Blasted Mechanism are a Portuguese alternative rock band, composed by members Valdjiu (bambuleco, calachacra, guitars), Ary (bass), Guitsu (vocals, keyboards), Fred Stone (drums) and, more recently, Riic Wolf (vocals). Although centered on rock, his music uses several electronic elements.
Blasted Mechanism was born in 1995, at the idea of Valdjiu and Karkov, as a different band in the Portuguese musical spectrum. They define themselves as an artistic project of music played by beings from another world. They stand out from the music scene for their strong extravagant image and for a music characterized by the fusion of world music, incorporating traditional elements from various countries of the world, as for example, in the song We from the album “Sound in Light”, where it is possible to listen to Portuguese guitar played by António Chainho, with electronic rock music. They are also known for inventing and building some of the instruments they use, such as the calachacra and the Bambueco, which draw some inspiration from oriental culture.
In 2003, for the first time in the history of MTV, Portuguese artists were entitled to a category exclusively dedicated to the international recognition of their work, called “Best Portuguese Act”, as part of the MTV Europe Music Awards. Blasted Mechanism were one of the five Portuguese bands nominated for the award, which ended up being collected by Blind Zero.
In 2005, they were nominated again for the Best Portuguese Act award at the MTV Europe Music Awards. The Gift takes home the prize.
In 2006 they are awarded the Golden Globe by SIC as the best Portuguese band.
On March 19, 2007, the fifth generation of the band appeared and the fourth album of originals was released. Unite The Tribes are the watchwords in this new work, entitled Sound in Light with an innovative format in Portugal. This album was produced by Ary, the band’s bassist, at Label Toolateman’s studio, and recorded and mixed by Db and Ary at Praça das Flores studio and was released in multimedia CD format, which contains a link where it is possible to download a another album, this one in digital MP3 format, with 10 tracks, titled Light in Sound.
In this new work, the band had the participation of several special guests, national and international, such as António Chaínho, Rão Kyao, Dani Macaco (ES), Transglobal Underground (UK), Nidi D’arac (IT), Gaia Beat (PT) and the Kumpany Algazarra.
On November 1, 2007 they were nominated for the third time for the MTV Europe Music Awards in the category “Best Portuguese Act”, but lost the award to the band Da Weasel.
On February 6, 2008 the band announced through a newsletter that Karkov, the lead singer until then, had left Blasted Mechanism “declaring that he no longer has the energy to give to the project”. Later, Valdjiu explained in the band’s official forum that “Rui left Karkov” thus ending the speculation that arose among the band’s fans about the real reason for the abandonment.
The band also announced in this same newsletter that they were already working on a new album with a release date set for the beginning of 2009 and that they were finishing a new single with the participation of a new vocalist.
The Sound In Light tour resumed and the band began to present to the public at their concerts, a new single called “Destiny, play and see”. The single became available in digital format on the band’s Myspace website, free of charge, not being released in physical format.
The band presented their latest album, Mind At Large, in a show held on the 8th of April, in Lagoa das Sete Cidades, São Miguel, Azores. For this concert the band launched a competition, where the 160 winning fans would go on a plane they called “Blasted Fan Plane”. It was also presented for the first time the technology of augmented reality applied to the album covers, which, whoever buys it, can interact with the characters and mix sounds from the single “Start to Move”. The Mind at Large album had the presence of Marcelo D2 and the voice of the late philosopher Agostinho Da Silva, in the single “Start to move” and also in the song “Liberdade e Destino”.
In December 2018 they released the single Poison, taken from the new live album New Militia (Live at NOS Alive’18).
