Think Like A Key 2025
FERNANDO PERDOMO –
Getting Warmer
Boudoir adventures of intrepid, thrill-chasing instrumental duo who’ve only just begun to have out-of-bed fun.
There’s nothing wrong with scoring erotic movies – several of such soundtracks are even considered cult classics – and if a soft-porn flick which receives musical accompaniment is imaginary, everyone must feel safe enough to give it a spin. Or several spins – because a single listening to a follow-up to Matt Tecu and Fernando Perdomo‘s text=”first offering”] won’t reveal all the riveting aspects of the two friends’ fantasy flights, reveries and wet dreams. Still, feeling safe and playing safe – “playing” as in “performance” – has never been something these genre-defying renegades showed any interest in, and while the pair’s 2024 debut "Art" careened towards fusion, their sophomore effort shakes off stylistically defined shackles in order to pursue less predictable pleasures.
Hiding their tuneful package behind an abstract cover, designed as not to even hint at the half-hour-long variety of moods the musicians project on this canvas, Fern and Matt – the former a self-proclaimed fan of French film composers like Michel Legrand, the latter an apparent aficionado of exotic percussion like gamelan – don’t seem to be afraid to startle the audience by offering heavy licks and hefty beats of the organ-padded, yet rousing, “Low Hanging Fruit” for starters, before Perdomo’s bulging bass and Tecu’s rimshots and handclaps are unhurriedly reined in. However, when “Between The Sheets” struts its deliciously languid funk, where guitar figures meow and percussion passages purr, to let the listener relax and flow downstream, “Club Lingerie” gets hard on mighty drumming and edgy riffing only to streamline its menace into relentless piano chords and usher in “Koko Sal” for a bout of hula-flavored lap dance. And though one should find the inner space of “The Destiny Inn” impossible to resist, what with the piece’s soundscape coming across as immersive and airy – but not as lulling as a dangerously hypnotic “Foreign Correspondent” in which the duo’s interplay and sensual telepathy weave a spider web for the crowd to stick to, – the punchy, 8-bit-based “Deflowers” folds into an effervescent swirl and fills the ether with joie de vivre.
With seductive spoken word – en Français, of course – underlying the subdued, glimmering grandeur of “Tarte à la crème” that envelopes the aural spectator’s ear into a “Melody Nelson” vibe, and with acoustically tinctured wah-wah swagger of “Sweat Weather” that’s concentratin’ on truckin’ right amidst faux brass, ignoring the album’s allure might amount to criminal offence. So once the title tracks brings the excitement to a close in a post-coital-bliss way, going at it again is just a matter of time, because all the scintillating aspects of “Getting Warmer” are simply titillating.
*****
