Mutantes (os Mutantes) Tecnicolor [recorded 1970] (2006) (repost)

In 1970, Os Mutantes re-recorded in English a full LP's worth of their best songs, apparently hoping to crack the American and European market. (Brazilian expats Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil would make the same move, for political reasons, one year later.) If ever, the late flowering of the psychedelic era was the perfect time for a Mutantes breakthrough, considering the trio's zany songwriting sense and even more anarchic production methods. And though the album never saw release until the next century - Western audiences proved far more understanding of Sergio Mendes' easy-pop version of Brazilian music forms anyway - Tecnicolor acquired a new lease on life when it was finally reissued in 2000. By no means did Mutantes commercialize their sound…

Three Brazilian teenagers start a garage band. They know nothing of music theory, have no equipment (they built their own guitar pedals and used tin cans as cymbals), but lots and lots of cannabis. Though the existence of Os Mutantes is in itself unremarkable, what is mind-blowing is the top-notch quality of the music. These three teens, Rita Lee (vocals), Sergio Baptista (guitar), and Arnaldo Baptista (drums), while attempting to mimic their heroes in the states, were able to surpass them. This was due to their inability to adequately imitate (due to their geographic isolation), and the band's unfettered creativity. For these reasons, their meld of otherworldly guitar noise, crisp harmonies, and propulsive drumming found no equal among American counterparts like the 13th Floor Elevators and the Electric Prunes…

Mutantes E Seus Cometas No Pais do Baurets is the fifth album by the Brazilian rock band Os Mutantes and the last to feature all three founding members. There was little sound technology available, so they had to invent their own wah-wah, flanger, and phaser pedals, sound systems, and more. The second track is an acoustic ballad where the innocent voice of Rita Lee presents the love declaration of a bitch to her dog, backed by a bumbo leguero (typical instrument of South American countries and a trademark of protesters against dictatorship). It is no surprise that they were hated by the government: censorship delayed the release of the album, due to the title and the lyrics of "Cabeludo Patriota" ("Hairy Patriot")…

There are six tracks on this 1973 album from Brazil's whacked-out Os Mutantes, who had mutated into a band without Claudio Baptista or Rita Lee. Arnaldo Batptista and Sergio Dias were still present and Dinho and Liminha had joined up, but the sound was completely different without Lee and Claudio Baptista to curb Arnaldo's drug-addled excesses. In fact, "A" e o "Z" sounds like a cross between Emerson, Lake & Palmer and PFM with Alex Chilton and Freddie Mercury on vocals. The heavy-duty Hammond organ and mellotron sounds are overbearing in the mix, especially as Dias treats them electronically, giving them more of an oppressive share of the soundscape…

One album into their career in 1969, Mutantes showed few signs of musical burnout after turning in one of the oddest LPs released in the '60s. Similar to its predecessor, Mutantes relies on an atmosphere of experimentation and continual musical collisions, walking a fine line between innovation and pointless genre exercises. The lead track ("Dom Quixote") has the same focus on stylistic cut-and-paste as their debut LP's first track ("Panis et Circenses"). Among the band's musical contemporaries, Mutantes sounds similar only to songs like the Who's miniature suite "A Quick One While He's Away" – though done in three minutes instead of nine, and much more confusing given the language barrier. The album highlights ("Nao Va Se Perder por Ai") and ("Dois Mil e Um") come with what sounds like a typically twisted take on roots music (both Brazilian and American), complete with banjo, accordion, and twangy vocals…

Influential South American psychedelic rock sextet Som Imaginário (Imaginary Sound) formed in 1970 as the backing band behind legendary Minas Gerais singer/songwriter/composer Milton Nascimento. Like Nascimento, the collective shared a fondness for mainstream rock & roll acts like the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, crafting sonic freestyle tapestries that had as much to do with early Pink Floyd and Miles Davis as they did with the tropicalia and MPB movement. Matanca Do Porco (their debut recording) is a not so subtle blend of all three of those sounds, chock-full of humor, super-amplified decadence, and haunting melodies…

Os Mutantes are best known for their psychedelic 60's output with lead vocalist Rita Lee, but they managed to sneak in and record in 1974 a simply fantastic album that deserves lots of attention. Rita Lee had left the band by the time of recording "Tudo foi feito pelo sol" and vocal duties were handed over to Túlio Mourão. Musically this quartet took a plunge into the land of prog rock and the end result is an album full of beautiful melodies and complex instrumental interplay of the best progressive rock one can find. The vocal harmonies are abundant and work to perfection on the album in combination with the symphonic keyboards of Mourão.

The first major-label release of Mutantes material was this 1999 compilation, put together by longtime Brazilian fan David Byrne through his Luaka Bop label. Including tracks from the band's late-'60s and early-'70s LPs (available separately through Omplatten), Everything Is Possible is a solid collection that only includes 14 tracks but does spotlight Mutantes' tremendous diversity. From the birth of tropicalia on their first album from 1968 (wildly experimental pop songs like "Panis Et Circenses" and "Bat Macumba") plus their later, more straight-ahead incarnations, the album gives beginners a solid place to start. The inclusion of both versions of the rather tiresome Janis Joplin retread "Baby" is a bit regrettable, but all around, Everything Is Possible gets it right better than could be hoped from a domestic compilation.