Seres Humanos

A cover of 'Human Behavior' by Bjork sung in Portuguese.

I got together with a couple friends and translated the Bjork song Human Behavior into Brazilian Portuguese. My friend who sings learned the lyrics phonetically. She was nervous about singing with an accent, but we figured that that was what Bjork does in English.

It was a fun way to spend a weekend. Other than K's voice, I'm especially proud of the processed cavaquinho (Brazilian uke) playing the techno riff that comes in at the end of the song.

(Get Flash to see the track player.)
posted by umbú (9 comments total)

This is amazingly awesome. Thanks for posting it.
posted by sleepy pete at 11:07 AM on December 17, 2007

This is the first time some one here has covered a song that I really love and you kick ass with it. Your cavaquinho? It sounds great! Thanks for posting this.
posted by snsranch at 5:24 PM on December 17, 2007

Sweet! It's really interesting to hear a Bjork song not sung by Bjork: her voice is so Bjorky, y'know, that it can be hard to separate her music from the very distinctive thing that is her voice. This is very refreshing. Also, the arrangement is great, I love the sound. And your voice is lovely. Well done!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:50 PM on December 17, 2007

Thanks you guys! Flapjax, I agree that Bjork's voice is so distinctive that it's risky to cover her. The only reason that I felt like it could work is that my friend who sang has such a great voice. Her voice is very pretty and her diction pure, so we had to work with her a lot to put some rasp into her screams at certain moments.

So yeah--that's not my voice, by any stretch of the imagination. I just fiddled with reason and played the guitar and cavaquinho parts.
posted by umbú at 8:55 PM on December 17, 2007

Wowsers! You totally unbjorked bjork!

And as I just suggested melissa may, please add the NotInEnglish tag!!!!!
posted by ORthey at 1:46 PM on December 18, 2007

A fun listen. The beats are good, but I think the vocal could be mixed louder (although you've got some clipping going on, I think). It's a very good performance! The vocal layering works really well.
posted by edlundart at 12:10 AM on December 19, 2007

Great! Love the uke at the end, too.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:28 AM on January 3

This is just gorgeous. Ta muchly for posting.
posted by freya_lamb at 4:26 PM on January 4

Another wonderful tune. Loved the odd beats and sounds, and the gorgeous vocals. Thanks for this!
posted by mediareport at 12:55 AM on January 8