LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Jonathan Richman once told us that we have to learn to play with sticks and stones, and it's raining outside. Os Mutantes seem to have learnt to play while imagining a cosmopolitan new world where musicians are all about change; where Beatles melodies belong to Latin rhythms, where fragile folk melodies suspend only until the moment that the fuzz-tone scuzz guitar comes in; where you sometimes have to make the instruments to make the sounds you want to hear; where you can't ever be too hip in a world without restrictions. It was probably sunny outside. But by 1970, like the rest of the world, there were signs that they were coming down, slowly becoming more prog, more technical. They'd probably got further than they ever could have imagined; two perfect folk-psych albums, and by then, in Brazil at least, pop stars, television stars, people of influence. Like the other musicians in the Tropicalia movement which they'd helped form, Os Mutantes were starting to feel the need to spread out. In 1970, Rita Lee, 'the Mutantes girl', was hitchhiking in Europe and maybe thinking about making her own record, which would turn out very 'show' in the way of Serge Gainsbourg and Anna Karina and Brigitte Fontaine. Mutantes third album, 'A Divina Comedia Ou', is complex and somewhat rock, while Rita Lee on her own album seems less allegorical, more interested in the kind of odd pop which she'd originated with the Baptista brothers on their earlier music. Most of Mutantes are involved, with her then boyfriend, Arnaldo Dias Baptista credited as musical director, with beautiful orchestration by Rogerio Duprat - who must be next in line after Jean-Claude Vannier for the belated gong. Rita Lee's singing is some of her best. On a pretty Mutantes song like 'Fuga No.11', she shows how easy it is for her to convey something complicated in a simple beautiful way. Here, on Georges Moustaki's 'Joseph', translated by Nara Leao, she shows that she¹s just as good, maybe better, with a more traditional ballad. 'Calma' would sound great on the first Mutantes album, but here it's just fabulously triumphant with everyone moving the song forward, peak to peak, in a splendid kind of non-Mutantes unity. Many of the songs start out one thing, then end up something else, and occasionally this can feel a little proto-rock opera, but mostly it's vivid, wild, reckless stuff, with Rita Lee right there in the middle, sometimes sounding lonely, sometimes part of the orchestra. The arrangements are so great, echoing this kind of out-there, in-there style, and it all sounds so whole, a kind of completely structured freedom. Although it was recorded in Sao Paulo and Rio, Build Up, like Mutantes own 'Technicolor' always feels like a very European Tropicalia. But then, the world's always small when you¹ve got a big imagination.
Track listing: Sucesso, Aqui Vou Eu (Build Up) Calma Viagem ao fundo de mim Precisamos de irmãos Macarrão com linguiça e pimentão Jose (Joseph) Hulla-Hulla And I love him Tempo Nublado Prisioneira do amor Eu vou me Salvar