The band's debut album,
Os Mutantes
, is far and away their best -- a wildly inventive trip that assimilates
orchestral pop
, whimsical
psychedelia
,
musique concrete
, found-sound environments -- and that's just the first song! Elsewhere there are nods to Carnaval, albeit with distinct hippie sensibilities, incorporating fuzztone guitars and go-go basslines. Two tracks,
"O Relogio"
and
"Le Premier Bonheur du Jour,"
work through pastoral French
pop
, sounding closer to
the Swingle Singers
than
Gilberto Gil
. Though not all of the experimentation succeeds -- the languid Brazilian
blues
of
"Baby"
is rather cumbersome -- and
pop/rock
listeners may have a hard time finding the hooks,
' first album is an astonishing listen. It's far more experimental than any of the albums produced by the era's first-rate psychedelic bands of Britain or America. ~ John Bush