Os Mutantes- ST (1968)

Os Mutantes- ST (1968)

There’s a saying by roman poet Juvenal that’s goes: “Give bread and circus to the people”, meaning to distract people with mundane and ephemeral offerings in order to win their favors, a basic without a doubt of today’s populism, that has caused so much damage in Latin America, governments have employed those tactics since lost of years ago, sudden raises on salaries that have no logic and that end up causing hyper inflation on prices, football world cups, or Olympics to make up economic or social distresses, trying to hide reality, recently, in Brazil, president Dilma Rousseff, a fiery guerrilla fighter in her early years, now turned head of the Brazilian nation faced social and economic distress, the country won the chance to realize the football world cup, but Brazilians don’t buy bread and circus (football) anymore, they are a mature society now, that demands better education, better career opportunities and better healthcare systems, football is not enough to fulfill their lives, people started rioting and protesting on the streets and only the arrival of Pope Francisco (bread) helped to calm down people’s rage, economic re arrangements were made and that restored peace in a certain way, but a lesson was learned here, for Brazil, bread and circus is not enough anymore, they have evolved as a society.

A band from Brazil that knows about bread and circus or “Panis et Circenses” (as conceived in Greek) are Os Mutantes, a late 60s band form south America whose amazing brand of psychedelic may assured them a place in history if it wasn’t for the repressive Brazilian government at the time, but you cant keep such a good secret hidden for so long time, and thanks to people like David Byrne, Kurt Cobain, Beck, and later Devendra Banhart, Os Mutantes were able to come back to life and profit a little bit form their growing legend.

Their 1968 debut, simply titles Os Mutantes is an amazing record for that period of time, of course, in those years The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Brian Wilson, Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd were challenging the common boundaries in popular music, but to this day, its still amazing that Os Mutantes, a band so far from the USA or the UK had developed such an incredible avant garde sound within a pop context, Panis Et Circenses is a powerful piece of psychedelic music, the incursion of enormous choruses and orchestral arrangement gave them and unquestionable edge here, the pop sensibility of the Beatles is present without a doubt, it might be the most particular American influence on this phenomenally original band, but A Minha Menina with its powerful fuzz guitars is a sound all their own, a song I love so much, just like the first day I heard it, O Relogio is the kind of vocal psychedelia based on vocal beauty that could made someone like Brian Wilson proud and happy, the intro to Adeus Maria Fulo is a challenging one, including pieces of musique concrete, and the inclusion of traditional Brazilian rhythms and instrumentation, Baby could easily be their claim towards the childish and quirky psychedelia of the Floyd led by the GREAT Syd Barrett, but later evolves into an intense and passionate blues.

Senhor F with its whimsical sound structures and baroque sensibilities could easily be a part of the catalog of “granny songs” by Paul McCartney, as John Lennon used to describe Macca`s tunes like When I’m Sixty Four, while Bat Macumba uses powerful samba sounds, electric distortion and intense bass playing to crate a powerful chant so amazing that requires to be heard in order to believe it.

There’s beauty and a sense of the absurd all over Os Mutantes 1968 debut, a great and unique recording that deserved every bit of the legend built upon the Lp and the band, probably the best thing Os Mutantes recorded in their career, a powerful document sign of a band too original and full of themselves that neither a hard dictatorship, nor time could forebode us to experience and enjoy.