SNEGS

As talented as this three-piece was and with as many good moments as there are on this first one, SNdCD kinda just sat there; at least compared to what else was happening in popular music during the early '70s. In rock as much as with any creative medium, maybe more so, at some point you have to grab people by the throat. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

In all seriousness there are quite a few killer bits here and maybe these old ears have just heard way too much vintage stuff to make an objective judgement on the Brazilian trio. But it is rock; you gotta give us something that's .. well .. spectacular. There was just too much else going on in music not to. The croons of Pedrão support slow but well-chorused 'Sinal da Paranoia' which has a neat synth wormhole ribboned through the center and features Manito's drunken fiddle, but 'Bicho do Mato' is a blues-rock shuffle that doesn't quite work unless you're playing Jabba the Hutt's palace. The very nicely counterpointed namesake cut is a keeper, has excellent chord progressions and fine keyboard leads, and six-minute 'Massavilha' steals the thunder with its Emersonian leanings. Spaced-out 'Direccion de Aquarius' is what may be a bad Beatles impression circa Abbey Road, hard to say, but luckily 'A Outra Face' saves us from taking a nice nap and is a mostly well-conceived funk/rock fusion bit with big funereal 'O Guarani' to finish.

A take-it-or-leave-it record, and with the incredible other music that was being issued in their time, this debut simply didn't rise to the challenge. Neither very good nor very bad, most assuredly.