OS MUTANTES

1. "Panis et circenses" (3:40) a song that demonstrates the huge influence THE BEATLES' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band era has had--even on Brazil! The female vocals present a nice change for prog world. Also, I'm very glad that the band decided to sing in their own native language rather than picking up English. I love the little musique concrète finish. (8.875/10) 2. "A Minha Menina" (4:45) an odd but very entertaining (and even humorous) little peephole into a kind of mamba Beatnik psychedelia that may have existed in Brazil! I like this very much! Something that previews David Byrne's work of the late 1980s and 1990s as well as the Gypsy rock of bands like Les Negresses Vertes? (9/10)

3. "O Relógio" (3:32) gentle, bare-bones musical support for angelic reverb-voice of Rita Lee opens this song for the first 90 seconds--beautiful! But then the band jumps into a different room/universe of joy and ZA! partying for a minute before giving way to the somnambulant music of Rita's heaven. Brilliant! (9.5/10)

4. "Adeus Maria Fulô" (3:06) opens with some eerie cemetery/garden music with musique concrète inputs before Brazilian percussion group jumps in with a group choir presentation. Not really prog or rock but definitely interesting. (8.875/10)

5. "Baby" (3:02) an odd take on an early British approach to organ and electrified pop music. Not great--and certainly not innovative--but highly entertaining for its (intentional?) poke of fun at the early 1960s Anglo love song. (8.75/10)

6. "Senhor F" (2:36) another excessively clever and humorous interpretation on the pop music coming out of the Northern Hemisphere in the late 1950s and early 1960s (even 1920s!) Part parody of The Beatles, part of New Orleans and Parisian jazz pop. Even the fade out, fade in, and re-fade out at the end is totally cheeky/disrespectful of The Beatles. (8.875/10)

7. "Bat Macumba" (3:10) surfer pop rock that sounds so much like the music revived by Spanish psych-rockers ZA! in the 2010s. Infectiously fun. (8.875/10)

8. "Le premier bonheur du jour" (3:40) a turn to 1960s French Ye-ye dream pop with some brilliantly paired musical and vocal arrangements. I could live off of this type of music! It's almost Gamelan! (9.75/10)

9. "Trem Fantasma" (3:19) more wild ZA!-like indigenous music to open this one before stopping and resetting into a musical form that is more of a Brazilian Hollywood-surfer rock. Very nice vocal arrangements to accompany (and parody) this jazzy musical form. It sounds so much like a Brazilian/Beach Boys rendition of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman." (9/10)

10. "Tempo No Tempo" (1:49) opens like a sleepy reluctant-wake up song, it turns into something much more caffeinated with the complex, lightning fast group vocals. (4.5/5)

11. "Ave, Gengis Khan" (3:51) more totally sarcastic parody of British rock forms and styles, the facetiousness of the lyrical topic seems to give notice that the Brazilians get how corny and ludicrous some of the British song topics are. (8.875/10)

Total Time 36:30

What I LOVE so much about this album is the total freshness of the Brazilian mind and cultural interpretation of rock, prog, psychedelia, parody, sarcasm, etc. Retention of their own cultural and musical backgrounds is the key to my enjoyment of these songs, even when they try to go Anglo ("Panis et circenses," "Baby," "Senhor F") . Plus, the engineering/production of this music is so interesting!

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of early Southern Hemisphere proto-prog. this is an album that I think any and every prog lover would find very entertaining and humorous, no matter your linguistic background. One of South America's first contributions to Prog World.

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