OS MUTANTES

What a wonderful, wacky and bizarre album this is. Brazilian folk, psychedelic rock, snippets of avant-garde, traditional Brazilian percussion ensembles and 60s teen pop all come together in an outrageously original mix that is full of surprises and lots of great tunes. If your idea of psychedelic rock is commercialized efforts like Sgt Peppers, forget it, this is the real deal; raw, naïve and non-contrived 60s psychedelicosis.

Like a lot of the more primary psychedelic bands of their era, the Mutantes mix their music their own way and ignore all the standard conventions of the time. Most instruments on here that receive special treatments, such as distortion or tremelo, are turned up high in the mix as if to make sure you didn't miss the 'weird' part. Twangy fuzzed out guitars leap out of the speaker and into your room when they make their bold entrances. Likewise the arrangements of the Mutante's tunes are naively experimental and occasionally complicated as they chop up standard verse/chorus structures with found sounds, avant episodes and excursions that recall theatre or cabaret.

This album is highly recommended for fans of 60s psychedelic rock, this is so much better than all that derivative music that the big labels put out in an attempt to copy bands such as this.