“You know grew up on dancehall when: singing opera on a tune called ‘Shotta’ doesn’t faze you,” Bonjay tweeted last week.
The Canadian Baile-Funk-meets-Electro-whizkid duo toes weird genre lines all the time (Dancehall to Opera, etc.), and so far critics haven’t known what to make of them. CBC, who named them one of Canada’s 10 Bands to Break in 2010 described them as “Toronto’s answer to M.I.A. and production whiz Diplo” while Fader described their sound as “T-Dot diasporic lo-fi dancehall.”
Naming themselves for slang for “Good God!,” the duo — electro whiz Pho and songstress Alaina — met up in Ottawa, playing the scrubby, off-site city party Disorganised and getting bigger and bigger. They built up speed with a series of remixes for the labels Ghetto Arc (XL), Ninjatune, and Mad Decent and released their first EP, Gimme Gimme, late last year. The single of that same name starts off with Alaina’s sliding, wily vocals over a stripped-down Rye-Rye-esque staccato. But at some point, her words are gone and all we have are blippy syllables of speech. What I love: at the opening, her powerful pipes seem to pull and melt the song’s sound; at the end, they’re no higher on the ladder than a drum machine. ”Faat Gyal” plays the same trick — shifting between a pure Baile Funk intro, then falling soft and going R&B. Again, you aren’t sure where the shift was. And the genius lies in how the composition of the first half of the track allowed for that kind of unnoticeable arc.
Those are the kind of genre shifts this band is capable of. In their personal statement on their site, they make the claim it’s how all music’s gonna be from now on: “Another generation of young musicians is emerging. Inspired by the underground music of the last 30 years, they are unencumbered by the restrictions on style and attitude that traditionally divided genres…”
If that means everyone will be as freewheeling as Bonjay, we hope that’s true. Check out their MySpace.
Tour Dates
Mar 17, SXSW — OH CANADA! w/ JOTS, Devro, Smalltown + more
Mar 18, SXSW — Barbarella w/ BIGSTEREO, RADARMAKER & theGlitoris
Mar 19, SXSW — Richard Henry Presents: Pop It! @ Cuba Libre
Mar 20, SXSW — Pop Montreal Showcase @ Paradise Cafe w/ Tanlines, Poirier + more
Apr 8, Toronto — Exclaim! Party @ Wrongbar w/ Poirier + Lioness
Apr 17, Hamilton — w/ Bocce @ This Ain’t
Hear “Gimme Gimme”:
Performing live, with an interview:
Performing “Gimme Gimme” live:
A cover of fellow Canadian, Feist:
Photo Credit: Bonjay, via MySpace