du os

Antonio de Cabezón, “The Spanish Bach”, was among the most important composers of his time and the first major Iberian keyboard composer. Blind from childhood he was a musician at the court of Charles the V since 1526. HR Recordings is proud to present the complete recording of his keyboard music in several volumes performed by Javier Jiménez at some of the most beautiful Spanish historical organs.

The band's debut album, Os Mutantes, is far and away their best - a wildly inventive trip that assimilates orchestral pop, whimsical psychedelia, musique concrète, found-sound environments - and that's just the first song! Elsewhere there are nods to Carnaval, albeit with distinct hippie sensibilities, incorporating fuzztone guitars and go-go basslines. Two tracks, "O Relogio" and "Le Premier Bonheur du Jour," work through pastoral French pop, sounding closer to the Swingle Singers than Gilberto Gil. Though not all of the experimentation succeeds - the languid Brazilian blues of "Baby" is rather cumbersome - and pop/rock listeners may have a hard time finding the hooks, Os Mutantes' first album is an astonishing listen. It's far more experimental than any of the albums produced by the era's first-rate psychedelic bands of Britain or America.