OS MUTANTES

While the psychedelic rock scene of the 60s is primary attributed to English acts such as Pink Floyd, Cream, The Pretty Things and Traffic or more importantly the California scene from bands like Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Love, The Mothers of Invention or Spirit just to name a few examples, the movement was actually quite popular all over the world. Psychedelic Khmer rock invaded Cambodia like Dengue Fever, Colombia, Peru and Mexico got the bug and were infusing psychedelic rock features into cumbia, salsa and other Latin music forms and India which influenced the world of psychedelia in the first place by offering the trippy hypnotic effects of drones and ragas was adopting Western lysergia into its own sitar playing styles and Bollywood grooves. However out of all the non-European and North American acts to make the biggest impact and produce some of the most memorable albums that sound as mind blowing 50 years on as the day they were released comes from the Brazilian act OS MUTANTES.

Portuguese for The Mutants, this world renowned act began as a trio in 1966 Saõ Paulo by the brothers Sérgio Dias Baptista (guitars, vocals) and Arnaldo Dias Baptista (keyboards, bass, vocals) who were in an all-male band called The Wooden Faces before meeting vocalist Rita Lee who was in an all female band named The Teenage Singers. The three hit it off and created a band with the name of Six Sided Rockers but incorporated other talented artists to help out with the extra effects with the most significant roles going to Rogério Duprat who crafted Beatles-esque orchestrations and Cláudio Baptista who build many homemade instruments and also crafted unique electronic effects unheard of at the time. The core trio that made up the band also employed the assistance of Clasrisse Leite on piano, Dirceu on drums, Gilberto Gil on other forms of percussion along with a few guests that appear on their eponymously titled debut album that appeared in in the summer of 1968.

The band settled for its current name OS MUTANTES literally at the last minute as they were about to perform on a Brazilian TV program. The name has stuck ever since and this particular era is considered some of the best of the best in terms of the psychedelic rock and pop that emerged from any part of the world much less just Brazil. What makes Brazilian psychedelic rock stand out so much from the world of Anglo-rock was that it revolved around the Tropicália scene which arose in the late 60s and infiltrated not just the music scene but also film, theater and poetry. The scene slickly amalgamated traditional Brazilian musical styles such as bossa nova, samba, baião, afoxé, frevo and even Portuguese fado with the world influences of psychedelic rock and baroque pop. The result was a scrumptious mix of Latin melodic sensibilities laced the avant-garde experimentalism that placed consonance and dissonance together on the dance floor and watch them unite to create something wildly unique and utterly irresistible.

This self-titled debut could rightfully be referred to as orchestral psychedelic pop that skillfully blends Beatles inspired melodies with traditional Brazilian musical flavors and then adds select moments of everything from electronic freakery to musique concrète and psychedelic guitar fuzz effects. Although the album doesn't even hit the 37 minute mark its covers a lot of diverse grounds with each track offering a completely different emotive expression and flavor of world fusion. While sung in Portuguese, the harmonies are utterly brilliant and the vocal lines are quite inventive. The album includes two covers, the first "Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour" from Françoise Hardy and sung in the French language and the second a reinterpretation of the Mamas & Papas track "Once Was A Time I Thought" translated into Porguese as "Tempo No Tempo" and given the OS MUTANTES magical treatment. Add to that plenty of that 60s psychedelic organ warmth and a swinging 60s go-go bass groove. The album ends with a crazy collage effect over nice 60s groove music in the form of "Ave Genghis Khan."

This classic is truly a masterpiece of the ages and while not as progressive as many make it out to be, it surely is a classic of the world of psychedelic pop and rock from the era. Yeah, it's totally dated but in this case that is a good thing because it takes you back to the time and place from whence it sprang forth and for those of us who are clueless as to what the scene of 60s Brazil may have been like, this little gem pretty much sums it up in 11 tracks. You don't have to understand Portuguese for this brilliant wild display of fusion to blow you away. OS MUTANTES' debut is every bit as good as a Beatles album with a plethora of influences that ranges from The Fab Four to pastoral French pop, the baroque crossover of The Swingle Singers and the California hippie guitar fuzz of Jefferson Airplane and Spirit all dished out in a groovy swinging Latin vibes from homegrown musical flavors. Add to that extremely bizarre counterpoints in the form of highly experimental touches via the electronics and other unexpected sound effects and you're guaranteed to find this album instantly addictive and begging you to put it on again and again. The down side of the early OS MUTANTES albums were that the awful albums covers don't do the music justice but then again i'm rating the music and it more than makes up for any lack of visual accompaniment.