ACIDENTE

In 1991 drummer Bruno Mega decided to part ways with Acidente and he was replaced by Mario Costa.Paulo Malaria took his new formation to the 806 Digital Studios in Rio De Janeiro in October 92' and in November of the following year all the work related to the new studio album ''Gloomland'' had been done.The album was originally released in about 500 copies on Malaria's own Stolen Records label.

No prog epics or supernatural arrangements, Acidente continue to develop short and efficient compositions with a deep sense of melody and atmosphere, coming close to the style of compatriots DOGMA, Ken Senior's EVOLUTION or even the premature efforts of some Italian bands like SITHONIA or IL CASTELLO DI ATLANTE (minus the violin).The marching and smooth guitar parts are reminiscent of CAMEL and the album contains a good mixture of synthesizers and organs to combine old and recent days of the prog world.The music is mainly instrumental, swirling mostly around Symphonic Rock and Neo Prog, featuring also some great piano tunes and groovy rhythms, not to mention the rural, Brazilian influences during the limited but always charming acoustic textures.Three quarters of the hour since the kick off of this release the listener will be sunk into a sea of majestic melodies and optimistic moods with some retro blinks and satisfying, lush arrangements with symphonic and melodic orientations.Last fifteen minutes are not that good I am afraid.The vocal tracks are rather cheap, both lyrically and musically, with a pretty commercial sound with AOR leanings, while the attempts of the group on some bluesy numbers are questionable.Fortunately the bulk of the compositions is rewarding, always well-crafted and detailed without excessive workouts and full respect for the 70's.

Mostly instrumental and highly melodicProg Rock.Forget about the vocal pieces, every band deserves some room for mediocre compositions, but most part of ''Gloomland'' is fine Progressive Rock with memorable tunes and an elaborate sound.Recommended.

Brazilian band Acidente was found in 1978 by Paolo Malaria and Helio ''Scubi'' Jenne, its only consistent members.The early formation produced two LP's (1981, ''Guerra Civil'' and 1983, ''Fim do Mundo'') and a 7'' EP (1985, ''Piolho'') of Garage/Blues rock, before disbanding due to lack of interest in 1987.Two years later Malaria, having met plenty of interesting musicians, reformed the band with Bruno Mega on drums, Jarbas Loop on bass and guitarist Zunga Ezzaet to produce a progressive-oriented LP entitled ''Em Caso de Acidente Quebre Este Disco'' in 1990.

In its original form the album consisted of 13 very short tracks, ranging from some seconds to 4 minutes long, and the style was easy-listening Progressive Rock with emphasis on synthesizers, piano and sensitive guitars and an evident tendency on producing elaborate melodies.There are some clear influences also from the 70's Progressive and Blues Rock scene to be heard, most notably CAMEL, ALAN PARSON'S PROJECT and BLUE OYSTER CULT but with a much modern edge.The musicianship is based mainly on Malaria's soft piano lines and flashy synth work (reminiscent of SAGRADO CORACAO DA TERRA) and the help of Ezzaet on guitars is really big, his style is both sensitive but also groovy when needed with a nice ANDY LATIMER touch throughout.Not all tracks are equally satisfying, some of them sound quite cheesy due to the mediocre production and the straightforward approach, but even these are played with some passion.

While the original LP is somewhat hard to find, Rock Symphony decided to re-issue the album on CD, now named simply ''Quebre Este Disco'', featuring no less than 5 extra tracks from the more recent Acidente line-up around 2000-2001.The style has not changed radically, Acidente insist on playing some pretty melodic and accesible Progressive Rock with good organ performance on a pair of these extra cuts and some grandiose synth passages, but this time there are also some vocals added,not outstanding but not annoying either.

For fans of accesible Progressive Rock this album is a nice and recommended addition with some decent tunes in the flow.I would also strongly recommended the album to all prog newbies for a good and easy-listening entry into this kind of music.Overall, a quite decent release, although being much a product of its time.

Giving continuity to my 'reviewing my Prog CD's' micro-reviews today I decided to provide a review of the Brazilian band Acidente (Accident).

Acidente is a weird band in all senses. They started as a Pop Rock band based on funny music in the late 70's and early 80's and a decade later they were releasing Prog Rock instrumental albums. Technolorgy (2002) is their 6th album and their 4th and last Prog album. After that the band started to release Pop Rock 'funny' albums again.

Technolorgy (2002) was released by Rock Symphony with Musea Records as a distributor. It was recorded and mixed between 2001 and 2002 and produced by the band's leader, Paulo Malária. On this album besides Paulo (keyboards), Acidente has also Ary Menezes (bass and acoustic guitars), Mario Costa (drums) and Renato Borges (guitars).

Technolorgy (2002) is a complete instrumental album with 13 songs. There's a bunch of short songs on the album, like mini intros, but the ones that stand out are the 2 longer ones like 'Factotum' with its more than 15 minutes and 'Round Trip' with almost 12. 'Anfa' is a very nice composition too, very melodic. Throughout the album they have old compositions resurrected by the band's leader that sound very silly within the context of the record. Like '1980', 'Where The Whisky Comes From', Gotta Play! and 'The Sweet Years Of '74'.

Acidente is pretty much keyboard based on most songs, but that is just because the compositions (most of them) come from Paulo. In fact, Technolorgy (2002) is well served with good musicians that put they efforts on the album. The album also has a very good production. But in the end it lacks stronger compositions. Half of the album is like a patchwork.

In the end Technolorgy (2002) would be the final Prog Rock album by Acidente. They kept releasing albums every once in a while, but like I said, they're pop-rock-funny kind of albums. In the case of this album, it's an ok record that will please the ears of instrumental lovers.

Key track: Factotum

One of the firsts progressive rock albums made in Brazil after the lost decade

It is widely said and accepted here in Brazil that the 80's were the lost decade, and that is for a big number of reasons, such as lack of economic growth, political turmoil, lost of international importance, rampant inflation, generalized public dissatisfaction with the ruling dictatorship, etc. The same thing can be said about the Brazilian progressive rock scene : with the notable exception of few underground artists, like Alpha 3, Sagrado Coração da Terra, Bacamarte and Violeta de Outono, the progressive rock scene was rather arid and lifeless, echoing the equally lacking international scene, which also had few notable exceptions, also mostly composed of underground artists.

At the turn of the 1980's decade and the redemocratization, new hopes arose in the country, both politically and economically: the dictatorship was overthrown and democracy reestablished, the economy also showed signs of recovery and was stabilized for good and there was a generalized feeling that things would all change for the better. Also, in the progressive rock world, things were getting a lot better as the 90's were approaching and this album is one fine example of that.

Recorded in late 1989 and released in 1990, (Em caso de Acidente) Quebre este Disco, is the first progressive rock release of the band Acidente, which have had released two Brazilian rock albums (a genre which gained most of its mainstream attention, besides main attributes and popularity during the 80's) prior to this one. This album is pretty original, because it has a nice mixture of progressive rock, classical music, 50's and 60's rock and roll and brazilian rock delivered in a straightforward way, but without being plain. That causes most songs to sound and last just the right amount of time, because Paulo Malária, the keyboardist and main composer, worked the musical ideas of each song in such a way that makes them have a natural duration.

The copy of (Em caso de Acidente) Quebre este Disco that I own was the re-release made available by Rock Symphony, a Rio de Janeiro based progressive rock label, with a number of bonus tracks, which are the Expo Rock 2000 Supplement and the unreleased song Fim Do Mundo. The latter, Fim Do Mundo, is not such a good fit for the rest of the album because, in spite of actually being a good song, it is not progressive at all. It is probably a song that remained unreleased from one of their first two albums, released in the late 1980's.

The songs recorded in 2000 for the Rock Symphony rerelease (the Expo Rock 2000 Supplement) are not just as good as the ones in the original album, but they do are worth listening and they are still able to connect with the rest of the songs somehow. The bottomline is that they are an interesting and cleaver adition to this rather short studio album.

Grade and Final Thoughts

(Em caso de Acidente) Quebre este Disco is, generally, a very good album. The original album (tracks 1 - 14) could easily deceive those who don't know well the band or the album into believing that it is an EP, since its duration don't exceeds 28 minutes, but that short duration is one of the best features of the album, giving it a natural and unforced flow.

Most songs in this album are great, but there are, like in most cases, some exceptions. The first is the song Pactolo, which isn't exactly a bad song, but when compared with the rest of the album, but it does scratch the album flow, break it's mood. The other exception is the song Exercí­cio 806. It is definitely the worst song on this album, being just plainly boring and, again, breaks the album's flow.

Being (Em caso de Acidente) Quebre este Disco a balanced album with good songs, but short of being actually special. three stars seem like the fairest rating here.

Very good!!! Instrumental, but very memorable , even CATCHY prog from South America. Reminding me of DREAM THEATER and GENESIS sometimes - not much bombastic and professional ,but sincere and emotional. Some national flavour is added in 6th track due to ethnic percussion. Syncopation in closing track is so driving!!! The longest track ("Factotum") has several awesome bits - I dare to regard them as classical ones for a Prog fan. Proggers should not miss this album!I wonder why it is in Prog- Related category - this is superb Art-Rock record, Sympho Prog meets Hard Rock I'd say! Highly recommended to any Prog fan; almost the same way beautiful as QUATERNA REQUIEM - another South-American highlight and a recent discovery of mine!!!

There were two different versions of this Brazilian band, ACIDENTE. The first version, from its 1978 formation (although their debut was released until 1981) until its 1987 breakup, was said to be a straightforward rock band. Then the second version was from 1989 onward, in which they went the prog rock route. The only thing these two versions had in common with is keyboardist Paolo Malária (that really is his name, I'm not making it up!).

When the band reunited in '89, Malária recruited bassist Jarbas Loop, guitarist Zunga Ezzeat, and drummer Bruno Mega, and the result is this album, "Em Caso de Acidente Quebre Este Disco" (Portuguese for "In case of accident, break this record), released early in 1990. This band was obviously trying to recapture the glory of the '70s prog scene, but there are a few problems too. Malária's keyboard setup is crap, for the most part, it mostly sound like a bunch of plastic toy keyboards with such a ridiculously thin sound, not to mention he's apparently using a digital piano rather than a real one. But at least the band still tried to make some pretty decent '70s style prog that won't offend '70s fans (aside from third rate keyboards).

Nothing really original or mindblowing, or complex, but its effective for what it is. But of real special interest in bassist Jarbas Loop. He applies the slap bass technique in a prog rock context. It's a little unusual to hear slap bass in prog rock (other than, occasionally, Klaus-Peter Matziol's work with ELOY, such as parts of "Ocean" and "Planets"), one usually associate it with Flea of RED CHILI PEPPERS, Larry Graham from SLY & THE FAMILY STONE, and various assorted other bassists from funk groups, or groups influenced by funk (like RED CHILI PEPPERS, PRIMUS, FAITH NO MORE, etc.).

Anyway, it's nice to see someone using the slap bass technique in a genre of music not generally considered funky. I am certain that "Em Caso de Acidente" is not one of Brazil's better prog rock albums, but its decent enough, despite the shortcomings.