Juggling between new wave minimalism and retro tastes of the 80’s and post-punk and rock sounds and structures, X-Wife, from Porto, Portugal, since 2002 delivered constantly quality electro music. “Infectious Affectional” is their fourth full-length album.
João Vieira – vocals and guitar, Fernando Sousa – bass and Rui Maia – synth and keyboards bring to the surface the same pulsing and pounding, minimalist and grungy post-punk/dark electro themes, it’s quite retro, but still not dusty, dark and electrifying music.
In the early 90’s João Vieira was involved in a few bands, namely Centerfold where he handled vocal duties. The genre could be loosely defined as Britpop but none of the bands ever got a record deal. In the mid 90’s Vieira went to London to study graphic design. There he got involved with several bands and even formed another band under the name Centerfold. Unlike the original Centerfold, this band was mainly a 70’s glam rock thing. As with the first incarnation of Centerfold, little success was achieved. Still while in London, together with a friend (Stuart), he founded what was known as the Club Kitten where he DJ’ed under the nickname DJ Kitten. The club soon got the attention of the British press.
In January 2001 Vieira returned to Portugal, and set up a new Club Kitten in the Triplex disco in the city of Porto where he continues to perform under the name DJ Kitten. As in London, Club Kitten was a great success and DJ Kitten now performs all around the country at clubs, festivals and events. Around the same time as he set up Club Kitten, and after many long conversations about music, Vieira and Fernando Sousa – at the time in a band called Stealing Orchestra, decided to start jamming together. After meeting Rui Maia in a bar, X-Wife was complete.
Formed in 2002, x-wife are a band built on a post-punk inheritance from bands like Suicide and Gang of Four. They’ve released 4 albums, 1 EP and played more than 250 shows in Europe and North America. 2008’s “Are you ready for the blackout?” was voted among the year’s best releases by Portuguese press and was received enthusiastically around the world. They were praised by James Murphy and some of the most influential blogs in America. In 2009 they were nominated for Best Portuguese Act at the MTV Music Awards.
