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gump a.k.a. gump, The Artist Currently Known as gump, Gump
CONTRA O VENTO
tldr version: this is a playlist of amazing late 60s/70s Brazilian music, which emerged in the context of an anti-dictatorship struggle, and which the current political context in the country makes particularly relevant and prescient. If you have time, here are the details:
Brazil, 1964. A democratically elected President is removed from power in yet another self-proclaimed anti-Communist military coup (against a non-Communist administration, to be clear) supported by the US in Latin America (with plenty of local support, to be clear). There is a saying across the region: there has never been a coup in the US because there is no US Embassy in Washington, DC. Was that ever true in the 60s and 70s. The newly installed transitional regime promised progress - "order and progress", as written in the Brazilian flag - but expectedly devolved quickly into an authoritarian dictatorship. Censorship offices were set up to ban books and approve newspapers before they went to press. Congress suspended. Students, union leaders and other opponents of the regime pulled from classrooms and workplaces never to be found again. Those who could afford to, particularly in the political and artistic class, left the country, taking political asylum in Chile (that is, until Pinochet took over, in yet another US-sponsored coup) or in Europe. Political repression and state-sponsored violence became commonplace, particularly in the late 1960s, a period that became known as the "Lead Years". Lead as in the noun, not the verb. The chemical element, Pb, atomic number 82. The heavy metal that kills you.
It was exactly in this period that Brazil saw the emergence of what would turn out to be its most important artistic movement in a half-century (and since).
Tropicália was not born as protest music. Its intellectual peers were artists, not political leaders. Chief amongst its influences was 1920s São Paulo, a vibrant literary and artistic scene that pushed the boundaries of Modernism and avant-gardism in the continent. Their secular Bible, if you will, was the so-called Anthropophagic Manifesto. Drafted in 1928 by Oswald de Andrade, one of the great Brazilian Modernist poets, the Manifesto played with racist tropes about savages and cannibals in the tropics, unsurprisingly common among the enlightened Europeans who embarked on adventures to write about colonial South America. It reclaimed those terms, and argued that the greatest strength of Brazilian culture - and the only way to assert its independence - was the ability to "cannibalize" other cultures while making them its own. That would become Tropicália's motto 50 years later.
Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes, Rogério Duprat (a lesser know member of the movement, though possibly the most influential, a Billy Martin to virtually all of the Tropicalistas). Like everyone else in the late 1960s, they were listening to Revolver and Sgt Peppers, to Pet Sounds and Are You Experienced?, to Forever Changes and Odessey and Oracle. They read Sartre and Beat poetry, watched Truffaut and Godard. But their goal was to create something truly Brazilian. They admired how João Gilberto created a new genre, Bossa Nova, with Chega de Saudade (1959) and how Jorge Ben reinvented modern samba with Samba Esquema Novo (1963). They drew on the neglected musical traditions of the country, in particular Afro-Brazilian culture, often relegated to the periphery due to racism and the legacy of slavery. And so they went about cannibalizing all of those influences, foreign and domestic, creating something truly unique and Brazilian.
Distorted guitars juxtaposed with classical strings and heavenly vocal harmonies. Synth fills and syncopated Afro beats (no wonder David Byrne loved them). Samba and psychedelic rock. Deeply political messages presented interwoven in abstract lyricism (surely designed to confound the military censors). A counter-culture movement that was broadcast live on mass TV. Its paradoxes were entirely the point.
The initial reception to Tropicália wasn't kind. If you think Dylan at Newport was a rough crowd, here's a description of an early concert that involved some of its main characters:
"The booing and jeering was soon so loud that Veloso struggled to be heard over the din, and he again deliberately taunted the leftists [fact check: not really leftists] with his sexualised stage actions. Within a short time the performers were being pelted with fruit, vegetables, eggs and a rain of paper balls, and a section of the audience expressed their disapproval by standing up and turning their backs to the performers, prompting Os Mutantes to respond in kind by turning their backs on the audience. Infuriated by the students' reaction, Veloso stopped singing and launched into a furious improvised monologue [], haranguing the students for their behaviour and denouncing what he saw as their cultural conservatism. He was then joined by Gilberto Gil, who came on stage to show his support for Veloso, and as the tumult reached a crescendo, Veloso announced he was withdrawing from the competition, and after deliberately finishing the song out of tune, the Tropicalistas defiantly walked offstage, arm-in-arm"
Of course this became the soundtrack to an anti-dictatorship movement. Their politics were often hidden in double entendres and subtleties, like in most good protest art. But make no mistake: you can hear the rebellion not only in the words, but in the music itself.
Tropicália as a movement was short-lived. By 1968, it was all but over. For a musical collective, a tightly bound group of artists, it was hard to continue when its two engines, Caetano and Gil, were in exile after being arrested by the military regime.* But Tropicalia left its imprint on a generation of musicians - who adopted their taste in experimentation and aspects of their revolutionary sound. You can hear its influence through a variety of genres and artists that emerged in the 1970s, many of whom were not part of the original movement. My list starts with the core of Tropicália but then moves outward to other musical currents in Brazil. Ultimately, they were all flowing from the same river, and speaking to the same socio-political context. Raul Seixas' baião-tinged psychedelic rock. The psych pop of Clube da Esquina, a collective of artists from Belo Horizonte. The radical Bossa-Nova infused folk of Chico Buarque. The second half of the playlist delves into the soul and funk sounds that emerged in particular in the Afro-Brazilian community, which combined those genres with psychedelia, samba and Bossa Nova.
* Caetano's albums in exile are a wonder. His lyricism translated quite well in English. This verse from A Little More Blue, the opening song in his 1971 self-titled album, written in London, kills me every time:
One morning they came to take me to jail
I smiled at them and said "alright"
But alone in that same night
I cried and cried again
But today, but today, but today, I don't know why
I feel a little more blue than then
This is Brazil's past, but also its present. Today, thankfully we do not see activists disappearing after encounters with the army intelligence services. But as I write this, on 1 April, the anniversary of the military coup, I see the Vice-President of the country, a former General, tweeting about how, 57 years ago, "the Brazilian people, with support from the armed forces, prevented the Communist Movement from setting its flag in the country". I see the latest number of daily COVID-19 deaths, 3,673 today alone, a quarter of those in the world, a tragedy made possible certainly by the destructiveness of this virus, but mostly by the incompetence, inhumanity and viciousness of a buffoon of a man, a proud ignoramus, a disgrace of a president with only one notable moment in an utterly unremarkable career as a congressman: using his five seconds of fame on a roll call impeachment vote in 2016 to publicly praise the man who tortured the woman whom he was voting to remove from office. The 1960s are now.
Amongst foreign audiences who appreciate the music but not necessarily the background, there is a general sense that Tropicália and Brazilian psych-pop are sunny music. And I can understand that: it's bright, it's comforting, it's sexy. Heck, I enjoy it on sunny days. But make no mistake: underneath the beauty is a dark current, an effort to make sense of the inexplicable, to cope with suffering, to resist the effort to silence us. And that task, sadly, is not finished.
A rundown of the tracks
Módulo Lunar (Lunar Module): The opening track comes from a forgotten gem, Os Brazões' self-titled debut (and their only record). They were known mostly as a studio band for Gal Costa and Tom Zé, but this record is Tropicália in a bottle: the blend of styles (this is like three songs in one), experimentation, psychedelia all coming together.
Alegria, Alegria (Joy, Joy): One of my top 10 songs of all time, by my favorite Brazilian lyricist. Don’t let Caetano's angelic voice fool you. Despite its mostly gentle pace, this song packs an emotional punch. It became an anti-dictatorship hymn in Brazil, an ode to freedom, even if the lyrics are not directly political. It draws heavily on pop art (as the album cover hints at), with references to Coca Cola, Brigitte Bardot, shotguns, guerrillas, presidents and spaceships in the span of a few lines. The title of this playlist comes from the first verse of this song - "walking against the wind, no handkerchief no ID", supremely lyrical in Portuguese (translations unfortunately don't do this song justice).
Não identificado (Unidentified): The queen of Tropicália, Gal Costa. I avoided using the gorgeous Baby, a Caetano composition that Gal's heavenly delivery turned mainstream, possibly the most popular song of that period (my favorite version, though, is not Gal's, but the one included in the Mutantes' debut, sung by Rita Lee, with the psychedelic influences dialed to 200%). That said, "Não identificado" may be Gal's best song. It's the opener to her immaculate solo debut, one of the greatest albums in Brazilian music. The smooth transition from the distortion to the synth line to the strings and then her voice kicking in gets me every damn time. One of my favorite love songs.
Ando Meio Desligado (I've Been Kind of Disconnected): Os Mutantes are the most important rock band in Brazil, so picking a song from their vast catalog was pretty hard. I settled into a song that is more representative of their Tropicália sound, before they went into harder rock and more experimental directions. It also has an amazing solo at the end. Rita Lee, who has lead vocals here, went on to quit the band a couple of years later and enjoy a tremendously successful solo career that included a couple of excellent glam rock albums. Personal story: she was my dad's classmate in primary school, and her artistic aura was already visible in the couple of photos that survived from the yearbook.
The next couple of songs gets us into the Psych Rock/Folk current that was really all over that period, and though they often don't have the readily apparent Tropicália sound, intellectually I can't dissociate them from that movement. Secos & Molhados would eventually adopt more of a Glam sound (they hinted at it already early on, particularly in their androginous aesthetics and in Ney Matogrosso's high-pitched vocals, with purposefully fluid and playful gender identities). This song comes from their earlier, predominantly psych period. "Sangue Latino" (Latin Blood) speaks to the violence caused in Latin American soil by the European colonizers, while exulting the resilience of those who survived. It was obviously also speaking to that particular era of authoritarianism in Brazil, and connecting the local struggle with that faced by some of its neighbors. It contains some great lyrics: "My latin blood, my captive soul / I breached treaties, I betrayed rites / I broke the lance, I threw into the nothingness a cry – a release". This is followed by Raul Seixas, one of the great singer-songwriters in the country, with one of his most popular songs, Metamorfose Ambulante ["Walking Metamorphosis"]. As others in this list, he is known for blending regional musical styles (in his case, from the state of Bahia in the northeast) with foreign rock. His sound here makes me think of Woodstock and the 1960s counter-culture. Seixas had a close artistic partnership with writer Paulo Coelho, who co-penned many of his lyrics (surely bringing in some mysticism to the work).
The stretch from Tom Zé to Lô Borges explores the Brazilian Psych Folk tradition. Tom Zé is one of the most idiosyncratic Brazilian artists, who has almost as many styles as he has records. This song is not as experimental as most of his work, and definitely not representative of his oeuvre, but (i) I like it and (ii) it fits well here. The next four songs all come from different musicians associated in some way to the Clube da Esquina collective, a group of musicians from Belo Horizonte (Esquina means intersection, they are named literally after the intersection of two streets in the neighborhood where they met and played). They are a different group of musicians than those in the Tropicália movement, but share a number of intellectual affinities. Their music was just as revolutionary, and the group produced perhaps the most acclaimed Brazilian record of all time, the self-titled "Clube da Esquina" (I purposefully avoided songs from that album as it is so popular, but please check if out if you haven't). Milton Nascimento went on to become the most recognized figure of this group, recording albums with Wayne Shorter, winning Grammys, etc [personal note: one of my best friends is also good friends with him, and 20 years ago I spent an evening chatting with him after seeing him in concert, in a memorable evening that I just wish I was more mature/fluent in music at the time to enjoy even more].
Chico Buarque's Deus Lhe Pague [God Bless You] marks a transition of sorts in the playlist. Chico worked mostly on the Bossa Nova/Samba tradition, and was often more revolutionary in his lyrics than in his sound. His father was perhaps the most important Brazilian sociologist, and Chico instills a certain intellectual cache to his work (he is also a novelist). His best album, Construção, recorded after he spent almost two years in Italy in political asylum, is nothing if not revolutionary, including in the music. The title track is a tour de force. Deus Lhe Pague is not far behind. It is ferocious, its angry pulse matched by some of the most direct anti-dictatorship lyrics [Chico Buarque - Deus Lhe Pague lyrics + English translation (Version #3)] in this playlist: "For the scaffoldings, all edges, from which we have to fall / God bless you"
The second half of the playlist starts with Nara Leão's Opinião [Opinion], and the sound will be markedly different from the first part: heavier emphasis on rhythms (samba and bossa nova), and later on Afro-Brazilian traditions and soul. Opinião is as fierce as any song here ["They can arrest me, they can beat me up / I won't change my opinion"], and it's the oldest song in the playlist, recorded right as the military took over. With Elis Regina's "O bêbado e o equilibrista" [The drunkard and the tightrope walker], you see a bit of hope about the post-dictatorship world, a celebration of Brazil's revival and the imminent demise of the dictatorship. Elis' song (written by Aldir Blanc and João Bosco) is about the amnesty law, and the imminent return of those who were abroad in exile. The imagery in the lyrics takes my breath away:
"Hope
Performs on the tightrope clutching a parasol
and every step of the way
might mean a nasty fall.
Bad luck!
The balancing acts of hope know
that every artist’s show
must go on."
The next several songs here draw on Afro-Brazilian culture, mostly from Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. The lyrics are not as openly political or directed at the military regime. Rather, the politics are in celebrating traditionally marginalized black culture. You can notice this in the titles. Luiz Melodia's album is called "Black Pearl"; Os Tincoãs' can me translated as "The Afrochants of the Tincoãs", we have a "Banda Black Rio", Novos Baianos are identified by their home state of Bahia, a poor state whose inhabitants - many black - were discriminated in southern, white Brazil. Erasmo Carlos' De Noite na Cama has a berimbau - an African single string percussive instrument, know for its role in capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial arts/dance [side note: this album has an interesting story: Erasmo Carlos used to be part of a rival movement to Tropicália, known as Jovem Guarda, which was generally dismissed as too poppy and unambitious musically or politically. He found a new record deal when Jovem Guarda was dying out, which gave him more independence. He then hired Rogério Duprat, the famous Tropicália producer, called a bunch of musicians from bands like Os Mutantes and others, and recorded this Psych gem, his best album].
This is really all a lead-up to Jorge Ben's Taj Mahal, from his groundbreaking album, Africa Brazil. This is when Jorge Ben went fully electric, after a series of wonderful, mostly acoustic albums [personal note: he is my favorite Brazilian live performer, full of energy, known for his incredible live shows. I saw him once in Olinda, next to Recife, during Carnival in 2000, and still recall that show]. It's an incredibly important album in Brazilian music, and yet it doesn't sound "important", but just plain fun.
Gilberto Gil - Cérebro Eletrônico (Electronic Brain) - We are back at the heart of Tropicália. Gil, Caetano's artistic companion, could not be more different. Whereas Caetano tended to be more introspective and melancholy, Gil is as joyful as they come, even when he is dealing in sad themes (Aquele Abraço, his farewell song before leaving to seek asylum abroad, is a good example). I deliberately placed his song together with Jorge Ben's, rather than at the early portion of the list, because they are spiritual brothers in "joie de vivre" (and recorded a great album together - Ogum, Xangô - the year before the release of Africa Brasil). Cérebro Eletrônico has some of my favorite guitar work from that whole period, and just such fantastic production all around.
The great Tim Maia, Brazil's foremost soul singer, follows with one of his psych laden songs, a mood piece. He was kind of confusing during this period, recording a bunch of songs that proselytized for a cult he had joined, but it's impossible not to be drawn by his voice and charisma.
We end on a quintessential Tropicália song, Tom Zé's Parque Industrial (Industrial Park). This is a satire about the notion of progress - progress as promised by the military men in power, who wanted to replace what they saw as a backwards version of Brazil with an industrialized and more urban country, like a Robert Moses on steroids (they literally built a highway crossing the Amazon Forest), with little regard to what was destroyed in the process. Tom Zé's lyrics make me think of Don Draper selling an ad campaign to a witless client. This version is not the original, from Zé's wonderful record Grande Liquidação, but a different recording contained in the Tropicália compilation Panis et Circensis. It brings many of this playlist's heroes together - Caetano, Gil, Gal, Os Mutantes - each with a different verse, reflecting the truly collective aspect of the movement. As a closer, I tried to reimagine this song as a statement: true progress was not new roads, airports or factories, but the end of a regime who killed to sell a lie. They lost. And they will lose again.
Fin.
1. Os Brazões - "Módulo Lunar" - Os Brazões (4:52)
2. Caetano Veloso - "Alegria, Alegria" - Caetano Veloso (2:48)
3. Gal Costa - "Não Identificado" - Gal Costa (3:18)
4. Os Mutantes - "Ando Meio Desligado" - A Divina Comédia ou Ando Meio Desligado (4:46)
5. Secos & Molhados - "Sangue Latino" - A volta de Secos & Molhados (2:08)
6. Raul Seixas - "Metamorfose Ambulante" - Krig-Ha, Bandolo (3:51)
7. Tom Zé - "Qualquer Bobagem" - Tom Zé (2:52)
8. Arthur Verocai - "Na boca do sol" - Arthur Verocai (3:00)
9. Milton Nascimento - "Fé Cega, Faca Amolada" - Minas (4:38)
10. Nelson Angelo e Joyce - "Vivo ou Morto" - Nelson Angelo e Joyce (2:23)
11. Lô Borges - "Aos Barões" - Lô Borges (2:32)
12. Chico Buarque - "Deus Lhe Pague" - Construção (3:19)
13. Nara Leão - "Opinião" - Opinião de Nara (2:32)
14. Elis Regina - "O bêbado e o equilibrista" - Essa Mulher (3:50)
15. Luiz Melodia - "Vale quanto pesa" - Pérola Negra (3:11)
16. Os Tincoãs - "Dora" - O Africanto dos Tincoãs (2:40)
17. Novos Baianos - "Mistério do Planeta" - Acabou Chorare (3:38)
18. Erasmo Carlos - "De Noite na Cama" - Carlos, Erasmo (3:17)
19. Jorge Ben Jor - "Taj Mahal" - África Brasil (3:07)
20. Gilberto Gil - "Cérebro Eletrônico" - Gilberto Gil (1969) (3:34)
21. D'Angelo - "Curto de Véu e Grinalda" - D'angelo (2:38)
22. Banda Black Rio - "Maria fumaça" - Maria Fumaça (2:25)
23. Tim Maia - "Ela Partiu" - Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia (4:16)
24. Multiple artists - "Parque Industrial" - Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis (3:17)
It's been one year since Interference embarked to Quarantine Island for its 11th main installment of Desert Island. If you are still around for this mini version, I want to say how happy I am for that and that I am able to join you once again. It has been a brutally challenging year for health, economics, politics and society at large, but we made it. You are stronger than you know and have so much to offer the world.
The following 79 minutes of escapist pop, psychedelia and jazz was compiled as a response to the light America sees at the end of its own long, dark tunnel, but it pulls from the outside world, featuring a number of tracks sung in French and Portuguese. While I, as an American, can be grateful for my country's brightening prospects with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, it's also important to remember that we share of each other's suffering and triumph. We are in an ongoing global fight.
The music I am bringing to you is joyous, buoyant and colorful, but much of it was created during times of great sociopolitical unrest. These musicians did not forget pressing matters, but responded to them the best way they knew how. Do not forget the ongoing pain of others; spend each day mindful of reality and consider how you can help. Always to give to others from the surplus that you've been given. The world is a cruel place; if we aren't helping each other, the systems set in place certainly will not either.
As you listen to this playlist, please appreciate the gift of music that we share with one another. It eases our misery and brings us joy. It's all too beautiful.
1. Emitt Rhodes - "Fresh As a Daisy" - Emitt Rhodes (2:51)
2. The Left Banke - "She May Call You Up Tonight" - Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina (2:21)
3. Michel Polnareff - "L'amour avec toi" - Love Me Please Love Me (3:07)
4. The Hollies - "Carrie-Anne" - Evolution (2:55)
5. Small Faces - "Itchycoo Park" - There Are But Four Small Faces (2:51)
6. The Millennium - It's You - Begin (3:21)
7. The Cowsills - "The Rain, the Park & Other Things" - The Cowsills (3:04)
8. Sagittarius - "My World Fell Down" - Present Tense (2:54)
9. The Zombies - "Maybe After He's Gone" - Odessey and Oracle (2:33)
10. The Mamas & the Papas - "Monday, Monday" - If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears (3:28)
11. Stone Poneys - "Different Drum" - Evergreen, Vol. 2 (2:39)
12. Françoise Hardy - "Comment te dire adieu" - Comment te dire adieu (2:28)
13. The Association - "Windy" - Insight Out (2:54)
14. The Lovin' Spoonful - "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" - Daydream (2:26)
15. The Free Design - "Kites Are Fun" - Kites Are Fun (2:42)
16. Margo Guryan - "Sun" - Take a Picture (2:36)
17. Serge Gainsbourg - "Bonnie & Clyde" - Initials B.B.
18. Brigitte Fontaine - "Il Pleut" - Brigitte Fontaine est...? (2:35)
19. Scott Walker - "On Your Own Again" - Scott 4 (1:44)
20. Lô Borges - "Homem Da Rua" - Lô Borges (2:00)
21. Milton Nascimento - "Tudo que você podia ser" - Clube Da Esquina (2:57)
22. Jorge Ben - "Oba, lá vem ela" - Força Bruta (4:12)
23. Vinicius de Moraes, Maria Creuza & Toquinho - "Lamento No Morro" - La Fusa (2:31)
24. Elis Regina & Antônio Carlos Jobim - "Águas de março" - Elis & Tom (3:34)
25. Stan Getz & João Gilberto - "Só danço samba" - Getz/Gilberto (3:45)
26. Novos Baianos - "Preta pretinha (Reprise)" - Acabou Chorare (3:22)
27. Gal Costa - "Baby" - Gal Costa (3:32)
Joey788 a.k.a. Joey, Because JoeyNumber788, cobbler's pet roo
KEEP GOING
For this playlist, I focused on creating a vibe that would evolve over the course of its runtime, choosing
artists I’ve never used before in Desert Island, with a couple of exceptions. But as we start to come out
of one of the most challenging periods in our lifetimes, the anxiety, anger, chaos and sadness of the past
year heavily influenced my choices. While I wouldn’t call this an explicit pandemic or 2020 playlist, it
does reflect the moods and struggles of recent times, ending on a note of resilience as we hopefully
start to recover and rejuvenate. Even in the worst moments, keep going.
1. The Staves - “Tired as Fuck” – Tired as Fuck/Train Tracks (3:37)
2. Lande Hekt – “80 Days of Rain” – Going to Hell (3:41)
3. Long Neck – “Milky Way” – Will This Do? (3:47)
4. Wolf Alice – “Sky Musings” – Visions of a Life (2:58)
5. The Cure – “M” – Seventeen Seconds (3:04)
6. EMA – “I Wanna Destroy” – Exile in the Outer Ring (3:07)
7. Algiers – “Void” – There Is No Year (2:57)
8. Foals – “Providence” – Holy Fire (4:08)
9. Steven Wilson – “Abandoner” – Insurgentes (4:48)
10. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – “LIFE ON MARS?” – Watchmen: Volume 3 (Music from the HBO
Series) (2:54)
11. FKA twigs – “home with you” – MAGDALENE (3:45)
12. Christine and the Queens – “People, I’ve Been Sad” – La vita nuova (4:21)
13. Lorde – “Supercut” – Melodrama (4:38)
14. Depeche Mode – “Waiting for the Night” – Violator (6:07)
15. Sufjan Stevens – “Tell Me You Love Me” – The Ascension (4:22)
16. Talking Heads – “Road to Nowhere” – Little Creatures (4:19)
17. This Is the Kit – “Keep Going” – Off Off On (6:39)
At least Gump and I don't have any of the same songs.
I have listened to my list 3 times and love it more each time. It's definitely one of my favorite lists I've ever submitted and am very proud of how it was sequenced. You get to create subtle dynamics and instrumental motifs when you work inside of one narrow time period since the production is so consistent throughout.
I appreciate you taking the time to read it. I do think it’s important to contextualize the music, so I’ll be happy if people take the time to go over it (at least the first part).
Alright, this list is already off to an incredible start as the first 45 seconds of the Os Brazoes track sounds like it could be the musical score for a late '70s/early '80s slasher movie. And this song predates slasher movies by nearly a decade!
Annnnd the horror movie-adjacent sound effects are back at the beginning of the Gal Costa track! Love it. And she has a lovely voice. I wish I knew what she was saying.
"Sangue latino" has a great groove. Probably my favorite song so far.
Wait, no, the next track is my favorite. The Raul Seixas song is very Beatlesy...the drumming and backing/chanting vocal, specifically sounds like Sgt Peppers era.
Killer guitar on the Lo Borges track.
The vocal delivery on the Luiz Melodia song stands out, in a good way. Something a little different to my ears.
The Gilberto Gil song has an endearingly freewheeling, almost chaotic quality to it. Oh man, this Tim Maia song is big. And his voice reminds me of Tom Jones. Nice.
Overall, I enjoyed the hell out of this. Like I touched on earlier, I think a lot of the music here has a cinematic quality to it. It sounds like a 1970s movie. I think it's a cool mix of instrumentation from the time...pretty great percussion and guitar playing throughout. Lots of danceable rhythms.
Thanks for making this, I'm glad to have been put on to at least a little slice of Brazilian music. Good shit.
If it isn't clear already, I think Brazilian music is the fucking shit and I'm glad that people are being put onto it with this group. It's calming, colorful, sensuous and cool as fuck.
I finished Group 2 a while ago, so I went ahead and listened to this group's lists already(and the one list in Group 4 that isn't mine) since they were all in the master list thread. I enjoyed them all a lot.
gump
I came into this a little intimidated, unsure of how a list 100% in a different language would hit me, but open-minded, since I usually prioritize music over lyrics anyway. I guess I was expecting the whole thing to feel more...foreign, for lack of a better word, but I ended up being able to relate musically to most of it quite well.
I was surprised by the number of rock-sounding songs with really great/interesting guitar work - "Ando Meio Desligado", "Metamorfose Ambulante", "Aos Baroes", "Misterio do Planeta", "De Noite Na Cama", and "Cerebro Eletronico" were all among my favorites here.
And then there were some great folk-y tracks like "Sangue latino" - which sounded like it could've been a Joan Baez song - and "Vivo Ou Morto", which reminded me somewhat of Joni Mitchell.
There were even a couple of tracks that evoked American funk music of the era - "Na boca do sol" and especially "Maria fumaca", one of the very few tracks you didn't mention in your write up, but sounds like it could've come off a Parliament record - which I definitely wasn't expecting, but enjoyed very much. "Taj Mahal" could also fall into this category to a lesser degree.
I also really liked Tim Maia's "Ela Partiu", which had a bit of a funk feel to it as well but mostly a more R&B/soul vibe, and one of the most memorable vocals on the whole list imo.
The craftsmanship is great here - top-notch flow and cohesion, and ending with a track that incorporated many of the previous artists was a move I appreciated very much from a playlist-construction point of view.
It's easy to see from the subject matter and from your write-up that this list was a labor of love for you, and that came through listening to it.
As an aside, I listened to your list all the way through, and then skimmed through it a second time while reading your write-up so that I could try to hear everything the way you intended it; I appreciated your passion and your explanations of the subject matter and lyrics of a lot of these songs since it would've been lost on me otherwise. Great job with that as well!
This will be near the top of my rankings for sure.
LemonMelon
How do you do it? I don't think you've ever submitted a DI list was less than excellent and this is no exception.
Your stated goal was to create an optimistic, joyful playlist as a soundtrack for coming out of this pandemic, and boy did you succeed. All that bright 60s stuff really hit the spot.
Quick story: My dad has been planning his 50th high school reunion(which has since been delayed due to COVID), and one of the big things he's done is to compile a very long playlist of songs that were on the radio during his late 60s high school years to play at the reunion. So, I was tickled to see "Carrie-Anne", "The Rain The Park And Other Things", "Monday Monday", "Different Drum", and "Windy" on your list, 'cause they're on his too and I've been hearing them a lot lately. I think the Zombies' "Maybe After He's Gone" is there too, and that's another great one you've chosen. All classic tracks, of course.
Other highlights:
"She May Call You Up Tonight" - I'm not familiar with The Left Banke outside of "Walk Away Renee", but I dug this.
I loved the 60s folksy vibe of "Itchycoo Park" and "It's You". The latter in particular his such a great laid back groove to it, and the guitar reminds me a lot of Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill"(seriously, that's what I hear).
The Lovin' Spoonful track is great, as is the Sun track(I'd never heard of Margo Guryan before, nice discovery).
Honestly, there's very little here that isn't great.
I know I haven't mentioned the Brazilian stuff, but it was all good too. Favorites were the Lo Borges, Milton Nascimento(love the guitar work here, evocative textures and great melody), Getz/Gilberto(what a sax performance), and Novos Baianos tracks.
As always, your flow is immaculate. I loved this whole list, and the stretch from "Carrie-Anne" to "Sun" is maybe the best of the competition for me.
You're gonna be a contender to win the whole thing yet again
Joey
So, this one started and finished strong for me, and faltered a little in the middle.
I don't know who the Staves are, but this song sounds like a better version of HAIM. Great harmonization. Like this a lot.
Lande Hekt is new to me, but it heartens me to hear music with this sort of fuzzy 90s low-fi alternative aesthetic to it being made in 2021.
This Milky Way song is weird...in a good way. It's like it can't decide if it wants to be a heavy rock song or a pop song so it just does both. The guitar-heavy parts of it remind me of Radiohead's "There There"...that's probably just me, but it's what I hear. The pop parts of it, like "and I just fucking lost it" are earworm material. This piques my interest.
I'm not familiar with that Cure song, but I love The Cure, so no surprise I like this one a lot.
Here's where the list falters for me a bit. The next six tracks are hit-and-miss. I like the Steven Wilson track, great atmosphere and interesting acoustic guitar work, and Reznor's "Life On Mars" cover - which I hadn't heard before - is really, really good. Those are the highlights of that stretch for me.
The final five-strong stretch from Lorde onwards is stellar. After Lorde's first album, I never thought I'd be much of a fan, but Melodrama was a big improvement. "Supercut" is one of its highlights. Depeche Mode is always great, and "Tell Me You Love Me" is one of the stronger tracks on The Ascension. I've always liked Talking Heads, but I've never listened to Little Creatures..."Road To Nowhere" is fantastic!
I know nothing about This Is The Kit, but "Keep Going", your closing track, gives me big In Rainbows-era Radiohead vibes, and that's always a great thing. So warm and mellow and chill and relaxing. The acoustic strumming and piano against the electronic backing, and her gentle, comforting voice...this is an artist I think I should check out more of!
This was a very enjoyable list, outside of one rougher stretch for me, with a diverse emotional palette and some very interesting new discoveries for me. Great job!
Thanks, guys, I really appreciate your open mindedness in approaching my playlist, it's such a great feeling. Not that I expected differently from the people that sign up for this, but still, great to see. And I can't overstate how happy it makes me feel that you enjoyed at least parts of it. Thanks for the nice words.
Alright, this list is already off to an incredible start as the first 45 seconds of the Os Brazoes track sounds like it could be the musical score for a late '70s/early '80s slasher movie. And this song predates slasher movies by nearly a decade!
Annnnd the horror movie-adjacent sound effects are back at the beginning of the Gal Costa track! Love it. And she has a lovely voice. I wish I knew what she was saying.
It's funny, once you get into some of these first-wave Tropicalia albums, so many of them had that kind of production. Dissonant noises - I love the slasher movie comparison you made - leading into pretty pristine melodies. It's kind of hard to avoid it, and I tried not to overdo it.
Gal Costa's debut album is tremendous. You're going to get another song off it in LM's list. It's easily one of my 3-4 favorite Brazilian records of all time. Truly genre-defining.
The Gilberto Gil song has an endearingly freewheeling, almost chaotic quality to it. Oh man, this Tim Maia song is big. And his voice reminds me of Tom Jones. Nice.
I love Gil and Tim Maia so much. Gil has a really deep catalogue, though I think his albums are a bit more uneven than, say, Caetano Veloso's. But virtually every one of the 7 albums he released between 1968 and 1977 is good, and some of them are pretty great. He's also the most charismatic singer of his generation.
Tim Maia is the godfather of Brazilian R&B. I'm glad you and namkcuR both thought this was a highlight. I built that R&B influenced stretch mostly to showcase this song. His voice is amazing, and he was definitely influenced by American funk and soul. He spent the early 1960s in the US, until he was deported back to Brazil after being arrested for marijuana possession.
Overall, I enjoyed the hell out of this. Like I touched on earlier, I think a lot of the music here has a cinematic quality to it. It sounds like a 1970s movie. I think it's a cool mix of instrumentation from the time...pretty great percussion and guitar playing throughout. Lots of danceable rhythms.
This makes me super happy. And yes, the second half deliberately focused on percussive rhythms and danceable/joyful music, which is such a Brazilian trait.
I guess I was expecting the whole thing to feel more...foreign, for lack of a better word, but I ended up being able to relate musically to most of it quite well.
Yeah, despite having such a specific cultural tradition, Brazilian artists by and large relied on a Western music vocabulary, which makes this music quite accessible and relatable. Some of the most successful Brazilian genres/styles were those that managed to subvert the Western canon just enough to make them stand out, like Bossa Nova's syncopated rhythms. It's the little nuances that make it fun. Artists from my list were definitely very tuned into what was happening abroad, and influenced by a lot of the styles that were popular then.
"Maria fumaca", one of the very few tracks you didn't mention in your write up, but sounds like it could've come off a Parliament record - which I definitely wasn't expecting, but enjoyed very much.
Ah, I realized I skipped this one after I had submitted my write up. It comes from their debut record, named after this song. It's a pretty funky instrumental record, with some jazz influences, if you like that style. The rest of their catalogue isn't as good as the debut, though. I was pretty surprised to discover that it was recently reissued in the US, which I promptly bought a few months ago.
The craftsmanship is great here - top-notch flow and cohesion, and ending with a track that incorporated many of the previous artists was a move I appreciated very much from a playlist-construction point of view.
It's easy to see from the subject matter and from your write-up that this list was a labor of love for you, and that came through listening to it.
As an aside, I listened to your list all the way through, and then skimmed through it a second time while reading your write-up so that I could try to hear everything the way you intended it; I appreciated your passion and your explanations of the subject matter and lyrics of a lot of these songs since it would've been lost on me otherwise. Great job with that as well!
And thanks a lot for this, I really appreciate it. It was definitely a labour of love. This is music that I grew up listening to, as it's what my dad listens to (he was in college during the Tropicalia years, so it was formative for him). Despite growing up with these artists playing at home, for a large part of my adult life I gravitated away from these sounds, and basically stopped listening to Brazilian music for several years for no good reason. I rediscovered a lot of it a few years ago, and it has become an even more central part of my life in the last few years. Having a child and trying to think of what cultural heritage to share with him has made all of this more relevant. And then COVID hit. This is the longest I haven't been to Brazil my whole life. With the terrible political and COVID situation there, this music has been my solace.
If it isn't clear already, I think Brazilian music is the fucking shit and I'm glad that people are being put onto it with this group. It's calming, colorful, sensuous and cool as fuck.
I'm also so happy with this little window into that type of music, and that you had such a great stretch in your own list. I have to type up my comments, but I listened to yours twice (on Memorial Day - it was nice when Monday Monday started - and then today). Loved it, will give you more detailed thoughts tomorrow.
That 1968-1977 period is just so extraordinary. I'm sure there were bad records released in Brazil in those years, I'm just not sure I have come across one yet!
And thanks a lot for this, I really appreciate it. It was definitely a labour of love. This is music that I grew up listening to, as it's what my dad listens to (he was in college during the Tropicalia years, so it was formative for him). Despite growing up with these artists playing at home, for a large part of my adult life I gravitated away from these sounds, and basically stopped listening to Brazilian music for several years for no good reason. I rediscovered a lot of it a few years ago, and it has become an even more central part of my life in the last few years. Having a child and trying to think of what cultural heritage to share with him has made all of this more relevant. And then COVID hit. This is the longest I haven't been to Brazil my whole life. With the terrible political and COVID situation there, this music has been my solace.
I listened to Gump and Joey's lists but work has been tough this week and I'm starting work on another novel so doing playlist writeups has fallen by the wayside. I will post comments though!
Emitt Rhodes sounds like Paul McCartney. And the next track follows it up in a similar vein. Two songs in and I'm pretty sure I'm going to like this list a lot. My dude in the third track is singing in French.
Oh man, I haven't heard "Carrie-Ann" in years. So infectious. This makes me think of listening to oldies stations when I was a kid.
The Small Faces track is great. Damn. I should probably listen to some more of them.
Ahhhh, this Cowsills song is the song from Dumb and Dumber! Haha. Wow. Nice song but I can't take it all that seriously, unfortunately. Just can't separate it from the movie and the scene in which it appears, which is one of the most surreal scenes in an absolutely absurd comedy from my childhood.
Everything in this section fits together beautifully, though. The Zombies track is another standout.
The Mamas and the Papas -> Linda Ronstadt is a blast. Love both of these acts and songs. "Different Drum" is a personal fave. That voice...
What do I know this Association song from? It might just be the aforementioned oldies stations again. Annnnd same with the Lovin Spoonful track. The nostalgia is real with this list. I'm digging it.
Kites ARE Fun.
I think I'm attracted to Brigitte Bardot.
It is fascinating hearing this Brazilian music section right after gump's. What a world. It is a joyful sounding group of songs, to my ears. The Getz and Gilberto track didn't grab me quite as much as I thought it would, considering that's an album I've actually heard of. The Gal Costa closing track is stunning, though.
Overall, this was a wonderful way to spend 80 minutes. You've given me some '60s pop artists that I need to explore further. And despite enjoying the first half of the list more than the second, the whole thing had great FLOW and was expertly crafted. Good shit.
These days, Windy is best known for being part of this classic Breaking Bad scene:
I knew it from the oldies stations my mom played when I was growing up, so when I heard it in an episode of Breaking Bad, I lost my shit. Same thing when they pulled out Crystal Blue Persuasion.
Glad you enjoyed the list, GAF. I thought you might because your lists often trade in that kind of carefree, feelgood pop.
I appreciate a nice seasonal list. Yours tastes of spring just like asparagus and rhubarb. Not that it wouldn’t necessarily work in the cold months, but its warmth and optimism were really of the moment. Some sonic curveballs here and there were also nice to keep the listener on their toes.
Where I found this list similar to your list last year was in its consistent mood and sound, which makes it quite hard to pick a favorite part. If I had to pick one, it was the middle stretch that starts with The Zombies through Françoise Hardy (I discovered her earlier this year and have become a fan), with the lovely Monday, Monday in the middle. So good.
The opening run was really nice too, with that fun Michael Polnareff in particular (though the lyrics can be a bit uncomfortable depending on how you interpret them!).
The Millennium’s It’s You was one of my favorite discoveries here. It has such a Day in the Life/SFF feel, particularly in the background vocals, it’s really something. And then you nailed the transition to The Cowsills. Yes, there’s an unavoidable split second gap, but I honestly had to check my phone to make sure these were not tracks from the same album). God-tier transition right there.
I think I could have used more French pop, which felt a bit short as a section compared to the other two parts. There was some lovely stuff there, though. I love some Gainsbourg, but had never listened to Initials B.B. I shall correct that soon. That was such a quintessential SG song, really.
Great choices for the Brazilian portion. Força Bruta is such a wonderful record, one of those that will immediately cheer me up when I put it on. I swear to you, Jorge Ben has some kind of superpower in just being able to put out joyful music. Águas de Março may well claim the title of greatest Brazilian recording of all time. The song itself is obviously great, one of the handful of inner circle Bossa Nova standards, but this recording has always blown me away. Jobim and Elis are both in top form, and their interplay at the end when they are scatting and start laughing is just gold.
That said, and that’s as minor a criticism as they come, I thought that last stretch could have stayed more within the Brazilian Psych Pop/early MPB feel, without the three more traditional Bossa Nova/early samba songs (Lamento no Morro/Aguas de Marco/Só Danço Samba). They are all amazing songs, but in my mind they fit slightly less with the rest of the psych mood throughout your lis than everything else you had there.
In any event, this was fantastic, and I’m sure I’ll be listening to it again in the future and that it be high in my rankings. At this point we should just treat you as hors concours so that the rest of us can have a chance.
You know, regarding the last section, there was a previous version of this list that was full-length and much, much more psych driven. That list contained Os Mutantes and skewed more towards the brand of Brazilian psych that would have connected more closely with the first half of my entry. It also featured a track from Bitches' Brew, a Mahavishnu Orchestra classic and a lot of modern psych rock like Thee Oh Sees.
The thing is, my heart just wasn't in it for that style of music this time around. The vibe that I was attempting to give off was one of warmth, peace and hope, and while that does happen to overlap on the Venn diagram with 60s psych pop, the bossa nova classics communicated that feeling very well to me. That genre has also provided me a lot of comfort as of late. I have a vivid memory of washing dishes with Ashley in lockdown with Ashley during the height of the pandemic while we were listening to Getz/Gilberto and it was one of the few warm memories I have of that time. Just a really nice moment of peaceful domesticity.
One of the things I really tried to do with the way the list winds down is add a layer of melancholy that reflects the bittersweet nature of different countries exiting the pandemic at different times. Brazilian music exudes so much warmth and humanity even at its most frank and political, and I think these songs accomplish what I needed them to, in that they feel the part without thematically being right there with the sunny 60s stuff that is so on the nose.
I'm really glad you enjoyed the list. I had you and Tourist most in mind when I put it together. You for obvious reasons and Tourist because I knows he loves the 60s AM pop classics. He's going to flip getting to listen to his faves in DI for nearly an hour. [emoji23]
You know, regarding the last section, there was a previous version of this list that was full-length and much, much more psych driven. That list contained Os Mutantes and skewed more towards the brand of Brazilian psych that would have connected more closely with the first half of my entry. It also featured a track from Bitches' Brew, a Mahavishnu Orchestra classic and a lot of modern psych rock like Thee Oh Sees.
The thing is, my heart just wasn't in it for that style of music this time around. The vibe that I was attempting to give off was one of warmth, peace and hope, and while that does happen to overlap on the Venn diagram with 60s psych pop, the bossa nova classics communicated that feeling very well to me. That genre has also provided me a lot of comfort as of late. I have a vivid memory of washing dishes with Ashley in lockdown with Ashley during the height of the pandemic while we were listening to Getz/Gilberto and it was one of the few warm memories I have of that time. Just a really nice moment of peaceful domesticity.
One of the things I really tried to do with the way the list winds down is add a layer of melancholy that reflects the bittersweet nature of different countries exiting the pandemic at different times. Brazilian music exudes so much warmth and humanity even at its most frank and political, and I think these songs accomplish what I needed them to, in that they feel the part without thematically being right there with the sunny 60s stuff that is so on the nose.
I'm really glad you enjoyed the list. I had you and Tourist most in mind when I put it together. You for obvious reasons and Tourist because I knows he loves the 60s AM pop classics. He's going to flip getting to listen to his faves in DI for nearly an hour. [emoji23]
I totally hear you, and again, it was such a minor issue. I think you describe Bossa Nova so well. It tends to be so melancholy, particularly in their lyrics, but so exuberant and comforting at the same time. Gilberto was so apt in naming his album "Chega de Saudade". It is truly the soundtrack to saudade.
I'm not sure if you know the story behind Aguas de Março. Jobim went out to his small farm to compose, hoping to have moments of quiet. The house had been undergoing renovations, and ever the perfectionist, Jobim had decided to change the construction project a few weeks before, which ended up delaying the renovations. The rainy season started in March, delaying things further. His desired moment of tranquility (or peaceful domesticity, if you will) was kind of ruined. So the lyrics play with the ongoing construction outside - stones, timber, ropes all appear in the verses, interspersed with some existential poetry. Its cadence is sort of anxious, reflecting his emotional state. And the rhythm, in Jobim's mind, was supposed to depict the water flowing.
Gump: this is a singular entity in the DI lists I have heard. I love the personal aspect of it, and that it steers entirely clear of the kind of music that tends to dominate B&C threads and playlists. This is what I want out of DI: discoveries, of which there were plenty here. Like I do with all these lists, I was listening to this while doing other things; I found myself stopping what I was doing to make note of a particular track that was playing several times for this one.
What really struck me about this list is the joyousness of the instrumentation. I don't know much about late 20th-century Brazilian history, but I imagine what's going on here is something like the post-colonial Africa music scene, where celebration was an act of defiance against oppressive government and/or social attitudes. There are clear instrumental themes running through the list, but the sequencing is such that tempo, tone, and mood changes keep it lively. It helps that on many of these tracks, those shifts happen within the same song.
All that said, my favorite part of the list was the female vocals. Gal Costa and Nara Leao especially stood out to me: mesmerizing voices. The non-English lyrics (I assume Portuguese) only served to highlight the nuanced and emotive nature of the vocals even more. Other tracks I highlighted were from Arthur Verocai, Os Tincoas, Erasmo Carlos, and Tim Maia. One of those - can't quite remember which right now - sounded like a classic Stax song before it transformed into a jazzy number. Overall I want to say thanks for introducing me to a genre and era that I would not otherwise have explored.
What really struck me about this list is the joyousness of the instrumentation. I don't know much about late 20th-century Brazilian history, but I imagine what's going on here is something like the post-colonial Africa music scene, where celebration was an act of defiance against oppressive government and/or social attitudes.
Absolutely. It's hard to isolate one factor as Brazil in the 1960s was dealing with dictatorship at the same time as the sexual revolution was happening and an increasing consciousness (though far too insufficient) of its various cultural traditions, including of Afro-Brazilians. But I see the celebratory music as reaction as much as an escape. It's not a coincidence that the rhythms draw a lot on Brazilian Carnival - the hedonist holiday ahead of the period of abstention and self-control.
All that said, my favorite part of the list was the female vocals. Gal Costa and Nara Leao especially stood out to me: mesmerizing voices. The non-English lyrics (I assume Portuguese) only served to highlight the nuanced and emotive nature of the vocals even more. Other tracks I highlighted were from Arthur Verocai, Os Tincoas, Erasmo Carlos, and Tim Maia. One of those - can't quite remember which right now - sounded like a classic Stax song before it transformed into a jazzy number.
I mentioned it earlier, but I strongly recommend Gal Costa's self-titled debut. It's gorgeous, and quite eclectic too in the blending of genres.
Also, I'm pretty confident you would really like Arthur Verocai's self-titled album. Half of it is practically a jazz album, and he's really good at blending various influences into his own sound.
So I didn't know what to expect heading into Gump's entry here; I'm not familiar at all with Brazilian music, and the start was a bit jarring to listen to. The opener, in particular, was really out there, almost like I was listening to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. That's not a bad thing.
But for me, this playlist really took off with the rock/folk section, and just didn't let up. I listened to this all the way through yesterday while doing some mundane work stuff, and about halfway through this section, I found myself getting into it. Imagine sitting at home staring into your laptop, and then slowly starting to move a bit to the rhythms, the head bobbing up and down, a little swaying from side to side. And it just flowed from there all the way to the end.
I was humming along to one of the songs, Taj Mahal, and was like - where have I heard this before? Lo and behold, Rod Stewart ripped it off for Do Ya Think I'm Sexy! That little fucker!
Also, while reading up on some of these artists, was a bit disheartened that several died at a young age for various reasons. Just makes what they accomplished all the more impressive. Raul Seixas, for example, passed at a mere 44 years old, yet released 21 albums in 26 active recording years. I mean, that is astounding to me. So even though some left this world much earlier than they should have, there's no denying the mark they left on the Brazilian music scene.
Well done gump. A very enjoyable listen. I honestly don't know how often I'll go back to this music, but it was a treat to listen to nonetheless.
This was an interesting listen for me in a lot of ways. I'm not an upbeat guy to put it mildly, so I had to fight some biases against the very sunny vibes of the first half of the playlist. If I'm honest, I found some of those tracks cloying - "Kites Are Fun" especially so.
It was around that time I started thinking the playlist needed some tonal variety, and, what do you know, a shift arrived almost immediately on "Bonnie & Clyde." From there the list found a different gear and started throwing the kind of curveballs I am accustomed to on your lists. Scott Walker added the kind of sinister beauty I always appreciate; the samba with Getz & Gilberto was delicious; and some of the transitions were so smooth I didn't even notice a new track had started.
This might be surprising, but my fav track was probably "Aguas de Marco": the vibe was alluringly campy, like you might hear in a Connery-era Bond movie. I really enjoyed the textural diversity of the final ten tracks.
The first half definitely wasn't in my wheelhouse, but I always try to evaluate these not on my personal tastes but rather on construction and execution of concept. And on those two fronts there is no denying the care and skill that went into crafting this.
As expected, this list did an excellent job of providing an overview of classic Brazilian pop and rock, much more so than the little sampler of it that my list had on offer. I had mixed feelings about us being in the same group because I was afraid people would experience some overload, but they certainly seem to have been enjoying it.
Most great playlists and compilations have the depth and polish to them that suggest a real knowledge of the material and that is present here. The songs are organized in such a way that you get stretches of psychedelia, jazz, chamber pop, whatever the Brazilian equivalent of coked-out 70s yacht music is, and so on.
The opening stretch was probably my least favorite because as I alluded to earlier, I haven't been so much into the vaguely campy psych pop corner of Brazilian music lately, but these are all great artists and it all flows well. Nao Identificado is such a classic.
Once we get to Secos & Mulhados (not sure I've ever heard anyone talk about them outside of RYM, thank you for including them), this is straight up wonderful. I hadn't heard of Raul Seixas before this, but that track is so smooth. Those Joe Cocker With a Little Help From My Friends backing vocals? Get out of here. Na boca do sol and Fé Cega, Faca Amolada and Viva Ou Morto are all 10/10 songs and make up my favorite run of the competition. It's so insanely good. I need to get around to that Nelson Angelo album.
After a couple more abstract prog-folk numbers, things switch gears to some cool bossa nova shit. Nara Leao is a legend but for whatever reason she hasn't cracked my soul like some of her contemporaries. This song was nice The Elis Regina song is super interesting to me because it's clearly not from the same era as everything else. It's from...1979? Definitely has more slick production than the other tracks. It's really cool though, makes me want to dig deeper into that discography.
Vale Quanto Pesa has a super interesting arrangement, ducking in and out of different tempos as it goes along. Really gets some swagger going when it brings the brass in. Another artist I haven't heard an album by. The Novos Baianos, Erasmo Carlos and Jorge Ben songs all come from amazing albums and I'd recommend them to anyone. I need that Erasmo Carlos album on vinyl because the cover is a perfect illustration of having a really hard fucking day in the hot sun and still looking like a badass at the end of it.
The Gilberto Gil and D'Angelo tracks bring us back to that period in the late 60s when Brazil was importing records from swinging London and San Francisco and losing their minds. As with the tracks at the beginning of the list, it's not my favorite era of Brazilian music, but essential to understanding its influences.
Maria fumaca is so slick. Kind of a jarring shift in eras between it and the D'Angelo track, but it's whatever at this point in the list. There's some cuica! The guitars reminded me of this unbelievably great DOOM instrumental:
Then Tim Maia comes through with a smooth and sexy track to remind everyone of the impressive range of Brazilian music from this time. Impossibly deep and rich vocals with those Philly soul type harmonies on top.
The Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis track is a bit of a left turn musically but is thematically appropriate and serves as a clever way of tying things together with the crowd noises, group vocals and collaborative atmosphere. It definitely feels like a last hurrah for the list.
This was a great time. Tracks 5-10 were so good I about died and went to Heaven. The only small complaint I have is that some of the "sections" illustrating different aspects of the country's music feel a bit cut off from each other, like the Banda Black Rio and Tim Maia tracks kind of feel like they're doing their own thing, but that's the challenge of trying to encompass all this music in 80 minutes.
You did a great job. No disappointment here whatsoever.
This was an interesting listen for me in a lot of ways. I'm not an upbeat guy to put it mildly, so I had to fight some biases against the very sunny vibes of the first half of the playlist. If I'm honest, I found some of those tracks cloying - "Kites Are Fun" especially so.
It was around that time I started thinking the playlist needed some tonal variety, and, what do you know, a shift arrived almost immediately on "Bonnie & Clyde." From there the list found a different gear and started throwing the kind of curveballs I am accustomed to on your lists. Scott Walker added the kind of sinister beauty I always appreciate; the samba with Getz & Gilberto was delicious; and some of the transitions were so smooth I didn't even notice a new track had started.
This might be surprising, but my fav track was probably "Aguas de Marco": the vibe was alluringly campy, like you might hear in a Connery-era Bond movie. I really enjoyed the textural diversity of the final ten tracks.
The first half definitely wasn't in my wheelhouse, but I always try to evaluate these not on my personal tastes but rather on construction and execution of concept. And on those two fronts there is no denying the care and skill that went into crafting this.
Glad you could pull some enjoyment from the list, even if it wasn't your thing.
It seems easier to make a list comprised entirely of songs from a 10 year stretch, but there are big risks associated with it. Nobody has ever won a main DI with a time period or single genre list, to my knowledge, because you will inevitably alienate people by selling out to one or two sounds. There are some ways to mitigate this:
1. Keep it short
2. Try to fit as much variety in as you can
3. Make the transitions and craft so incredibly high that you can lean on that
I hopped onto the opportunity to make a list like this one because I knew it would have to be concise. As you said, the first 60% or so probably could have used more tonal variety, but I'm glad you felt there was plenty down the stretch. Part of me was actually concerned about throwing Bonnie & Clyde in there because I thought it was too much of a shift.
Kites Are Fun is an interesting case. I have known that song for 7-8 years but forgot about it until I started researching material to include in this list. The Free Design were one of those family-run, vocal-based 60s bands that get picked on when directors make fun of the era in movies like Spinal Tap or whatever. The album this song came from didn't click with me, but all the songs on this playlist being about wind and sun and happiness made me want to give Kites Are Fun a shot. In this context, it clicked. I completely fell in love with it. After the godawful year we've all experienced, the purity of the lyrics and harmonies broke my heart:
See, my kite it's green and white
Laughing in its distant flight
All that's between us is a little yellow string
But we like each other more than anything
And we run along together through the field behind my house
And the little drops of rain caress my face and wash my blouse
And we'd like to be a zillion miles away from everyone
'Cause mom and dad and Uncle Bill don't realize
Kites are fun
It's a song that really only could have been made with such sincerity a lifetime ago. That's a little sad to think about. But the pandemic has given people a new reason to appreciate sunshine, human connection and all the little moments of clarity that come from stripping away the worries and noise cluttering the mind. In that sense, the song feels wildly appropriate and meaningful to me.
At this point, I have a nice trio of lists that I hope win in the event that I do not. Yours, gump's, Axver's...fuck, imagine if Axver won a DI? That would be something else. But yes, this has been a very consistently high level competition and whatever happens happens from here. I'm just grateful for the positive feedback and terrific music.
I said when I reviewed CIB's list that one obstacle for me with some of the thematic lists was that, mentally, I'm in the process of shifting gears away from where I was a year ago. And so your list is interesting because it has a darker tone while acknowledging the importance of moving forward. Especially as it reached the end, I heard the shift I'm trying to make appear in this list.
Generally, I will say the flow and craft here is very good and if I mention it from here it's probably to make a suggestion.
All of the first three tracks were unfamiliar to me but worked together well as a suite. Pretty moody, fuzzy indie rock with yearning vocals and melancholy chord changes. The Long Neck track is great stuff, definitely makes me want to check out more by them. Wolf Alice is such a weird band. I never quite know what I'm getting from them, but they're great for DI because they can fit well in many different contexts. This song wasn't my favorite of theirs but it worked very well here. I would suggest transitioning Sky Musings into Void. That would have been insane. M is fucking amazing but I'm not sure it fit here. The production really makes it sound like it's from a different era in a not so good way.
I didn't really connect too much with the list emotionally until the Reznor/Ross cover of Life on Mars, which was one of those inspired personal touches I listen to DI lists for. It's at this point that the list becomes a little more intimate, melancholy and downright beautiful. People, I've Been Sad and Supercut are wonderful together. Waiting for the Night came out over 30 years ago but sounds like it's contemporaneous with all these other tracks, which is pretty incredible. Great choice for the list. The Ascension didn't work for me as a whole but Tell Me You Love Me, in the context of this list, makes me want to give it another chance.
The last two tracks offered an interesting, somewhat optimistic shift and I enjoyed them both, but I would have actually flipped them around. Road to Nowhere was a little rough after Sufjan and I think Keep Going would have provided the buffer it needed. Road to Nowhere would be such a cool, upbeat way to wrap things up. On the other hand, Keep Going has a lovely, hypnotic outro that works nicely for the purpose. It's whatever.
Cool list overall. I think it got better and better as it went along and I liked the way you tackled some heavy, personal topics with your song choices. Some great new things I discovered as well. Thanks for sharing.
So I didn't know what to expect heading into Gump's entry here; I'm not familiar at all with Brazilian music, and the start was a bit jarring to listen to. The opener, in particular, was really out there, almost like I was listening to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. That's not a bad thing.
But for me, this playlist really took off with the rock/folk section, and just didn't let up. I listened to this all the way through yesterday while doing some mundane work stuff, and about halfway through this section, I found myself getting into it. Imagine sitting at home staring into your laptop, and then slowly starting to move a bit to the rhythms, the head bobbing up and down, a little swaying from side to side. And it just flowed from there all the way to the end.
I was humming along to one of the songs, Taj Mahal, and was like - where have I heard this before? Lo and behold, Rod Stewart ripped it off for Do Ya Think I'm Sexy! That little fucker!
Also, while reading up on some of these artists, was a bit disheartened that several died at a young age for various reasons. Just makes what they accomplished all the more impressive. Raul Seixas, for example, passed at a mere 44 years old, yet released 21 albums in 26 active recording years. I mean, that is astounding to me. So even though some left this world much earlier than they should have, there's no denying the mark they left on the Brazilian music scene.
Well done gump. A very enjoyable listen. I honestly don't know how often I'll go back to this music, but it was a treat to listen to nonetheless.
I’m really glad you enjoyed it, phanan. And as a rhythm-centric entry, at least for its back half, I’m glad these songs got you to move your body. Seriously, it’s nice that people were so open-minded to listen to a completely foreign construct (in the literal and metaphorical).
Wow, that Rod Steward reference. I had no idea. It does sound like he is… drawing heavily on Taj Mahal. The timeline kind of works too (the version of Taj Mahal you heard is from 1976, though it was originally recorded in 1972 in a more acoustic arrangement). In any case, if you liked that song and want to explore more, that whole album - Africa Brasil - is really wonderful. Jorge Ben’s discography around that time is so good (A Tabua da Esmeralda and Força Bruta are both fantastic). He's like joy in a bottle.
I still have some memories of Raul Seixas passing somewhat unexpectedly in 1989. I was just 8 at that time, but it was a big thing, he was a beloved figure back home. Just an anecdote: when Bruce Springsteen played in São Paulo in 2013, he opened his show by saying “Thank you Raul Seixas”, and then went on to cover one of his famous songs, Sociedade Alternative:
As expected, this list did an excellent job of providing an overview of classic Brazilian pop and rock, much more so than the little sampler of it that my list had on offer. I had mixed feelings about us being in the same group because I was afraid people would experience some overload, but they certainly seem to have been enjoying it.
Most great playlists and compilations have the depth and polish to them that suggest a real knowledge of the material and that is present here. The songs are organized in such a way that you get stretches of psychedelia, jazz, chamber pop, whatever the Brazilian equivalent of coked-out 70s yacht music is, and so on.
The opening stretch was probably my least favorite because as I alluded to earlier, I haven't been so much into the vaguely campy psych pop corner of Brazilian music lately, but these are all great artists and it all flows well. Nao Identificado is such a classic.
Once we get to Secos & Mulhados (not sure I've ever heard anyone talk about them outside of RYM, thank you for including them), this is straight up wonderful. I hadn't heard of Raul Seixas before this, but that track is so smooth. Those Joe Cocker With a Little Help From My Friends backing vocals? Get out of here. Na boca do sol and Fé Cega, Faca Amolada and Viva Ou Morto are all 10/10 songs and make up my favorite run of the competition. It's so insanely good. I need to get around to that Nelson Angelo album.
After a couple more abstract prog-folk numbers, things switch gears to some cool bossa nova shit. Nara Leao is a legend but for whatever reason she hasn't cracked my soul like some of her contemporaries. This song was nice The Elis Regina song is super interesting to me because it's clearly not from the same era as everything else. It's from...1979? Definitely has more slick production than the other tracks. It's really cool though, makes me want to dig deeper into that discography.
Vale Quanto Pesa has a super interesting arrangement, ducking in and out of different tempos as it goes along. Really gets some swagger going when it brings the brass in. Another artist I haven't heard an album by. The Novos Baianos, Erasmo Carlos and Jorge Ben songs all come from amazing albums and I'd recommend them to anyone. I need that Erasmo Carlos album on vinyl because the cover is a perfect illustration of having a really hard fucking day in the hot sun and still looking like a badass at the end of it.
The Gilberto Gil and D'Angelo tracks bring us back to that period in the late 60s when Brazil was importing records from swinging London and San Francisco and losing their minds. As with the tracks at the beginning of the list, it's not my favorite era of Brazilian music, but essential to understanding its influences.
Maria fumaca is so slick. Kind of a jarring shift in eras between it and the D'Angelo track, but it's whatever at this point in the list. There's some cuica! The guitars reminded me of this unbelievably great DOOM instrumental:
Then Tim Maia comes through with a smooth and sexy track to remind everyone of the impressive range of Brazilian music from this time. Impossibly deep and rich vocals with those Philly soul type harmonies on top.
The Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis track is a bit of a left turn musically but is thematically appropriate and serves as a clever way of tying things together with the crowd noises, group vocals and collaborative atmosphere. It definitely feels like a last hurrah for the list.
This was a great time. Tracks 5-10 were so good I about died and went to Heaven. The only small complaint I have is that some of the "sections" illustrating different aspects of the country's music feel a bit cut off from each other, like the Banda Black Rio and Tim Maia tracks kind of feel like they're doing their own thing, but that's the challenge of trying to encompass all this music in 80 minutes.
You did a great job. No disappointment here whatsoever.
I’m so glad you liked it, LM. I obviously knew you were familiar with a lot of it, so it was very curious/anxious to hear your reaction. I’m glad you enjoyed the psych-folk stretch in particular, I thought about you as I was putting it together as I knew you enjoyed some of those artists (especially the Clube da Esquina affiliated ones). It’s such a cool music scene/era, I wish more Brazilians were into it. As most of those artists eventually transitioned fully into MPB, they became extremely popular, but quite conventional. I don’t enjoy their post-70s work nearly as much.
That Nelson Angelo album is definitely worth it. It’s so laid back, and flies by really quickly. I do think that Vivo ou Morro is the best song there, but there are so many gorgeous melodies throughout. Caminhão and Sete Cachorros are two other favorites.
Funny that you mentioned MF DOOM in connection to the D’Angelo track - he has another connection to this playlist, as he heavily sampled Na Boca do Sol:
That Arthur Verocai album was so obscure for such a long time, and now seems like a popular source for sampling. It’s even issued by a US label at this point. Crazy.
I love some Raul Seixas. He’s so idiosyncratic. There’s an old school approach to his singing, almost like crooning, and he was a such a sponge for capturing genres and blending them into his music. Kind of a maximalist, leave nothing on the field approach, which could be over the top. But when it worked, it was beautiful. For someone so prolific, there was a lot that wasn’t good, but it was at least interesting. He’s a treasure. Thank you for the Joe Cocker reference, for the life of me I couldn’t place those background vocals but there you have it. Another one of his famous songs, Gita, has a similar approach (it’s a great song, despite this ridiculous video).
I’ve had my eyes on that Erasmo Carlos vinyl for a while. It’s a bit pricey here in the States, but I’ll try to pick it up when I go to Brazil next (and if I find it, I will get you a copy for you to look at after a bad day in the office). He just turned 80 last week, unbelievable given his hedonist lifestyle. Besides this album, I really love Sonhos e Memórias. His earlier, Jovem Guarda stuff (together with Roberto Carlos) is not my cup of tea.
I totally get your point about the final stretch. That was the hardest to put together, as I knew I wanted that Tim Maia song but not what should go around it, with little time to build up to it. I tried to go for soul/R&B sounds that could go with it, to keep with the Afro-Brazilian focus in the second half of the playlist, and figured the songs are fun enough to make that part work. But definitely not as smooth as the beginning.
Anyways, thanks for listening and for the feedback, really enjoyed reading your in-depth write up.
I thought you might because your lists often trade in that kind of carefree, feelgood pop.
