Os Mutantes "A Divina Comédia Ou Ando Meio Desligado" 1970*****

A couple of weeks ago I presented a compilation of Rita Lee containing hits of the 1975-83 period. I'm afraid it was a poor testament to the lady's talent, so I've returned with a better one, Os Mutantes' third LP A Divina Comédia Ou Ando Meio Desligado (The Divine Comedy or I Am a Bit Disconnected).

People talk of Os Mutantes as being "the Brazilian Beatles" which is misleading; firstly, because they never achieved that kind of success; and secondly, because The Beatles started off as a simple rock'n'roll, then pop, group, and only started writing more complex compositions during later stages of their career. Os Mutantes, on the other hand, were sui generis right from the start. The trio of Arnaldo Baptista (vocals, keyboards and bass), Sérgio Dias (vocals, guitars) and Rita Lee (vocals etc.) started off in '66 São Paulo as a sort of garage band with very little "proper" rock music knowledge. They must have been influenced by The Beatles and early Pink Floyd but also by French chanson, acoustic folk, jazz, and bossa nova. Together with a bunch of kindred spirits from the Bahia region (Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé) they formed the Tropicália movement, mixing Brazilian traditions with Anglo-centric pop, psychedelia and the avant-garde. Os Mutantes' use of electric instruments, as well as their whimsy, dadaistic humor, and studio experimentation brought them closer to Sgt. Peppers-period Beatles than anybody else in the movement. In this, their third LP, the Latin element in the music has subsided further, which may have to do with the absence of collaborators Gil and Veloso due to their incarceration and subsequent exile by the military regime. Starting with the cover, which is a black-and-white live photo inspired by a 19th Century engraving for Dante's Divine Comedy, there's a sinister tone here that didn't exist in their previous work. The back cover pictures the trio together in bed, a scandalous insinuation that isn't improved by the nonchalant pose of the guy with the cane and black leather overcoat standing above them. Is he a kinky voyeur, or maybe something worse? Could he be Satan, and the photo an allegory on sin and hell? It doesn't help that the lyrics are in Portuguese, but there seems to be a dark undertone to the whole album - e.g. in the lyrics and psychedelic effects of the otherwise charming acid folk ballad "Ave, Lúcifer", or the car crash sounds following the nostalgic doo wop of "Hey Boy". Each song is in a different style, but they defy simple categorization as there's a million things happening in the same time: a Hendrix-y guitar solo here, Carousel music there, psychedelic effects everywhere. Opener "Ando Meio Desligado ("I Am a Bit Disconnected" but usually translated as "I Feel A Little Spaced Out") seems to be a drug reference. It starts off very pleasantly, reminding me of The Zombies "Time Of The Season". The piece is dominated by Rita's seductive vocals backed by groovy organ and fuzzed-out bass, ending in a mini-freakout of guitar noise and screams. Then there's "Quem Tem Medo de Brincar de Amor" with sweet Mamas and Papas harmonies, soul beat, nice organ, and psychedelic effects alternating with carousel music - like I said before, a million things happening all at once, which is how the whole LP plays out. "Ave, Lúcifer" reminded me of certain Pink Floyd ballads circa 1968-71, while "Desculpe, Babe" is a melodic old-timey ballad, followed by the incredible "Meu Refrigerador Não Funciona" - a heavy electric blues in Anglo-Portuguese that sees Rita Lee give Janis Joplin a run for her money. She never did it before or since, who could have guessed she had it in her? And all that just because her refrigerator doesn't work? Os Mutantes' zany sense of humor at work once again! On the very next song, 50's pastiche "Hey Boy", Rita goes from screaming banshee to playing the ingénue female. "Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar um Amigo" is introduced with a burp, and features heavy guitar and organ interplay à la Atomic Rooster but that's offset by the melodic vocal harmonies. "Chão de Estrelas" is another schizophrenic entry, introducing itself with Spanish folk to continue with ragtime jazz, sounds of aerial combat, and circus music. "Jogo de Calçada" is more conventional West Coast-style psychedelic rock, and "Haleluia" a rockified religious hymn sung with sincere-sounding elation. Album closer "Oh! Muhler Infiel" features wild drumming and bombastic guitars as well as a serene middle section with piano and wordless singing. That's 11 songs, each one different from the other, and each one containing enough ideas to make a whole album. It's amazing that a psychedelic masterpiece like that remained for decades undiscovered to the Western world - well, the Northern world to be precise, Brazil is pretty much to the West geographically! It wasn't until 1999 that David Byrne compiled a compilation of Mutantes songs for his label Luaka Bop, which proved hugely influential. I believe that this, once "lost", LP can now take its rightful place among such 60's milestones as Sgt. Peppers, Velvet Underground & Nico, and Are You Experienced. It's that good!

***** for Ando Meio Desligado,  Ave Lúcifer, Desculpe Babe, Meu Refrigerador Não Funciona

**** for Quem Tem Medo de Brincar de Amor, Hey Boy, Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar um Amigo, Chão de Estrelas, Jogo de Calçada

*** for Haleluia, Oh! Mulher Infiel

Astrud Gilberto "The Essential Astrud Gilberto" 1963-1967(rec) 1984(comp)*****

Astrud Gilberto was probably the most well-known of the three great ladies of Brazilian song that we recently lost, and whose albums I presented here. She was also the least likely to become an international sensation, as she came to prominence by accident; the young housewife of guitarist João Gilberto just happened to be present at a recording session for a collaborative album by American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian bossa nova stars Antonio Carlos Jobim (piano) and João Gilberto. To help the LP's commercial chances in the US, Getz's side had prepared some English lyrics, which João turned out to be unable to sing. Thankfully Astrud's English was remarkably better, so it was her who sang the English part in the two bilingual songs "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Corcovado". To the musicians involved she was still a nobody; she got a flat fee of $120 and wasn't mentioned in the album credits at all. But the public disagreed. "The Girl From Ipanema" single rose to No.5 in the charts, while the Getz/Gilberto LP (1964) gradually broke all sales records, starting off an international bossa nova craze. Everyone fell in love with Astrud's soft, naive vocals, and kept asking for more. Cue Getz Au Go Go (1964), credited to "the New Stan Getz Quartet featuring Astrud Gilberto". No Jobim or João but a great band nevertheless, including Gary Burton on vibraphone and Kenny Burrell on guitar. Purportedly a live album cut at New York's famous Cafe Au Go Go, it's actually a jumble of live and studio sessions. Some of Getz's sax and all of Astrud's vocals were recorded in studio and overdubbed after the fact; it nevertheless sounds fantastic. The Essential Astrud Gilberto, issued in Europe in 1984 to capitalize on a bossa nova revival going on at the time, includes two songs from Getz Au Go Go, Jobim's "One Note Samba" and "It Might as Well Be Spring", the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein composition that won the Oscar Award for Best Original Song in 1945. From there on, Verve Records took over Astrud's career, pairing her with some of their best musicians, arrangers and composers, trying to capitalize on the bossa nova fad. It didn't matter that her voice didn't have a lot of power, range, or versatility. They had other singers like that. Ella Fitzgerald. Sarah Vaughan. Nina Simone. That class of singers. Compared to them, Astrud was a one-trick pony. Her renditions of the great American songbook are absolutely charming in their own way but they don't stand comparison with those by the aforementioned artists. Her frail and nostalgic delivery, punctuated by soft scatting, works nevertheless fabulously on the bossa nova cuts, songs by Jobim, Luiz Bonfá and ex-husband João - soon after the Getz collaborations, their marriage collapsed with Astrud staying permanently in USA and João remarrying and returning to Brazil soon after. The compilers here rightfully put the emphasis in the Brazilian element, which takes up more than 80% of this compilation, while the parent albums whence these songs came were at best a 50/50 mix of bossa nova and easy listening jazz. The Astrud Gilberto Album (1965) is her first, and probably best, LP as it contains Jobim's songs and guitar alongside some great musicians and rich strings and reeds arrangements. "Meditation", "O Morro Nao Tem Vez", and the playful "Agua De Beber" are included here. The next one The Shadow Of Your Smile (1965) follows the 50/50 approach, featuring 5 selections written by Bonfá, including the wistful "Tristeza" and "Manha De Carnival" as well as mid tempo "O Ganso" featuring Astrud scatting over a tastefully arranged Latin piece. Upbeat "Take Me To Aruanda" and a version of Sinatra hit "Fly Me To The Moon" round up the selections from that album. The next one (Look to the Rainbow, 1966) was apparently arranged by the great Gil Evans. We only get one short Latin song from it, João's "Bim Bom". The same year's A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness is a collaboration with organist Walter Wanderley. Astrud's vocals here very good; Wanderley is likewise good but his organ playing roots this more to 60's lounge music than jazz. We get three selections from this album: "Goodbye Sadness (Tristeza)", "So Nice (Summer Samba)", and the short, bittersweet, "A Certain Smile". Last of the albums anthologized here is Beach Samba (1967). It contained a more-than-usual percentage of contemporary pop material, but at least "Beach Samba (Bossa Na Praia)" had all the marks of her best work. By this time, bossa nova had fallen out of fashion completely in the US. Verve backed the singer for a few more albums containing mostly covers of contemporary pop hits, but the compilers steer way from those. Which is just as well; I mean this LP is called The Essential Astrud Gilberto, and no-one would argue that her covers of songs by The Beatles, Nilsson, Lovin' Spoonful and The Doors (!) justify that title. But what we do have here is some of the most charming, irresistibly fresh, beautiful music made in the 60's. That's enough of a legacy for anyone!

***** for The Girl From Ipanema, Meditation, O Morro Nao Tem Vez, Corcovado, Agua De Beber, Goodbye Sadness (Tristeza), Take Me To Aruanda, So Nice (Summer Samba), Tristeza

**** for A Certain Smile, Beach Samba (Bossa Na Praia), Bim-Bom, One Note Samba, O Ganso, Fly Me To The Moon, It Might As Well Be Spring, Manha De Carnival

Rita Lee & Roberto "Rita Hits" 1975-1983(rec) 1984(comp)**

After publishing my latest post on Gal Costa, it dawned on me that we lost in the space of a few months arguably the greatest ladies of Brazilian popular song: Gal Costa in November, Rita Lee in May, and Astrud Gilberto in June. I thought it'd be a good idea to dedicate the rest of the month to them; after all this is exactly the appropriate kind of music for a hot summer like this one. 

To be honest, this doesn't represent any of my favorite Rita Lee moments; those would be during her time with Os Mutantes (1966-72). I remember being disappointed when I first listened to this CD, thinking it was just mainstream pop and not that interesting at all. So I put it away for many years, but then I thought it'd be interesting to hear it again with fresh ears so I took it out for another spin. What I didn't remember about it is that it's not a proper best-of covering this particular period in her career (1975-1983). Rather, it is a medley of hits taken from albums of that time, either solo or under the name of Rita Lee and Roberto (De Carvalho, her husband). As expected, the DJ chose the most upbeat songs, with a preference for disco, latin pop, and rock and roll. Suffice it to say that the late 70's and early 80's saw Rita Lee leave her past as an acid folk and psychedelic rock singer behind to embrace the commercial sound du jour - but then again, didn't most of her contemporaries all over the world do the same? As a result, while her earlier music with Os Mutantes remains interesting, these songs sound quite outdated albeit still pleasant as commercial pop of that period goes. The thing is that, even if one feels nostalgic for that era, I honestly can't think of any use for a collection of truncated versions such as this. I do remember that when I was a kid there were some mix LPs like Stars On 45 or Jive Bunny & The Master Mixers that people would play at parties; the DJ would put on a vinyl and let the whole side play on (something like 15 songs in 22 minutes) while he went to the loo or for a drink or to chat up some girl. I guess this compilation may have had a similar function at some time. But this isn't 1984 any more, so I can't think of any reason to recommend it. Somewhere there must be a regular Rita Lee compilation with entire songs. Or, better yet, get anything by Os Mutantes. Seeing as we only get excerpts here (most of them less than 90 seconds each) it's no use grading individual songs. Therefore I'll just mention the tracks and the albums they were taken from. These are, in chronological order, the following:

Esse Tal De Roque Enrow (Fruto Proibido, 1975) / Arrombou A Festa (Refestança by Rita Lee & Gilberto Gil, 1977) / Jardins Da Babilônia, Miss Brasil 2000 (Babilônia, 1978) / Corre-Corre,  Papai Me Empresta O Carro, Mania De Você, Doce Vampiro (Rita Lee, 1979) / Bem-Me-Quer, Orra Meu! , Baila Comigo (Rita Lee, 1980) / Saúde, Atlântida, Mutante (Saúde by Rita Lee E Roberto, 1981) / Flagra, Barata Tonta, Só De Você (Rita Lee - Roberto De Carvalho, 1982) / On The Rocks, Desculpe O Auê (Bombom, 1983) / Caso Sério, Lança Perfume (Baila Conmigo by Rita Lee Y Roberto, 1983)

Gal Costa "Índia" 1973*****

20-something years ago, I discovered Tropicália through a Luaka Bop compilation of songs by Os Mutantes. It was something of a revelation, since I've always been a fan of psychedelic 60's music but had never imagined a possible hybrid of psychedelia, jazz, folk, and exotic Latin rhythms. In the course of the years I collected some tropicalia-related CD's and LP's, and this is one of my favorites. Gal Costa had been one of the movement's figureheads and made some experimental LP's in that vein, but by 1973 she had left that mostly behind. It still is a very inventive album, combining jazz, folk, pop, bossa nova, and psychedelia - just softer and more mainstream than the challenging psychedelic LP's that preceded it. Which didn't stop it from getting in trouble with the Brazilian dictators who had previously imprisoned tropicalia leaders Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. This time the sensors took exception with the album cover: it presents a close up of Gal's bikini front, while on the back the singer is pictured half naked, wearing only a grass skirt and jewelry made from beads and feathers. IMO it wasn't the nakedness that offended them but the use of indigenous dress (after all, to the military regime, the Amazonian tribes were savages, rather than true Brazilians) and Gal's pose, which was insolent rather than seductive. The cover was then replaced with a simple blue one, until recent reissues like this reproduced the original in all its exotic glory. Musically, the album impresses from the beginning: the eponymous first track features gorgeous orchestral arrangements and nostalgic vocals which remind me of Portugese fados as much as they do of bossa nova. This is followed by "Milho Verde" a traditional Portugese folk song combining Afro Latin percussion with layers of vocals reminiscent of medieval European music - an innovative arrangement by Gilberto Gill who also plays guitar throughout this record. "Volta" is a melancholic early 20th Century composition with sparse piano backing, while side 2 opens with "Relance" a song with Argentinean bandoneon and a funky beat, and one of two contributions made by Caetano Veloso to this album. "Pontos De Luz"'s funky bass and horns riffs offer another detour from the so-called MPB (Brazilian Mainstream Pop) style dominating the rest of the LP, which closes with a great version of Tom Jobim's much-covered bossa nova classic "Desafinado". A perfect listening for warm summer nights, combining soft exotic vibes with those weird Tropicália touches. Gal Costa would go on to ever greater mainstream pop success to become a national idol while remaining a constant irritant to the country's extreme right; she alienated many of her compatriots with her ceaseless denunciation of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and lived just long enough to see him get ousted from office, as she died last November at the age of 77.

***** for Índia, Desafinado 

**** for Milho Verde, Presente Cotidiano, Volta, Relance, Da Maior Importância, Passarinho, Pontos De Luz

Wet Leg "Wet Leg" 2022****

Most of the bands I saw in last month's Release Festival were old favorites: I've seen Siouxsie, Echo & The Bunnymen and Madrugada many times each; I was looking forward to more of the same, and wasn't disappointed. On the other hand, there were bands whose albums I liked but hadn't had the chance to watch live yet. Interpol was one such case, and a relative disappointment: an apathetic stage presence, with the singer murmuring into the microphone, almost not moving and making no effort to connect with their audience. To be fair, I only heard maybe 5 songs before heading to the other stage to catch The Bunnymen. True to form, Ian MacCullogh didn't step in the spotlight once. He spoke little, in a strong Scouse accent which few understood, but he at least sounded like he enjoyed being on stage and playing his songs. All in all, it was a good festival; most of the bands performed very well, but the one I enjoyed the most were probably Wet Leg; maybe because it was such a nice change from seeing too many bands by 50- ,60- , or 70-year old dudes in the last couple of years. 

Wet Leg is a young band from Isle Of Wight, who surfaced recently with a couple of singles written during the pandemic lockdown. When I saw them in the festival last week, I had had their LP only for a month or so and wasn't overly familiar with the way they sound on record. Going back to it now, the record sounds just a tad too clean; live, the songs sounded noisier and harder. Onstage, singer Rhian Teasdale proved to be a confident and communicative performer, while guitarist Hester Chambers was more shy but seemed to enjoy her role just as much. The same goes for the 3 guys in the band; although they are mostly not the ones who played on the record and they are nominally tour musicians rather than full members, it's obvious that the whole gang has bonded well and enjoy their time together. I'd bet that they'll gradually form into a real band. Wet Leg (the album, as well as the band) was a tremendous hit with music critics, winning multiple awards. I hate to join the crowd, but I'll have to agree with the general sentiment. The attraction is obvious; the album is the product of two young women who refuse to take themselves too seriously. Their lyrics are irreverent and funny, and the music full of hooks. Style wise, they seem to be updating 90's - 00's indie pop for the Tik Tok generation, combining post punk riffs with playful synths and sweet girlish vocals. First single "Chaise Longue" is upbeat , featuring an intro that reminded me of The Fall, and a repetitive and nonsensical but effervescent chorus. The second hit from the LP "Wet Dream" combines a disco beat with indie guitars reminiscent of The Breeders and sweet vocals a la Lush. And let's not forget that other obvious 90's reference, since songs like "Ur Mom"and "Oh No" surely sound like a poppier version of Elastica. Opener "Being in Love" is another upbeat highlight, one I think I'd like more if the girls' voices didn't sugarcoat too much. But I guess that's what makes this album a hit; a couple of sweet sounding females singing about whatever comes to their minds, spouting funny and irreverent one-liners. "Angelica" shows more variation excelling in the quiet/loud department, with occasional noisy guitar bursts and a more rhythmic part reminiscent of M.I.A. "I Don't Want to Go Out" is a nice melodic rocker, and "Loving You" the closer the album gets to a ballad. Another relatively subdued track is "Piece Of Shit". At times it reminds me of Pixies - which is, of course, a good thing. The next two tracks are both mid-tempo: "Convincing" is -excuse the pun- the least convincing track here (nothing seriously wrong with it, but nothing memorable either) while "Supermarket" sports a bluesy sing-along chorus. Album closer "Too Late Now" gets off to a slow start but picks up pace along the way for a bright and jangly Lemonheads-like ending. All in all, this LP is fresh, and has "fun" written all over it. I did enjoy the humorous jabs and occasional foul language, especially when mixed with emotional candor. Also, while the upbeat and poppy singles are the most accomplished songs here, it's the more subdued and complicated stuff that make me more eager to hear what Wet Leg will do next; one plainly sees that they have not only mastered the art of writing hit songs full of great hooks, but that there's room for growth as well. In that respect, I have the same feeling I got by the Fontaines DC debut a few years back: that the accolades may be a bit premature but that this is a band to watch, for sure.

**** on Being in Love, Chaise Longue, Angelica, I Don't Wanna Go Out, Wet Dream, Ur Mum, Piece of Shit, Supermarket, Too Late Now

*** for Convincing, Loving You, Oh No