"BLUE LANDS", DOPO'S NEW RECORDOUT NOW ON TEST TUBE NETLABEL and CD-R - FREE DOWNLOAD (cd-r soon, pre-orders by infodopo@gmail.com)
100 copies. 5 euros (post-paid - Portugal; Europe and Worldwide soon). Orders: infodopo@gmail.com
«Bittersweetness. Perhaps the word that best defines the nature and behaviour of humans. We are capable of the best and the worst, capable of love and hate, of happiness and sadness, luck and misfortune, we are both bitter and sweet at all times. Bittersweetness is also one of the best qualities that the music of the DOPO collective has to offer. You can find it in all of their songs, and that's what makes their sound so human, so unique. The power to make us happy and sad at the same time. And we wonder: 'how could we not love this? how could this not be part of our lives?'. And it couldn't, because DOPO's music translates into sounds the feelings we have while living our everyday lives. This is our sound.
'Blue Lands' is to be - unfortunately or not - DOPO's demise. After this, DOPO will end but their legacy is here for everyone to discover, and in a way, will live on in our memories. 'Blue Lands' is also the opening track of this release and probably the best song they've done, ever. But this album has some really beautiful gems inside, like 'The Long Red Fires of the Dying Day', the most Animal Collective-y of all tracks, minus the usual freakish beat.
In this album we can also find the most loose DOPO ever, as they used a generous amount of field recordings in the compositions, of which 'Sea-lion of the Sea' is a great example of, and also one of my favorite 'under two minutes' tracks of all time.
You will find as well the usual hypnotic guitar strings all over the album, plus some special moments, like this one in 'A Delicate Turn and Twist' which has a delicious distortion guitar which reminded me immediately of some of Sonic Youth's best musical moments. There's well placed drones in 'A Long Wave of Yellow Light', more 'around the bonfire' oddities in 'The Crowd of Little Men' and. I'm not telling you more. Just download this amazing album and find out for yourself.» - Pedro Leitão
"CROSSING BIRDS" (2007, CD-R FOXGLOVE)
"Crossing birds"(shot mostly with a HP digital photo camera by Marisa Ferreira, edited by Ricardo Fortunato; the videos show fishermen from Vila do Conde, Portugal, working at sea)
There's something afoot in the sunkissed land of Portugal these days, but it mostly seems to be skimming under the radar. In a country best known for exporting wine and Cristiano Ronaldo, there's also a great deal of fantastic music being made on the edge of the Iberian peninsula. (.) I want to take a brief moment to highlight the band who I think is the best of the bunch. And with that, I give you DOPO. - Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis
"DOPO oh DOPO come back to earth have we not had tea? Have we lost our look of tired ambiguity that befalls the chastised provocateurs' of the end state of the fading mind? DOPO, please drift us away again, again, again, again"
- Pelt's Patrick Best
"More on the same label [Foxglove] comes from DOPO, a bit of mystery to me as I've never heard about them before and I haven't been able to track down much info on who they are. I guess that doesn't really matter as long as the results are this pleasing. Echoing guitars, organ, wordless vocals and probably more make up a sound world that is gentle and complex but the overall impression is definitely the one of floating above and about all things spacious."
- Mats Gustafsson (Dream Magazine editor); in The Broken Face blog
WHO ARE DOPO?
DOPO, a collective based in Oporto, Portugal, exists since the last month of 2004. DOPO began to record lots of things in a irregular basis since then, producing dozens of homemade recordings that would end up on "Last Blues, To Be Read Someday" (2005), an EP released on test tube netlabel.
January 2007 saw them releasing "For the Entrance of the Sun", their first album again on test tube and in CD-R on Lovers&Lollypops.
In November 2007, great United States label Foxglove released "Crossing Birds" album, in a limited to 100 copies edition.
DOPO is still the same thing: the improvised and momentary and expression of a uncertain number of individuals.
DISCOGRAPHY:
*"Blue Lands" (Album, 2009, test tube)
*"Crossing Birds" (Album, 2007, Foxglove)
* "For the Entrance of the Sun" (Album, 2007, test tube/Lovers&Lollypops)
* "Last Blues, To Be Read Someday" (EP, 2005, test tube)
Compilation appearances
"All the mountains are dancing; are dancing!" in "Um Ano de Bailarico" (CD-R, 2006, Lovers & Lollypops)
CONTACT: infodopo@gmail.com
