Cassim

"(...) Because of what he's done with Magog and Bad Folks, I already thought he was one of the greatest songwriters around. But his solo stuff is even better. This soul versus shoegazer thing that he does is unique. "This Place Called Feeling" is already on my top 2006 hits list." - Carninha - Karern Tortato

http://uv-brazil.blogspot.com/ - Neri Da Rosa

“Listening to Blixa, Libertaria (Madagascar) and That Old Spell live is fantastic! Being original music is already something, but it gets even better when (you notice) it is different from the average sounds and is created from a cohesive work full of aesthetical and sound references, that’s what Cassim also has done (live) with Barbária!”. - To Puto Online Mag. http://www.toputo.com.br/?show=lerMateria&id_materia=2448

“Also from the Midsummer Madness label website, there’s "Ready EP", by Cassim. Cassiano Fagundes is a member of Bad Folks, the excellent folk rock band from Curitiba. In his new project, Cassim comes with songs full of noise and distortion as in “Libertaria” or with an angular soul (“That Old Spell”). Few in Brazil make rock music as sharp as Cassim and Bad Folks.” - Thiago Ney, Folha de São Paulo Newspaper.

“His EP Ready is not restrained by a specific sound genre and freely experiments with distorted guitars and lyrics in English, like in “That Old Spell”. “A Minute Ago” is influenced by Caetano Veloso.” - Rolling Stone Magazine

“He makes the audience at the Sonkey stage rise up in a contagious manner. His music is noise pop, industrial rock and german krautrock altogether. A virtuoso in his creations, he used all kinds of resources and electronic paraphernalia, which gave a special touch to his presentation, combined with his ever present charisma. Best moments in “Libertaria”, “This Place Called Feeling” and “Blixa”.” - Dynamite Magazine

A solo project generally begins with the necessity of an artist to play compositions he likes but are different from the aesthetics of his band. That’s what happened to Cassiano Fagundes. He has been part of the Curitiba quintet Bad Folks since 2002 and is gaining recognition in foreign radio stations, indie labels and venues.

The venture started in 2006, when he began to record by himself at home. “Bad Folks is very restrained by the mix between alt rock and folk. In Cassim, I wanted to have more freedom to experiment other ideas, like putting noise and alternative rock together as well as krautrock, indie and soul”.

The first recordings were made available at www.myspace.com/cassimf and soon started to pay off. Through the Internet an indie rock radio from New York aired his songs. Then East Village Radio did the same. It has a show devoted to Brazilian Music, Sonzera Pura.

Having songs played by a foreign radio station was an interesting and unexpected turn during the early days of his project, but not to the point of making him dedicate so much of his time to it. “I didn’t want to take it so seriously; I thought everything would be just a joke”. He was surprised when the label Midsummer Madness – the oldest indie label and one of the most actives in Brazil - offered to release his CD.

“Rodrigo Lariú, the label manager, emailed me saying he loved my music and wanted to release it. I hadn’t even sent him a CD – he heard it in the Internet”. Before the CD was out, Lariú premiered it in the label’s website, where it is still available for free download (www.mmrecords.com.br/200805/cassim).

The deal was that a CD would be recorded and released in 2009 If he met a condition. “(Lariú) gave me a task. He said ‘I’ll release a new CD but you have to form a band and play your former CD live. I’ll book you lots of gigs and you better play them all, because your sound is special’”.

Before that request, Cassim had played in São Paulo at Milo Garage with the Curitiba band Gianinis as backing band, formed by Andreza playing bass and Babi as drummer. Now that he had moved to Florianopolis, he decided to find a local band there. He found Eduardo XuXu and Leonardo Kothe, who played guitar and bass for Pipodelica (which had disbanded two months earlier).

Luckily they already had a new band called Os Faixa-Preta (note – this name was changed to Barbaria right after that interview as Marcio RS stopped being a temporary replacement for the original drummer from Pipodelica, Heron Stradioto – who had to stop playing at the time because of other professional obligations only to retake his post as drummer shortly afterwards) which is completed by Marcio RS who also plays with the local musician Daca. “The great thing was that there already was this band that had been playing together for a long time, they knew each other. Everything happened real fast. When we started rehearsing it felt like a punch in the face, I wasn’t expecting such an impact. They are super musicians, real professionals”, he proudly concedes.

In the adaptation process, songs that Cassiano had recorded by himself playing all instruments were enlivened in ways beyond music. ”XuXu and Leonardo are Architects. They have a plastic vision of music, they are aware of aesthetics and are open minded being musicians influenced by progressive rock, even though that’s not the kind of music we are playing. They are open to experiment. It was exactly what I was looking for.” A little of that process can be seen in the mini-documentary Nibiru, available at Youtube along with the music video for Libertaria (Madagascar).

The band’s touring schedule is growing everyday. They have already confirmed 5 shows and others are being booked. In Sao Paulo they will play at Funhouse and Berlin (Sept. 5, 6). During the September 7 holiday they play in Curitiba at James Bar, which is followed by Floripa Noise Festival in Florianopolis (27) and Demosul Festival (Oct 10) in Londrina.
- Rodrigo Duarte - Folha de Londrina Newspaper

CASSIM by Gazeta do Povo Staff.
A veteran of the local independent scene, the curitibano Cassiano Fagundes made history in the 90s with his band Magog, praised by the American producer Jack Endino, who produced important albums for Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 2002 Fagundes formed Bad Folks, a band that released many EPs and is releasing his long awaited album in March.

Meanwhile, using his old Mac and a recording software, he has created his excellent solo project Cassim, which mixes Motown drumming loops and lo-fi guitar arrangements with other of his musical inventions, all recorded at his home. The result reminds of the creativity of bands like the Flaming Lips and Guided By Voices (like in “Blixa”) while paying his dues to 60s soul in contagious falsetto singing like in “That Old Spell” and also to his strong folk composition history as in the song “Why Do You Cry Every Morning?”.
Internet: www.myspace.com/cassimf
On stage: no information.
- Juliana Girardi - Gazeta do Povo Newspaper