Os Mutantes

The thread started with the rereleased (originally unreleased, then exhumed a few years ago, then back in oblivion again) band offering Tecnicolor

I just caught up with it.

Here's one description from Jason:

Quote

Upon recruiting bassist and future hit producer Liminha (allowing Arnaldo to move from bass to keyboards) and drummer Dinho, the band embarked to France to record their crossover LP, Tecnicolor. Recorded in English as an attempt to break into the Western market, this album toned down the experimentation to more "acceptable" levels and offered remade versions of several Mutantes classics

The only real modification I might make to that is possibly to edit 'several' to 'nearly all' covers of past Mutantes material. More than not is present on the Everything is Possible 'best of' in its non-English lyrics original form . Same compilation also has both versions of 'Baby'.

That song was the right cut among the auto-covers to pick, the best original reinterpretation, and a great performance in its own right.

I'm not sure Tecnicolor was intended to be more 'accessible' except at the level of English (or in one case French) language comprehensibility, probably the greatest overall thing in this disc's favor (it's really nice to know what they're singing about!) They're as Mutant as ever, just stripped of those excellently odd studio arrangements.

This is more like 'live-in-studio Mutantes' playing their greatest hits

I would definitely go for the originals first. Nonetheless, a song or two arguably improves without the fancy psychedelia weighing it down; others supply excellent alternative takes: among them Gilberto Gil's Bat Macumba, the Louie Louie of Brazilian music, one of the most coverable and re-coverable idiot-riffs ever coined, the rallying cry of Tropicalia, a fundamental root-music source of eternally refreshed inspiration, always a gas when vamped and revamped by the whole gang it belonged to (and listen to Gil's own versions some time: he owns this movement as much as the Mutantes, along with fellow travellers like Caetano and Gail: don't discount them, buy them all!); yet others justify themselves through the English lyrics alone: the Veloso-Gil Panes et Circenses being the most noteworthy example with its scenario og The same old people always dining inside busy with their food till they die, and the singer trying to speed that death along by commissioning a stainless steel sword to kill/wake up his yuppie girlfriend from her shallow, jet set same old samba trance. And the Gilbert Becaud cover Le Premier Bonheur du Jour is a nice tribute to the local troubador tradition in their adopted land (though also available on Everything is Possible, as is band original El Justiciero...I'm mentioning that to keep a tally on cd-overlap for those interested)

Speaking of Mutantes in France, were they visiting to make international inroads as prime reason...or were they also temporarily in political exile from the ruling party at home? Both Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso were making records in English at the same time mainly because they had no other viable choice, settling in England rather than a prison cell. Any knowledge on this stage of the band history?

(And Sean Ono Lennon's back cover illustration is also 'not bad at all', my characterization of this generally groovy Mutantes offering, generally)

The Smiley Smile Message Board