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Os Mutantes - Haih or Amortecedor
| Pitchfork |
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Os Mutantes were the kids of the Tropicália movement. Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Zé, Rogerio Duprat, Gal Costa, and the others weren't exactly oldsters themselves during the movement's brief heyday, but they all carried themselves with a degree of seriousness and projected themselves as artists in a way Rita Lee and brothers Sérgio Dias and Arnaldo Baptista never did and perhaps even couldn't. The trio that named itself the Mutants attacked rock'n'roll with rebellious, gleeful abandon, using homemade effects pedals and layering on wacky sound effects to cover up the bits of their songs the Brazilian military censors found most offensive. Their five albums together still sound vital and exciting today, but Lee left in 1972 and the brothers-- and ultimately just Sérgio Dias-- carried on until 1978. That period of Os Mutantes isn't well-known outside of Brazil, but suffice to say it hasn't aged as well. They were as prone to prog excess as any psych band that survived past 1970, and though their music retained its wild spirit and Brazilian character, it also got tighter, more bombastic, and less infectious. Their last studio album came out 35 years ago, and Os Mutantes were a memory until 2006, when Baptista and Dias got back on stage with Zélia Duncan standing in for Rita Lee. Baptista and Duncan both appeared on the band's quality 2007 live album, but both were gone by the time Haih was recorded, and Dias reached out to a couple of old Tropicália warriors, Jorge Ben and Tom Zé, for a hand writing the songs. Zé co-wrote six songs with Dias, and he proves a sympathetic partner, turning in a salad of modern imagery, biting satire, and pointed commentary for the band to sing (in Portuguese, I should add-- nothing apart from bits of "Neurociência Do Amor" and "Samba do Fidel" is sung in English on this record)....full text |
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| Prefixmag |
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Haih is the first record to be released by Os Mutantes in 35 years. Cited by such all-stars as Beck, the Flaming Lips, and Nirvana as being one of the most influential figures to come out of the tropicalia movement, bandleader Sergio Dias Baptista has nonetheless kept the Os Mutantes name quiet until now. Haih features lyrics written by fellow Brazilian musical legend Tom Ze, as well as a collaboration with Jorge Ben. Baptista said regarding the album, “Living the conception and birth of this album, as an individual, was the most intense experience, for it was as if time has ceased to exist, and I was bouncing from life to life, decades through decades, revisiting myself as a 16-year-old boy playing guitar and feeling so free and, as any teenager, indestructible.” ...full text |
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| Spin |
| The house band of Tropicália -- Brazil’s late-’60s art movement so revolutionary that the government shut it down -- has been championed by Kurt Cobain, imitated by Beck, and reissued by David Byrne. Here, a founding multi-instrumentalist member, a longtime bassist, and several supportive additions forgo the initial trio’s psychedelic pop for angular guitar riffs and agile Latin rhythms that evoke an adventurous, timeless sense of fun. Tropicália pioneer Tom Zé cowrites several Portuguese-language tracks, suggesting the politicized musical theater manifestos of a distant wild planet....full text |
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