangs.
„For any of life’s issues, we’ll find a solution,“ she moans in Portuguese. „We’ll solve it with a cheating fee.“ Swaying back and forth between harmony and dissonance, Kupalua exerts an impressive level of control over noise, whipping serrated beats into submission and jagged sci-fi soundscapes that heave and transform under her watch. She teams up with Milan-based Brazilian DJ and producer Slim Soledad on ‚A disaster about to turn ‚, balancing rattling percussion and alien squeaks with eerie pads and dissociated voices, and São Paulo-born, Berlin-based DJ and performer xD Erica joins the party on ‚Vem Sapatrans‘, a cacophonous roar of samples, wiry beats, and from-the-heart expressions.
Supplemented with a remix from innovative Argentinian producer jaijiu, MAIS PUTA saves its biggest surprise for last, finishing on a collaboration with Nyege Nyege Tapes‘ DJ Anderson do Paraíso. The track is a brand new English version of ‚Eu escuto vozes‘ (I listen to voices), the stand-out track from PUTA that originally featured Brazilian underground superstar Clementaum. Accompanied by a suitably minimal, nocturnal rhythm, Kupalua unbalances the mood with a sultry, absurd lullaby, sharpening her teeth as she refines her gaze. MAIS PUTA is a confident step forward for Kupalua, a personal vision of Brazilian electronic music that’s plugged into the wider avant-garde underground’s eccentric global network.
Lustpoderosa has been following Kupalua’s work for more than five years now—and as long-time admirers of her art and performances, it is an honor to host her music on the label. As a trained musician and performance artist, Kupalua expands her vision as a composer on Mais Puta, with a sonic language deeply rooted in her own life experiences. What unfolds is a daring musical vision. Drawing on her extensive stage experience, she uses her body as an instrument—integrating stripper floor work and dance with movement sensors that manipulate sound in real time, playing music from unexpected orifices of the body, and creating an immersion that transcends sound. Her dramaturgy invites us to come closer: it’s a physical experience.
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Text: Lust Poderosa label
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