Unless you’ve been on a different planet, you might have noticed a certain event taking place in Brazil lately – but the World Cup has been a great platform for Brazilian music, pushed forward on the radio by the likes of Gilles Peterson. Soul Jazz have a formidable catalogue in this area too, and this document of a concept album from the Tropicalia movement from 1968 works as a brilliant complement to their compilation under the same name. The leading artists of the movement are all involved, headed by Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes and Caetano Veloso. The dizzying range of music is as heady now as it was then, headed by Gil’s energetic and joyful ‘Bat Macumba’. Elsewhere the lush strings and sultry vocal of Nara Leao’s ‘Lindoneia’ contrast with the open ended melody of Os Mutantes’ ‘Panis Et Circencis’, which begins with dreamy psychedelica. The collection ends triumphantly, bringing all the artists together the joyous ‘Hino Ao Senhor Do Bonfim Da Bahia’. A worthy and out-there complement that shows just how imaginative a musical movement Tropicalia really was.
5 out of 5
Reviewed By Ben Hogwood
