MISANTROPICALIA

SATANIQUE SAMBA TRIO is a very strange band from Brasilia, Brazil. Their name and imagery suggest a black metal band, but this is more of a parody of black metal because this is nothing even remotely close soundwise. The name is also a misnomer as this is neither Satanic nor a trio. The band throughout its history ranges from five to seven members. This music is actually a hybrid of the avant-prog of such greats as Henry Cow or Univers Zero mixed with traditional Brazilian pop and avant-garde samba jazz.

The instruments consist of guitar, bass, drums, trumpet and cavaquinho which is a small Portuguese guitar with four strings. This music is very avant-garde to say the least utilizing the most dissonant avant-prog and RIO leanings as heard in the strangest offerings of Henry Cow, Art Zoyd or Aqsak Maboul only presented with samba-jazz instrumentation. The weaving of traditional Brazilian sounds into the mix is what makes this truly unique. While the samba sound can be discerned at times, it is often obfuscated and twisted with extremely complex time sigs and electronic manipulations.

While the best of what this band has to offer from their future releases is here on the debut album MISANTROPICALIA, they also have a strange fascination with "The Snow EP" from Coil on a few ambient tracks with the vocals and melody almost identical to that release. If you are not familiar with Coil's music this could be an interesting addition outside the avant-samba offerings heard here but i find it a little irritating to hear it here interspersed between the regular tracks. It sounds like they just throw in the ambient vocal tracks for filler and it is basically too much of a Coil rip off for my comfort. This is a decent slice of avant-prog-jazz by SST but it is better displayed on the following albums "Sangrou" and "Bad Trip Simulators 2 & 1" where they shine in their fullest avant-garde samba jazz regalia.