Aesthetische on ‘Mix The State’, Brazil’s election and the far right
Brazilian EBM duo Aesthetische discusses the “Mix The State” EP on Alfa Matrix, Brazil’s 2026 election and the rise of the far right.
Brazilian EBM duo Aesthetische released “Mix The State”, a four-track EP, via Alfa Matrix on November 6, 2026. The Sao Paulo project of Fab Viscardi and Gui Pires built the digital release around its track “Break The State”, first heard on the earlier “Every Beat Matters” EP. In this interview, the duo connects the record to Brazil’s 2026 election, the country’s recent coup trial and what it calls the global rise of the far right.
Table of contents
Aesthetische on Brazil, democracy and the far right
SL: You’ve worked out of Sao Paulo since the Aghast View days. How much does writing a record called “Break The State” from Brazil specifically – rather than Berlin or Brussels – change what the phrase means to you?
Aesthetische: Brazil has become a Country of a large importance to the whole world given that its extension, the importance to Latam and all the natural resources and feedstocks that can be derived from the land. It is also a bio-diversity sanctuary. Obviously it would not get away without being seen as a “geopolitical force to be explored” by oligarch-ran plutocrats like the current US government, fed by the likes of terrible tech-bros and extreme right wing opportunists. Since 2018 with the rise of political movements that culminated with the ascension of Bolsonaro – a fascist at its core (and his family), the Democracy in Brazil has been at stake and if it was not for the power of the people and our institutions we would be today living in a dictatorship again. So, we (the brazilian people) at its majority Broke the State when we reelected Lula (a democratic president in 2022), resisted a coup attempt and arrested the traitors. Every single voice, every one as an individual of resistance (every beat) mattered to deviate the fate of our country to a social-political disaster. This year it happened again, the son of the traitor, a clown who worked for money to the interests of the American Government tried to get elected using his father inherited political views – and he almost did it. Fortunately the majority of the Brazilian people exploded into a democratic movement that sent millions of unlikely voters (like sick and disabled, old people and the minorities) to the voting polls and we kept the Democracy in place with a Center-Left president in place.
SL: This EP lands at the close of a bruising election year at home: a first round the right led, an October runoff that returned Lula for a fourth term, and a losing candidate who rejected the count. Did any of that bleed into the writing, or was the record finished before the campaign peaked?
Aesthetische: It was recorded before but we were aware we needed to be part of the democratic movement that took the Country by Storm, each and every individual had a very important role to move the wave towards the second round of the elections, ensuring the reelection of a democratic president.
SL: The last few years in Brazil have put the machinery of the state on full display – a former president convicted over a coup plot, courts expanding their reach, thousands of police killings, facial recognition turned on protesters. When you sing “break the state,” which state are you picturing?
Aesthetische: We are picturing the authoritarianism plutocrat right led politicians who work as new colonies to the far right power in place today in America.
SL: Some Brazilians look at that same stretch and see institutions holding the line against an attempted coup; others see a judiciary that has grown too powerful. A slogan flattens that into one raised fist. Does the nuance matter to you, or is the slogan doing a different job?
Aesthetische: Facts cannot be changed, what we do with them nevertheless, defines our future as a country and as a free and prosperous people. If you see what not holding the US president accountable for their (USA) attempted coup and the results to their country and to the geopolitical situation of the World and compare it with what Brazil did, you will get the answer I guess. You can also see what alignment to the right wing plutocrats did to Argentina. Their country is under 40% of poverty – levels never seen before, rights have been depleted from the population and the rich (even their president) getting richer by exploiting this terrible scenario.
SL: Washington weighed in this cycle – tariffs on Brazil, sanctions on judges, a US president openly backing one side. How does it feel to make anti-authority music while your country’s politics are pulled at from outside?
Aesthetische: We are trying to play our part not only as musicians but being part of a World being threatened by the rise of the Far-right.
SL: Industrial and EBM have always played with the imagery of power – uniforms, commands, martial rhythm – while claiming to oppose it. Working from a country with living memory of dictatorship, how do you stay on the right side of that line?
Aesthetische: We try to stay on the right side not letting our memories get erased (Brazil was a dictatorship before the 80s) and we had a negationist right wing fascist in power again from 2019 to 2022), defending diversity of people, of genders, of religion and raising a flag to those who are mostly in need, to those who need people to defend their rights, those that need representation because their voices are trying to be shut by selfish plutocrats who detain the economic power and are backed by a corrupt and manipulated hoard of tech bros.
The state now: apps, platforms and power
SL: For a lot of people the state they deal with daily isn’t a parliament – it’s an app, a payment rail, a face scanner, an algorithm deciding a benefit. Is that the real “alarm state” now?
Aesthetische: Yes, all of that can be used as weapons of manipulation trying to attract and mislead the masses into the fascist realm.
SL: Power has drained toward things that aren’t governments at all – platforms, payment networks, a handful of tech owners. When you aim at “the state,” are you aiming at the wrong target, or has the target simply changed shape?
Aesthetische: If you listen to our EP – “Selling Fear” – from last year – we were targeting exactly that. Fascism uses the power of the tools they have at hand to spread fear and misinformation at governmental level if that is not fought by those who know history. It is not this or that – not tech owners or the state (governments and political power) – it is exactly the alliance that can be formed by this coalition when all what matters is defending the supremacy of an economical elite – mostly driven by white male pseudo christian plutocrats. Our ep Every Beat Matters and Mix the State are a follow-up to Selling Fear.
SL: Borders, passports and deportation are hardening worldwide at the same moment capital and data cross them freely. Does the nation-state feel stronger or weaker to you than when you started making music?
Aesthetische: It is certainly different. Money and Power has always been able to get the pace of things at their favor and it has certainly contaminated the world into something we expected not to see anymore. The rise of the right, Wars taking place, coup-attempts, prejudice, white supremacism and intolerance.
A state worth defending
SL: Is there a version of “the state” you’d defend?
Aesthetische: Yes, a state that works FOR or on BEHALF of its people, its sovereignty, its culture, its social welfare, which is inclusive, free and that operates to protect our environment and to collaborate with other countries and economies on behalf of humanity. Call us utopic, but that is our vision.
SL: If a listener in Brasilia and a listener in Brussels take opposite politics from the same track, is that a failure of the song or exactly what you wanted?
Aesthetische: Well, if the listener know who we are and what we stand for it is unlikely to be on the wrong side. Political pluralism is great and wanted. What we do not tolerate is the rise of totalitarian plutocratic belic power and the oppression imposed to humanity from their representatives. Democracy should always win.
About Aesthetische
Aesthetische is a Brazilian EBM and electro-industrial duo based in Sao Paulo, formed by Fab Viscardi and Gui Pires, who had previously worked together in the Brazilian act Aghast View and in Biopsy. The duo debuted on the Belgian label Alfa Matrix in 2012 with the album “Powerswitch” and has issued a steady run of albums, EPs and singles through the label since, including “HybridCore” (2014) and “Rvprty” (2022). More recent EPs include “Boiling Over” (2023), “Confidence Is Silent” (2024), the six-track EPCD “Selling Fear” (2025) and “Every Beat Matters” (2026).
“Mix The State” extends the anti-extremism theme the duo set out on “Every Beat Matters”, reworking “Break The State” into a harsher “static noise version” and a club-focused “electric hell version” alongside the previously unreleased “Alarmstate”.
Support Side-Line
More people read Side-Line than ever, and there is still no paywall and no advertising. Readers pay for it instead - from $5 a month.
Why we ask
Advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations we have not put up a paywall, and we refuse to add annoying advertising, so we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes time, money and hard work to produce, and we do it to push the artists we like, who are equally fighting to survive.
Handled by PayPal.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
