LAR DE MARAVILHAS

Casa das Maquinas was a 70´s band from Brazil that made some impact but never reached the heights of other more prog oriented groups like Mutantes or O Terço. The main reason for that I think it´s because the band was unable to come up with a very distinguished sound of their own, although they did produce some very fine music at the time, and Lar de Maravilhas is probably their very best. After Pique left the band they decided to change their musical style: out was the pop/rock/soul of their debut and enters the progressive/psychedelic/symphonic rock of the moment. For that they recruited a second drummer, Marinho Thomas, thus making Casa das Maquinas one of the very first brazilian bands to have two drummers as permanent members, and a new keyboards player, Mario Testoni Junior, one of the best players around.

The change within their sound was a radical one, but the album was well received, specially by the brazilian prog community. They certainly had the skill and songwriting abilities to pedal in the style and Lar de Maravilhas was a great leap forward, so much so it looked like it was a whole new band. Ok, the lyrics are not that good, but who cares? The vocals are above average and the instrumental passages are great, with some very inspired guitar/keyboards interplay, backed by a fine rhythm section. The songs stood well the test of time and some tracks like Astralização, Vale Verde and the title tracks are good samplers of the best prog rock produced in Brazil at the time, while Raios de Lua showed they could also write good prog folk stuff. The only exception is Epidemia de Rock, a typical simple rock and roll ditty, that may had worked well live, but really does not fit in here. I remember that almost all brazilian bands had to have a "real" rock song to prove they could... well.. rock. The cheese spoken words on the intro of O Sol/Reflexo Ativo is something they should have dropped off on the final cut. However, the remaining stuff more than compensate these missteps.

With a good production for the times, Lar de Maravilhas is one of the most interesting prog albums of the brazilian scene in the mid-70´s. It promised greater things that, unfortunately did not materialised. In any case, this a great find and an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection. Then, 4 stars it is.