A Society in Which No Tear Is Shed Is Inconceivably Mediocre

Yonlu | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 14, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Luaka Bop
• ASIN: B001UNGNGG
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,213 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Yonlu revealed just a fraction of his talent for experimentalism and
a capacity to create delicate melancholy melodies before taking
his own life at age 16, leaving behind works that are something between Badly Drawn Boy, Tortoise and Nick Drake. 16 year-old Vinicius Gageiro Marques, who was very active in
various online communities under the screen name Yonlu, lived in
the Southwestern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. He was a bright
inquisitive young man, who spoke French and wrote and spoke
English without ever taking classes (he learned by watching TV). Vinicius also had an impressive musical aptitude. He demonstrated a knowledge and a critical sense in his analysis of pop music, always written in English and available on various websites. And he
recorded hundreds of songs, playing guitars, bass, drums and sound
effects in one of the rooms in his house he transformed into a studio.
After his death, his father discovered some of the precious sounds he had stored away -- the majority were his own songs. The music came with enthusiastic commentary made by Internet fans from around
the world. Yoñlu, almost without any real friends in real life, was a popular virtual artist with fans from England, Scotland, Belgium, Canada and North Africa. Yoñlu is a disc that should have been a post card, but transformed
itself into a testament. It s the celebration of a life with the talent for a
banquet that stopped at the appetizer. It s a showcase of sound and poetry of the kisses that Vinicius never gave, the dreams he never
realized, the anguishes he couldn t get over, his passion for art and especially for music, like he expressed in the letter he wrote to his parents: ''I believe that the right cadence and harmony at the right moments can awaken any sentiment, including happiness in the most somber moments.''

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complex, challenging Brazilian rock record, July 28, 2010

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Society in Which No Tear Is Shed Is Inconceivably Mediocre (Audio CD)

Yonlu
"A Society In Which No Tear Is Shed Is Inconceivably Mediocre"
(Luaka Bop/Tratore, 2008)
-------------------------------------------
An intriguing, sometimes brilliant lo-fi, bedroom-recording indie rock album from a teenager from Porto Alegre, Brazil. Vinicius Gageiro Marques, aka Yonlu, was an avid Internet denizen, both in music groups where he shared his homemade music and, more tragically, on a suicide forum where in 2006 he web-chatted during his final moments as he killed himself through carbon monoxide poisoning, a month before his 17th birthday. His musical legacy is both impressive and tantalizing -- it's a skillful, multi-textured set that is most similar to arty rock bands such as Badly Drawn Boy, et. al but also nods towards Brazilian tropicalia and bossa nova; had he lived through his depression, Yonlu could have grown into a major artist. Most of the songs are in English, and while I would have preferred more material sung in Portuguese, the set is still impressive, a document of a hip, 21st Century pop sensibility that lies under the surface in the modern Brazilian pop scene. A tragic record, true, but an effective and unusual one as well. Definitely worth checking out. (DJ Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Guide To Brazilian Music)