Customer Reviews

World Psychedelic Classics 1: Brazil: The Best Of Os Mutantes/Everything Is Possible!

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brazilian Tropicalia stars Os Mutantes - Rita Lee, the Baptista Brothers - were/are one of the most unique bands in the world. Like many later-60s artists, they were significantly influenced by the Beatles, but they took their brand of psychedelia to even more exotically far flung resorts than the Fabs, such as Opera, Bossa Nova, film music, and South American folk. This may sound mad, and it is, but Mutantes were a happy 'experimental' band and were never less than joyously melodic. It is therefore no little achievement of the compilers of this Best Of... album to make them sound like an easy listening act. The first half comprises of a barrage of mellow ballads, all of which are excellent, the problem being that it was the variety in texture and tempo of Mutantes music that made them so unpredictably exciting, and this is precisely what is missing from the so-called 'Everything is Possible'.

It's almost criminal that the first four and last two tracks from their second album, Mutantes, aren't included here, a little like having a 'best of' the Beatles without A Day In the Life or Strawberry Fields. So forget this dubious piece of revisionist Os Mutantes history then and buy their first three albums, Os Mutantes, Mutantes and A Davina Comedia Ou. You won't look back and I assure you you'll never want to listen to boring old chart-friendly manufactured pap again.

I first caught Os Mutantes in a Hoboken record store; I was
learning Portuguese at the time and recognized some of the
lyrics. However, the funky guitar riffs and hilarious
inside jokes really hooked me. This marked the beginning
of my journey into Brazilian sound, which honestly looks to
last as long as any walk up the Amazon.

Highlights are Bat Macumba and Cantor de Mambo, but a few
listens will really turn you onto something different,
guaranteed.

Mutantes had their debut in 1966, recording the compact vynil release 'O Suicida', when they were still 'O'Seis', their former name. It was an efervecent period: we had Bossa Nova, plus Tropicalia, plus Militry Government, plus young rebels, plus Brazilian Popular Music purists, and so on... In fact, Os Mutantes were not such a success at that time: they were much ahead of their time. According to Rita Lee Jones, the singer, all was just fun, kinda child's play. It would have been a child's play IF musical scenery did not turn to be so boring, so uncreative... Maybe Punk Rock have been a good attempt, but it seemed 'to have died on the shore'... Or swallowed by massification. Mutantes IS worth listening. Perhaps they are still ahead of our time, and perhaps the three of them do no care a dime for this international reissue of their past. Rita has her own successful career, Sérgio tried his solo career as a progressive guitarist, but in the seventies there were progressive guitarists like sand in the desert... And Arnaldo, well, Arnaldo was a real Mutante: although very talented, he believed that their success was due to their individual talent (of his and his brother Sérgio)... And when they 'invited' Rita to leave the group (1973), 'the group' blew down like a castle of cards. Rita went on with her experimental successful music (1974 on), Sérgio fell into progressive rock and Arnaldo into ostracism. This little sample of Mutantes is not the best of them. There are a lot of good mutantes songs in the two solo albuns of Rita during Mutantes: 'Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto de sua vida' (1970), and 'Build Up' (1972). There is also 'Mutantes e seus cometas no planeta dos Beaurets' (1972), the last with Rita. The following Mutantes recordings (without Rita) were 'Tudo foi feito pelo sol' (1974) and 'Mutantes ao vivo' (1976), both with poor progressive rock. Nothing to do with real Mutantes. And if you really liked Mutantes, try one of the following Rita recordings: 'Atrás do porto tem uma cidade' (1974); 'Fruto proibido' (1975); 'Refestança' (1977); 'Babilônia' (1978). And if you want to learn more about them, drop me a line.

I am absolutely astonished that the work of Os Mutantes -- and indeed, Tropicalia in general -- has completely passed under the radar of American and British psychedelic music fans like myself. This excellent compilation shows Os Mutantes to be a band of enormous talent, creativity, and versatility, on an easy par with Brit psych/experimental groups like the Small Faces and "Piper"-era Floyd (and damn near coming close to the Beatles in terms of resonance) and US practitioners of the form like Hendrix and the San Fran bands. A wide variety of styles make an ("Panis Et Circenses," "Adeus Maria Fulo") to the deeper psychedelia of the second album ("Dia 36" and "Fuga No. 11") to a tougher, guitar oriented sound on the selections from 1970's "A Divina Comedia". Something for everyone, indeed. And a group has a hell of a lot of fun ripping it up, pulling weird sounds and instruments out of their hats, and generally making with the creativity.

Their work cannot be underestimated, and it's fantastic that its finally finding an audience outside of Brazil.

(You will all do very well to check out Omplatten's reissue of their first three records, as well -- "Os Mutantes," "Mutantes," and "A Divina Comedia."

Astonishing.

I feel guilty giving this release only three stars. Let's face it, the Mutantes were a great band, but this is only a so-so compilation. It only gives you a small piece of the big picture. For one thing, like Luaka Bop's compilation of Tom Ze, it tends to over-concentrate on one album (in this case the Mutantes first). This leaves little room for songs from their other (very good) albums, most notably their second album, Mutantes, and their fourth album, Jardim Electrico. Hoje e o primeiro dia del resto de sua vida (?), a Mutantes album in all but name, is criminally unrepresented.

Secondly, the compilers definitely have a bias towards the poppier end of the Mutantes' musical spectrum. There's very little guitar pyrotechics here except on the parodic Cantor de Mambo (Mutantes roast Santana) and Bat Macumba. Believe me, the Mutantes could really play. To hear "Baby" without it being preceded by the rock guitar excess of "Sarava" is really disappointing. The Mutantes took part in one of the greatest musical revolutions in the history of pop music, Tropicalia. Like other musicians who took part in this movement, such as Caetano Veloso, Gil Gilberto, Gal Costa and Tom Ze. The Mutantes cleverly played with musical forms, laughed at rock/art pretension, took apart and recombined elements of pop, rock, jazz, psychedelia, folk, bossa nova, classical music, etc. You don't get the same sense of fun from the song selection on this CD.
Call me a crazy fan, but I whole-heartedly recommend every Mutantes album, most particularly Os Mutantes (the first), Mutantes (the second) and Jardim Electrico. Anyone who loves the fun-filled musical explorations of sixties music will love this band. (And anyone who doesn't is a stick in the mud, old fuddy-duddy.)

WOW!! I'm just blown away by this great band's music! It is a rare blend of American `60's garage-band raunch, British Mersey-beat and Brazilian bossa nova & samba. Beware! It is as addicting as the mind-expanding drugs that Os Mutantes was surly on while in their South American heyday (case in point, Ando Meio Desligado, a song about the hallucinogenic powers of marijuana). fpr.

A couple of years ago, I bought the second Nuggets box set, the one that features psychedelic '60's music from outside of the U.S.A. (the first set was almost exclusively American). Anyhow, one of the songs on that second set was an odd tune called "Bat Macumba" by a strange Brazilian group called "Os Mutantes" ("The Mutants"). I liked the song right away, but as I listened to it a few times, it really began to get under my skin. When I got a chance to hear more from this band (via this album, "Everything is Possible"), I realized that "Bat Macumba" was not a fluke.

To be a little less indirect, Os Mutantes made some of the most daring, exciting, off-the-wall-and-yet-surprisingly-listenable music I've ever heard. Discovering this music was for me one of those truly mind-expanding, change-your-life kind of events. It actually makes me want to learn Portuguese in the same way that Dostoyevsky made me want to learn Russian. It's also opened my ears to Tropicalia, a style I was never really aware of before, but which I am now beginning to explore.

I should warn the prospective listener that this stuff is pretty wierd. In fact, if I understand it correctly, wierdness for wierdness' sake (or perhaps for creativity's sake) was a big part of what Tropicalia was all about. But if you can stand the wiredness, and listen with an open mind and open ears, Os Mutantes' music is very, very rewarding. This album (on which there is not a single bad song, by the way) is a good place to start, if only because it's still in print. It might also give you an introductory glance into a whole movement (and a whole culture) of which you may have known little.

Mutantes had their debut in 1966, recording the compact vynil release 'O Suicida', when they were still 'O'Seis', their former name. It was an Government, plus young rebels, plus Brazilian Popular Music purists, and so were much ahead of their time. According to Rita Lee Jones, the singer, all was just fun, kinda child's play. It would have been a child's play IF musical scenery did not turn to be so boring, so uncreative... Maybe Punk Rock have been a good attempt, but it seemed 'to have died on the shore'... Or swallowed by massification. Mutantes IS worth listening. Perhaps they are still ahead of our time, and perhaps the three of them do no care a dime for this international reissue of their past. Rita has her own successful career, Sérgio tried his solo career as a progressive guitarist, but in the seventies there were progressive guitarists like sand in the talented, he believed that their success was due to their individual talent (of his and his brother Sérgio)... And when they 'invited' Rita to leave the group (1973), 'the group' blew down like a castle of cards. Rita went on with her experimental successful music (1974 on), Sérgio fell into progressive rock and Arnaldo into ostracism. This little sample of Mutantes is not the best of them. There are a lot of good mutantes songs resto de sua vida' (1970), and 'Build Up' (1972). There is also 'Mutantes e seus cometas no planeta dos Beaurets' (1972), the last with Rita. The following Mutantes recordings (without Rita) were 'Tudo foi feito pelo sol' (1974) and 'Mutantes ao vivo' (1976), both with poor progressive rock. Nothing to do with real Mutantes. And if you really liked Mutantes, try (1974); 'Fruto proibido' (1975); 'Refestança' (1977); 'Babilônia' (1978). And if you want to learn more about them, drop me a line.

I love it! I walked into a CD store the other day which had a display of Psychedelic music. In the middle was this CD.

I never make impulse purchases, but after listening to the fist 30 seconds of the first track, I knew I had to have it.

If you find this album, buy it. You won't regret it!

Not to dis the super-fine work that Luakabop does (because they are number 1 in my book) but if you can get your hands on a Polygram release called "Mutantes - Personalidade" this might be the most psychedelic compilation of the bunch. It's by far the best I've come across. It may be out of print too. It has much of what you see here, plus many others that I'm surprised to find are not on this one. There is no disappointment with this one. And the recordings themselves are absolutely unbelievable in quality...buy the Luakabop comp and then buy the Polygram compilation...you decide...