[coll]: Tropicalia (Soul Jazz Records)
Reviewed by Sadie O., 5/10/06
Late 60’s revolutionary Brazilian musical movement blending rock, psychedelia, Brazilian jazz, and whatever else was lying around unprotected. Too bad we missed out on this great stuff while it was happening, but it’s nice to have it now – where’s my acid, man? Some folks are still top Brazilian artists (Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, etc.) Very upbeat sound, considering they were being persecuted by a vicious dictatorship. CD comes with a thick history book, but no info about individual tracks to speak of.
No FCCs. It’s all good; tracks 2, 3, 9, 18 are GREAT.
1. 2:36 **lively dance with chanting, sitar (?), and lots of percussion. Happy and fun.
2. 4:42 ****uptempo shuffle with killer fuzz guitar and bop-shoo-bop. Everything great about the 60’s with a bit of Brazil mixed in – what’s not to love?
3. 3:25 ***somewhat random intro mutates into truly psychedelic, slightly North African downbeat groove. Sweet female vocals, at least that bit sounds Brazilian!
4. 3:43 *short party intro, then street sounds, odd bits of clarinet, then sweet midtempo jazzy groove. Almost western movie soundtrack ending.
5. 5:51 *somewhat uptempo, jazzy bass, Dylanesque spoken delivery.
6. 2:41 *uptempo and jazzy, fast female vocals. becomes increasingly psychedelic.
7. 2:54 **garage band sound, uptempo electric guitar and great bass and drums. Just what you want for acid tripping in a Rio nightclub in 1967.
8. 3:47 midtempo groove that falls apart a minute along and gets back up again. More Brazilian/samba than most of the cuts.
9. 3:45 ***great 60’s psychedelia with farfisa, electric mayhem, just a hint of cheese. I’m digging these guys the most!
10. 2:36 *midtempo, James Bond horns and Girl from Ipanema beat. Odd English chorus.
11. 3:38 **uptempo, great beat, fun vocals. Anthemic bit in middle. Quirky and fun.
12. 3:04 *midtempo, sweet jazzy groove with extremely pretty female vocals.
13. 3:40 bongos and tweeting, builds dramatically, but doesn’t build into much. Lots of vocals – probably better if you knew what they were about. Somewhat random and segmented.
14. 3:52 *wacky – fake vocal horns and cheesy keyboards, but then midtempo jazzy samba groove.
15. 3:25 **fun midtempo garage band sound with bongos and female vocals, some of them insane.
16. 3:36 *somewhat downtempo, psychedelic circus (“Bread and Circuses”) music with nice female harmonies and musical oddities.
17. 3:19 *subtle bass & drums intro, groovy midtempo jazz with farfisa, horns, and randomness.
18. 3:32 ****awesome! Slightly uptempo cool rock with a bit of James Bond, a touch of samba, GREAT bass, cool vocals.
19. 3:26 *soft and downtempo, pretty orchestral jazz, English vocals.
20. 3:10 **version of track 1 with major guitar distortion. Gonzo!