I'd take this album over just about anything else going on in the entire world in 1968. Hands down, this album beats the crap out of any sort of psychadelia coming out of Britain or the U.S. at the time, set apart by a unique pop sensibility and liberal doses of traditional South American music. Os Mutantes were pioneers in the Tropicalia movement, and their peers included Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and Jorge Ben. At the onset of Os Mutantes' popularity in the mid-to-late 60's, psychedelic music was so misunderstood and frowned upon by Brazilian society* that they had to be marketed as a "children's music" band, and played shows in classrooms and school auditoriums. In retrospect, it's ironic that such sophisticated and complex music was treated that way.This is a masterpiece, straight up, and as an added bonus your girlfriend will dig it, too.
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*Actually, suppressed by the Brazilian military/government. Thanks for the tip, Emerson.
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4 comments:
Those of you who are interested in Os Mutantes should also check out Gilberto Gil. He was another excellent musician in Brazil at this time. He was forced into exile for some time by the government because of his outspoken political views. He was later appointed Brazil's "Minister of Culture". Check out his Self-Titled album which is a classic of the tropicalia movement.
Sorry, but who told this information about the children's songs?
Brazil was under a heavy dictatorship back then and a lot of information created by artists if form of plays, songs and movies had to be disguised in subtle way in order to be heard by the people but not censored by the military censorship.
In short a lot of the stuff were hidden in such a clever way that I believe people were a lot more conscious about politics and the critic spirit. Just have second thoughts wen people sell you this kind of stories, in fact the intellectual aspect in Brazil was quite the opposite of that. In fact The Mutantes were even in exile in Paris for a while during the sixties.
Anyway this is not a criticism, I am just helping this post of yours, not only because I agree with your opinion,but I also had a blast with your blog.
Congrats!
Cheers.
Sounds like the US's future...
Thanks for clearing that up, Emerson. I guess I had gathered my information from "word of mouth" sources, and didn't really look into it enough to get all the facts correct. My bad. I also just tend to make stuff up when I run out of interesting things to write about (see yesterday's post). Anyhow, I appreciate the information and welcome any sort of constructive criticism. Thanks.
Steven - I shudder to think of the day I have to be an exile in Paris to record a metal album. (shudder, shudder).
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