TUBARÕES VOADORES

Arrigo's followup to his landmark, avant album "Clara Crocodilo" took four years to release, and is one of the most ambitious albums I've come across. Arrigo Barnabe is a keyboardist and composer from Brazil who also sings, but that rough sounding, almost spoken delivery is not my thing. Especially the vocoder on two of the tracks. His debut from 1980 protested the military backed government at the time in Brazil, adding in sexual stuff helping to add to the Frank Zappa influence.

This followup album from 1984 continues with the focus on the vocals, in fact they are so theatrical both the male and female, and they seem to feed off each other. All in Portuguese of course. Over 80 people were involved with the making of this album including those in the studio. This is such an entertaining album. Ten tracks and forty minutes in length, it is a mixed bag and a step down from the debut in my opinion. A lot of silliness on both and plenty of horns but the vocals rule the day. I should mention that there are three orchestral conductors on this album, each on one track where we get plenty of strings in play.

Ambitious! But 3 stars is all I got. The cover art is worth 5 stars though!