Papangu Trade Sludge for Sunlight on Celestial
The João Pessoa prog band recorded its third album to tape with no computers, and swapped most of its metal for forró, ciranda and vintage keyboards.
Most bands that make a fuss about rejecting computers end up sounding like a museum. Papangu, a five-piece from João Pessoa in Brazil's Northeast, made Celestial the slow way and came out with the most open, sunniest record of their run. It is also the one most likely to lose the metal fans who found them first.
How it was made
The process is the headline, so get it out of the way. According to the band's Bandcamp page, producer Richard Behrens tracked the album to 2-inch tape at Big Snuff Studio in Berlin between September 2 and 10, 2025, mostly live, then mixed it to quarter-inch tape. Sidney Claire Meyer mastered and cut it at Emil Berliner Studios, and the vinyl is fully analog from session to lacquer. "No computers whatsoever," the page says. Bandcamp Daily's Richard Villegas reads that as a stand against AI tools, and the lyrics back him up: the lead single "Calado (de Olho)" warns against generative "slop," and "Taxidermia" goes after demagogues and tech oligarchs.
Tape is not a virtue on its own, but here it earns its keep. What the analog chain gives Celestial is air. Heavy Blog Is Heavy hears prominent drums and a rich, natural bass tone, which suits a band this busy.
Less sludge, more Rhodes
Papangu's first two albums, Holoceno (2021) and Lampião Rei, were heavy records; the second took the bandit Lampião as its subject, per Wikipedia. Celestial, billed as a ten-part concept album, keeps a few growls from guitarist Hector Ruslan and drops most of the sludge. Keyboardist Rodolfo Salgueiro carries a lot of it: the credits list Hammond, piano, Rhodes, Juno 106, Minimoog, Moog Matriarch and a DX7. Pedro Francisco covers guitars, flute, harmonica and, yes, a rubber chicken.
The band cites Lô Borges, Alceu Valença, Hermeto Pascoal, Gentle Giant and King Crimson as touchstones, and the Borges and Valença lines are the ones that show. "Colosso" runs on bright, chiming Rhodes figures, and Villegas hears it as a warning about trading local custom for imported novelty. "Afirmação" is built on forró and ciranda rhythms, all claps and shakers. "Celeste" opens on solo piano before Vitor Alves turns it into a stomp with staggered tom and snare hits.
What the analog chain gives Celestial is air.
The prog muscle is still there. The Progressive Subway clocks "Taxidermia" moving from a funky 15/8 into 6/8, and "Fechamento de Corpo," at a little over seven minutes, stacks synth arpeggios, flute runs and a surf-rock guitar groove. "Bode Expiatório" starts on jazzy guitar and bass lines and drifts into a spacey outro. Villegas also hears Magma, and zeuhl sits on the band's own list of ingredients.
Where it drags
The weakness is the flip side of the concept. Ten parts across about 50 minutes, with two tracks past seven minutes, means some passages exist to connect rather than land, and "Iamanakaru" brings back harsh vocals over technical playing that feel like a holdover from the old band rather than a choice made for this one. When the screams arrive on a record this warm, they read as a habit.
The bigger point stands. Villegas places Papangu in "rock troncho," a João Pessoa sub-scene of Northeastern psychedelia, with a lineage running back to Lula Côrtes and Zé Ramalho. Celestial makes that connection audible in a way the heavier records did not. It sounds like a band from somewhere specific, which is rarer in prog than it should be.
Key tracks
- "Colosso"
- "Fechamento de Corpo"
- "Afirmação"
Celestial is out now via Decks Records and Bandcamp.