Os Mutantes - Os Mutantes

Released - June 1968

Genre - Psychedelic

Producer - Manoel Barenbein

Selected Personnel - Arnaldo Baptista (Vocals/Keyboards/Bass); Rita Lee (Vocals/Recorder/Autoharp/Percussion); Sergio Dias (Vocals/Guitar); Jorge Ben (Vocals/Guitar); Clarisse Leite (Piano); Gilberto Gil (Percussion)

Standout Track - Bat Macumba

This album has been one I've known for a long time before finally relenting very recently and persuading myself that I was going to put it on this list after all. Don't get me wrong - there are some moments on Os Mutantes that are truly, truly great. There's also a lot of fairly duff filler (including most of the album's second half), so I've always struggled to really convince myself that I can honestly put my hand on my heart and hold it up as a "great" album. I've listened to it again a few times recently and come to the conclusion that the good stuff is just so plain nuts and stupid that I can't help but love the whole thing. Of all the out-there psychedelic weirdness committed to record in the late 60s, Os Mutantes have to be up there as one of the weirdest groups of the lot, and I love them for it. Their self-titled debut is a kaleidoscopic parade of nonsense and ridiculous fun, and it's astonishing I allowed myself to be grumpily cynical about it for so long.

Os Mutantes were originally formed in 1966 by brothers Arnaldo and Sergio Dias Baptista, who played bass, keyboards, guitar and vocals between them. They were joined by lead vocalist Rita Lee, and began making a name for themselves in Sao Paulo and Brazil in general before falling in with the Tropicalia movement. I've not heard any recordings of the band's early stuff before meeting the likes of Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, so have no idea how radically their sound was transformed if at all, but Gil and Veloso were certainly instrumental in helping the band achieve wider significance. They were two of the leading figures involved in the Tropicalia artistic movement, which in music manifested itself as the merging of traditional Brazilian and African musical styles and rhythms with American and English psychedelic rock and roll. Os Mutantes soon became equally significant figures within the Tropicalia movement, contributing to the scene's "manifesto" album Tropicalia - Panis Et Circenses in 1968 and also recording their own debut album, which featured a number of Gil and Veloso's compositions alongside their own.

From the off, the colourful and nonsensical tone is made very clear. The cartoonish horn fanfare that kicks of Gil and Veloso's "Panis Et Circenses" is silly enough, then after a minute or so of its fairground melody, the entire record winds to a stop as if removed from the turntable before starting up again, no doubt a mischievous prank to try and trick listeners into thinking they'd bought a faulty copy. Then there's the buzzing, almost discordant distorted guitar of "A Minha Menina" that drones alongside its otherwise chirpy acoustic guitar riff to make it sound ever more cartoonish. The catchy and insistent rhythms of "Adeus, Maria Fulo" are augmented by the squeaking of a cueca that's so fun it even keeps the joy of the song alive when the melody becomes slightly turgid. "Baby" is an irresistibly catchy slice of 60s pop with undoubtedly the most infectious chorus of the record, and "Senhor F" is another great fairground-sounding pop song whose finest moment is perhaps its steam-train whistle at the beginning if not its jubilant horn break in the middle, and "Bat Macumba" is the finest moment of the record, a party tune whose gleefully shouted chorus, tribal percussion and jittery, insect-like guitar making it an irresistibly brilliant song. Up until this point the only major misstep has been the tepid ballad "O Relogio," but sadly from "Bat Macumba" onwards there's not really anything that captures my attention much or sticks in my mind, while things like the cover of Francoise Hardy's "Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour" are positively wearisome.

The whole thing is swathed in layers of reverb and distortion, either as a deliberate effect or due to slightly dodgy recording equipment (or perhaps a combination of both) so that the overall effect is that of listening to a transmission from a distant, forgotten cartoon world where everything is somehow intangible and somehow infinitely more fun than everything solid and real and permanent that we have here. It would become one of the most lasting and popular albums of the band's career, while Os Mutantes themselves would become revered as one of the very greatest rock bands in Brazil's history, although the band's original lineup would gradually fragment during the 70s due to drug issues and personal resentments. Gil and Veloso, meanwhile, were arrested and exiled by Brazil's totalitarian military government in 1969 for opposing the 1964 coup d'etat that had put the government in place, limiting their possible involvement with Os Mutantes for the next few years. While I love this colourful little time capsule of a record, it's never compelled me to urgently seek out more of Os Mutantes' discography, but there are a few moments of such greatness here that it might be something I look into one day.

Track Listing:

1. Panis Et Circenses (Gilberto Gil & Caetano Veloso)

2. A Minha Menina (Jorge Ben)

3. O Relogio (Arnaldo Baptista; Rita Lee & Sergio Dias)

4. Adeus, Maria Fulo (Sivuca & Humberto Teixeira)

5. Baby (Caetano Veloso)

6. Senhor F (Arnaldo Baptista; Rita Lee & Sergio Dias)

7. Bat Macumba (Gilberto Gil & Caetano Veloso)

8. Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour (Franck Gerald & Jean Renard)

9. Trem Fantasma (Caetano Veloso; Arnaldo Baptista; Rita Lee & Sergio Dias)

10. Tempo No Tempo (John Phillips, arranged by Arnaldo Baptista; Rita Lee & Sergio Dias)

11. Ave Genghis Khan (Arnaldo Baptista; Rita Lee & Sergio Dias)