QUARTETO 1111

Review Nº 103

"Quarteto 1111" is the eponymous debut studio album of Quarteto 1111 and was released in 1970. From the sound of groups inspired by The Shadows, Quarteto 1111 was born. They became a very different case in the Portuguese music, not only due to the use of Portuguese language, which was unusual at the time, but also because musically it was a very different band from the others. They closed themselves in a garage one year and half to make this album.

First of all, before to talk about the album, it's very important to know the conditions of the life in my country in those troubled times to can understand better the appearance of this progressive rock band named Quarteto 1111. Portugal lived a very difficult dictatorial political regime with censorship. One of the main slogans of Salazar's regime was, "orgulhosamente sós" (proud to be alone). This meant that we could live alone and isolated from the rest of the world and that we could be proud of that. We also lived in difficult times because we were in war in our African colonies, Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau, with their liberation movements who claimed for freedom and independence.

So, it was in those troubled times that appeared Quarteto 1111, which was the first progressive rock band in Portugal. It was founded in 1967 in Estoril, a place near Lisbon. It's also one of the most influential progressive rock bands in Portugal. The Beatles and The Shadows were the main inspiration for the most bands and Quarteto 1111 wasn't an exception. The group had many problems with censorship, because of songs that were politically charged and contested. They released their debut work with the same name in 1970. The album was sent off the market by the Committee of Censorship. In 1974 the band released "Onde, Quando, Como, Porquê, Cantamos Pessoas Vivas", an album strongly influenced by progressive rock groups like King Crimson, Renaissance, Yes and Genesis.

So, in the early of 1970, Quarteto 1111 released their self-titled debut conceptual album, which deals with racism issues, immigration and the colonial war. Troubled by the interventionism of the issues to the dictatorial regime, the censorship removed the album from the market in the same week of its release, preventing the contact with what would be one of the best albums of the Portuguese music, in those times, able to compete in boldness, quality and innovation, with what was created abroad at the time, all over the world. Those were really troubled times, indeed. But unfortunately, even today and in some places, we live yet in a world like this. It seems that we aren't able to learn with history.

Lyrically, the album deals especially with three main characteristics. First, all its lyrics are in Portuguese, which is a usual trademark of the group. Later they began to sing in English trying the internationalization with songs such as "Back To The Country" and "Ode To The Beatles", which were released as singles. Second, the usual use of lyrics of some of the greatest Portuguese poets, which is the case of "As Trovas Do Vento Que Passa" with a poem of Manuel Alegre, a great Portuguese contemporaneous poet, which became a very important symbolic song, a kind of a symbol of the resistance of the Portuguese University students against the dictatorship regime in Portugal. Third, the focus of the lyrics in the issues mentioned by me, such as, the immigration with "João Nada", "Domingo Em Bidonville" and "Estrada Para A Minha Aldeia" or the racism issues with "Pigmentação", "Maria Negra" and "Escravatura".

Musically, the album is heavily influenced by the psychedelic and folk styles. However and while retaining the band's initial psych-folk heritage, this album of Quarteto 1111 goes deeper into a psychedelic through magnetic tape experimentation effects, and also a more clear influence from the mid-60's jazz and R&B. The songs range from the folk of "João Nada" or the version of "Trovas Do Vento Que Passa" of Adriano Correia de Oliveira (another great Portuguese poet), through the soul of "Pigmentação", the funk madness of "A Fuga Dos Grilos", the pop of "Estrada Para A Minha Aldeia" or the psychedelia of "Maria Negra". The album represented an escape from the narrowness of a country which was not interested in change, remaining at the same time inextricably linked to it or what it could do.

Conclusion: This eponymous debut album of Quarteto 1111 is a very good album to get where José Cid get started in the world of the progressive rock music. We mustn't forget that Portugal was never a hotbed of progressive rock. So, this album of Quarteto 1111, despite be more a psychedelic and pop album, represents the beginning of the progressive rock in Portugal. We can say that it was a kind of a breath of fresh air in Portugal, at the time. It represents the beginning of the good things that would appear in the next years, after the fall of the dictatorship regime, in 1974, by the revolution that came to be known as the Carnation Revolution. So, this album opens the door to some of the best progressive albums ever made in Portugal in the 70's, like "Onde, Quando, Como, Porquê, Cantamos Pessoas Vivas" of Quarteto 1111, "10.000 Anos Anos Depois Entre Vénus E Marte" of José Cid, "Mestre" of Petrus Castrus, "Dos Benefícios Dum Vendido No Reino Dos Bonifácios" of Banda Do Casaco and "Mistérios E Maravilhas" of Tantra.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Quarteto 1111 is the first album of the band of the same name, it's a important album to the Portuguese progressive rock scene, being one first representative of the genre of the country. Is a culturally relevant album too once was released during the Portuguese dictatorship, causing the album to be censored.

The reason of the censorship is that of the strong critic aspect of the lyrics, covering a certain range of themes, mainly the structural racism of the society and reflections on emigration.

The music is basically symphonic progressive with elements of psychedelic rock, one of the major influences of the group is the beatles (who they gonna create a song in homage later in theirs careers), this influence are felt especially in the song "Uma estrada para minha aldeia", that really looks like something out of Sgt Peppers.

Other potent influence of the group is the Portuguese folk, mainly the "fado", some type of Portuguese compositions based on slow, harmonic and emotional vocals accompanied by acoustic guitars, something kinda bardic.

The number of influences of the group is large, but this album is nothing really impressive in innovation, it's necessary to considerate the local scene on making this claim but comparing this record to the rest of the world at that moment there is nothing much innovative or experimental here. Is easy to create counterparts of the songs and other creations around the world, this lack of innovation in a record whose intention in clearly progressive bothers me a little but doesn't ruin the experience.

Overall, the music here is good, but not exceptional, if you like early progressive bands and want to get more deep into countries whose language are not English I recommend listening to this album once was essential to the creation of a Portuguese progressive rock scene. I pondered give to this album 2 stars but I cannot deny his cultural relevance, making his historical importance a factor to a prog rock fan listen to him. 3 stars