BACAMARTE

1- Instrumental 2- Sung 3- Instrumental 4- Sung 5- Instrumental 6- Sung 7- Instrumental 8- Sung

UFO is a great introduction that already from the beginning marks the qualities that the album will have, except for one that appears in the next song (Smog Alado): The beautiful and sweet voice of Jane Duboc that brings autochthonous features to the album. In the 8 songs, all the instruments play more or less the same role, only that at times some of them take more strength while the others, diminishing their protagonism, let them show off. My favourite piece of this wonderful work is "Último Entardecer".

I knew Depois Do Fim from many years prior from being in touch with this excellent site. I always considered it a good album, but never as a favorite of mine or as a musical achievement able to make me fall in love with.

When I found it here, I was curious of knowing general feelings of members site about its quality. There is a massive amount of good reviews, but from none of them I could really develop a sense of identification. My next step was to try the other side, the bad ones, which were a little bit rare to be found; and in two reviews from specialists there were visions I could share in a proper way.

In one of those reviews there was a vision that this album surpassed many classical album of progressive rock. At the time of that review this feeling was very strong because Depois Do Fim was much better positioned in Top Progressive Albums list then now. And I have to agree with Mr. Gatot, the reviewer, an classical albums like Relayer, Birds Of Fire and A Farewell To King are much better ones.

But the review I agree more is the one from Epignosis; where musical comments about this album´s quality were really weel performed and posted, I would give easily three stars for this album, it is really good but not essential, but as I saw so many points of agreement with that reviewer, I am going to repeat his rating even with a feeling of being a little bit rude.

That´s it. After insistence of my son I started performing reviews here. Probably there will be more disagreement among us than coincidence in ratings.

There's something special that makes this album a pleasure to listen to. A good deal of the songs were composed in a very creative way. There's harmony within the instruments and vocals, specially the flute from Marcus Moura and the amazing guitar from Mario Neto, accompanied by Jane Duboc's vocal. We can't deny that there's a huge influence of Italian Progressive Rock when listening to the tracks and other Symphonic Prog Rock bands.

For an 80's album, when "Progressive Rock was almost a terminal patient", as stated by the Radio Fluminense coordinator, in the back cover of Bacamarte's LP, he was astonished to receive such work of art by Mario Neto in his studios.

Bacamarte's LP is very hard to find nowadays, and recently there was an increase of people searching for this album that boosted prices for used copies. Maybe a re-issue would be interesting, so new generations could listen to this wonderful and essential masterpiece.

Mario Neto actually proves that he can write quite melodic and pleasantly listenable (mostly) instrumental music. His style is a mix of classical, jazz and rock influences plus a bit of brazilian flavors to spice it up, sometimes sounding like the great Toninho Horta. The vocals are ok, I guess, he is not a bad singer, and the short tunes are also interesting, but the best staff are the long pieces like the opener Portais, Espírito da Terra, the aforementioned Mirante das Estrelas and the 11 minute closer Canto da Esfinge. All very well written, performed and produced, and this is quite impressive specially when you think that this complex pieces are all played by two people.

In the end I found this album to be quite good. It´s unfair to compare this one to the only "real" Bacamarte album, I really don´t get why the name of the band is on its cover. But if you like good guitar (with a few nice, short, synth solos) this is an album to consider buying. It´s better than 90% guitar players solo albums that I have heard through my life. A nice little surprise.

"Controversia" is not a controversial instrumental workout in a typical Bacamarte manner. The title track has a very solemn synth start and returns down to earth with the female vocals.

The bonus track has synth drums and is not on par with the original tracks.

"Sete Cidades" is the debut and only studio album of Mário Neto of Bacamarte and was released in 1999. The line up on the album is Mário Neto and Robério Molinari.

Since the late 70's, progressive rock has been on decline due to the appearance of less elaborated and heavier music styles such as Punk, or more the pop and the dance styles such as the Disco Music. Because of that, many groups of this genre ended their careers at that time like Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator or, therefore, adhered to more commercial sonorities such as those mentioned, losing all progressivity and creativity, with Genesis and Yes being the most famous examples. In the meantime, it was released in 1983, by an improbable country called Brazil, an album that rescued what was best in prog style, being considered a renaissance of erudition in music. I'm talking about "Depois Do Fim" ("After The End"), the debut and only album of Bacamarte, a very excellent proposal, especially at the time.

The band emerged in Rio de Janeiro in 1974, and after almost ten years changing their line up and trying to get a contract, they released "Depois Do Fim" in 1983. Its founder was guitarist Mário Neto who had, initially, the idea to mount an instrumental band. The music of Bacamarte came naturally from a fusion of the group's musical influences, the classical music, studied since the childhood, and the music of The Beatles. In short, this is the origin of the particular sonority of the band. It's worth mentioning that the album was also produced by Mário Neto. The success of the album, which made the group consecrated in Europe and Japan, didn't stop the band from ending in 1984. In the 90's, guitarist Mário Neto released the album "Sete Cidades" ("Seven Cities"), with the codename Bacamarte.

Neto is a great guitarist with a classical formation. The great differential in Bacamarte is Neto's guitar, which oscillates between climates, textures and soils with great tranquillity. His guitar style is unique. He plays his guitar only with fingering, without straws. He performs fast scales, complicated chords and lavish technique, be it classical, jazz or whatever the style is. He also changes from guitars, easily. In 1977, Bacamarte already had a considerable amount of music for the band. Neto got a performance in the global program Rock Concert. The visibility of the program presentation served two things. First was to get a studio and record the songs with sufficient quality. The other, very unusual, was the harassment suffered by Neto on the part of the businessman of the English band Genesis, who had toured some Brazilian cities and was about to lose his guitarist, Steve Hackett. The production of Genesis was deeply impressed with the amazing guitar technique of Neto and invited him to integrate Genesis. Although this sounded like a dream coming true, Mário choose to continue in Brazil, due to a request of his parents and because he was still a minor.

"Portais" is a great open that follows the same style of "Depois Do Fim". It has a gentle intro of 2 minutes, a bombastic middle part and a string final part. I can see here strong influences of Italian bands, especially early PFM. "Ritual Da Felicidade" is a short, strange and extravagant track all made by percussions. It has some tribal sounds strongly influenced by Afro-Brazilian musical culture, which seems to be a little bit out of context on the album. "Filhos Do Sol" is another short track, but this time, in a symphonic vein. It's a very simple track sung by Neto. He has a good voice, and it has a nice flute section and a mellotron based chorus really outstanding. "Espíritos Da Terra" represents a return to the more conventional symphonic territory. It's almost an acoustic track, very soft and melodic, with a spacey and ambient music. This is perhaps the best track on the album. "Mirante Das Estrelas" appears after on "Depois Do Fim" as a bonus track. It's another excellent track with a nice guitar work by Neto, including an excellent synthesizer solo in the end, in the style of Steve Howe. This is one of the centerpieces of the album. "Carta" is another short acoustic track with vocals by Neto. The song is agreeable but is slightly spoiled by the voice of Neto. "Canto Da Esfinge/Portais" is the lengthiest track on the album. It alternates between calm and frantic passages, showing great instrumental work. It's amazing that only one man could have played almost all this alone. This track represents a nice ending for the album.

Conclusion: "Sete Cidades" is inferior to "Depois Do Fim", but it's quite interesting and in some parts, very surprising. It has some great tracks like "Portais", "Espíritos Da Terra", "Mirante Das Estrelas" and "Canto Da Esfinge/Portais". Nevertheless, the rest of the album doesn't introduce anything new or any particularly surprising break through, in comparison to their stunning debut album. The main leading instrument here, as usual, is the tasteful guitar work by Neto. The man is really a very gifted guitarist and no wonder that someone in Genesis have been interested on him to substitute Hackett. But the main real weak point is the vocal work. Despite not be so bad, it isn't really a great work, indeed. Anyway and fortunately, this episode doesn't spoil the overall quality of the album. This is indeed a nice album.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Bacamarte was a Brazilian symphonic progressive rock band formed in 1974. The band was formed by three colleagues from the Marist College San Jose in Rio de Janeiro, but because of their ages, they soon disbanded. The band suffered several lines up changes all over the time and in 1977, Mario Neto, the guitarist of the group, reformed the band with a new set of musicians. It was with this new line up that they recorded this great and fantastic musical opus piece.

"Depois Do Fim" is considered one of the best progressive Brazilian rock albums, and it can be considered also as some of the best and most expressive creations of the main bands of the genre, like Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant and Camel, especially because it was released in a very difficult times for progressive rock.

The music of "Depois Do Fim" is rich and symphonic, with wonderful keyboards and an excellent flute work that illuminates the compositions with full of pomp. The band has their biggest influence in the Italian school of progressive rock, mirroring in bands like, Locanda Del Fate, Premiata Forneria Marconi and Quella Vecchia Locanda. Some tracks are instrumental while others feature some vocals in Portuguese, influenced by bands like Renaissance and Curved Air.

The line up on "Depois Do Fim" is Jane Duboc (vocals), Mario Neto (acoustic and electric guitars), Marcus Moura (flute and accordion), Delto Simas (acoustic and electric basses), Sergio Villarim (keyboards), Marco Veríssimo (drums) and Mr. Paul (percussion).

"Depois Do Fim" is the debut studio album of Bacamarte and was released in 1983. The album has eight tracks. The first track "Ufo" is an instrumental track very influenced by the classical music. It's a memorable song with a very beautiful classical guitar entry and has a very beautiful flute work, too. It has also a magnificent keyboard performance and a beautiful choral part. But, the main important thing here is the performance of the guitarist Neto, which is fantastic. The second track "Smog Alado" is a very good track. It's a song that reminds me Jethro Tull, in some parts, due to the flute performance of Moura. This is the song where we can listen, for the first time, the very beautiful voice of Jane. The third track "Miragem" is another fantastic instrumental track. This is a song with great use and influence of organ and flute. The sound of the flute is very classic and beautiful. However, what catches more my attention again, is the magnificent guitar work of Neto. It has an exotic, complex and intricate guitar performance that reminds me the Swedish symphonic band, Anglagard. The fourth track "Pássaro De Luz" is a small but is at the same time a very nice acoustic piece. It's a classic acoustic song very well performed by Neto and where once more we can hear the beautiful voice of Jane. The fifth track "Caño" is another short song, another instrumental track. The main musical instrument focused on this song is the accordion of Moura. It's a fantastic progressive track, and sincerely, I think this is one of the best examples of how a two minutes song can be a great progressive track. The sixth track "Último Entardecer" is the lengthiest track and represents the great opus of the album. This is a perfect progressive song. It has the fantastic voice of Jane, has great individual musical performances and has, especially, the best and the most memorable guitar performance of Neto, which is absolutely wonderful. The seventh track "Controvérsia" is another short instrumental song, a kind of a transitional track. It's a song dominated by the musical style of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. The eighth and last track "Depois Do Fim" represents also one of the highest moments on the album. Once more it has everything of what is present on "Último Entardecer". It's a song that proves once more that Neto is a truly genius guitar player.

Conclusion: I want thank to Progarchives because, once more, this site made me know another unknown progressive pearl. Sincerely, this is the only Brazilian progressive rock album that I know, until now. I agree with my Brazilian brother (this is how we, Portuguese and Brazilians, like to call to ourselves), of this site Evandro Martini, when he wrote that is a shame that Brazil and Portugal are so distant culturally, when he reviewed "Onde, Quando, Como, Porquê, Cantamos Pessoas Vivas" of Quarteto 1111. We are so close and so far, at the same time, my friend. I really think that we can do some parallelism between "Depois Do Fim" and "10.000 Anos Depois Entre Vénus E Marte", de solo album of José Cid. Both albums are from two countries with a very small tradition in the progressive rock music, both have lyrics in Portuguese, both are symphonic, both are masterpieces, both can be considered the two best progressive albums of our countries, and above all, both have achieved the rare status of being considered two cult albums. I think we may say that Portugueses and Brazilians can be proud of these two fantastic prog albums, especially because they honour our common mother tongue, the Portuguese language. "Depois Do Fim" is a very rare, special and unique prog rock album, very varied and very well performed. It can't be missed by any serious prog rock lover in any part of the world.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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Beautiful and delicate melodies, sweet instrumental solos, slick drumming and on top of all that, we've got some really expressive female vocals sung in her native language. Sounds like the prefect album? Except it isn't. Well... at least for me. First - the melodies don't lead the listener anywhere, they just come and go. Nothing really caught my ear. There are solos but they're quite uninspired and don't break any new grounds. It was '84. We'd heard this before. Second - the choice of instruments could've been better. I feel like there's too much of that constant Solina wash, that's to me a really cheap way of adding texture. The other sound that gets on my nerves is this synth generated faux clavinet. What is this? Some kinda Atari 2600 game? It's too harsh and spoils the beauty of the arrangement. Third - the lead vocals are IMO really nasal and throaty. I feel like the singer was trying to add too much emotion resulting in a very "dumb" tone. Like, you know... Kermit the frog. Also, it sometimes reaches that "whine" territory. Jane Duboc was no Annie Halsam. Not many gals can pull this off and here I'd call it a fail. Sorry, guys. I really don't like the vocal portion of this record. Like... I sometimes think the vocals ruin some of the potentially lovable passages. So to sum it up... the album would've been awesome (I mean on paper it's impeccable), in my view but it suffers from poor/lazy arrangement and uninspired compositions plus the final nail to the coffin - the vocals. Sorry guys. As much as I'd love to enjoy this record, it's a wonderful journey... of cliches soaked in nasal whine.

The concept of the album is somewhat vague, but from my interpretation of the lyrics it deals with an apocalyptic, after-war and after-alien invasion world. It tries to portray the invasion (UFO), some mystic creatures along the way (Smog Alado), hope riding along everything (Pássaro de Luz) and a couple more things. And it does it Astonishing-ly (pun intended) well.

The Symphonic instrumentation always present (something you really rarely get in Brazilian music), like the keyboards in UFO, the catchy acoustic guitar riffs, combining Brazilian folk with international Prog elements seen in big bands like Genesis and Yes, everything combines into something quite memorable and unique. Something worth the physical copy, for sure.

Bacamarte gives me hope for Brazilian music, and I hope it does to you as well.