In the 1970s, Brazilian rock'n'roll followed along on several parallel paths, which only occasionally intersected. Many of the groups from the heavily commercialized, early-60s prefab jovem guarda teenybopper scene kept making albums well into the 1970s. Generally speaking, these continued along the pop cover-tunes path of their earlier work, or dipped even deeper into bland pop vocals, as with Roberto Carlos, the king of the scene. Many of the great tropicalia artists who pioneered psychedelic rock in Brazil moved on to become the superstars of the "MPB" scene, which also turned towards an increasingly-ornate pop direction; some -- like Jorge Ben -- delved into funk and soul-flavored groove music.
A handful of artists pursued (more or less) straight-ahead rock music... Many were inspired by the inroads made by the tropicalia movement, but keeping up with the times, they spun off in different directions. Ex-Mutante Rita Lee became something of a stadium rocker, and several prog bands flourished in the mid-'70s, while a few hardcore rockers and psychedelic bands also roamed the land. To be honest, I haven't heard all that many of these records... but as I check them out, I'll add my reviews to the Slipcue site.
Yahoo "Yahoo" (EMI-Odeon, 1988)
(Produced by Marcello Azevedo & Roberto De Recife)
Dreadfully tepid, vaguely "new wave" mainstream '80s-style pop-rock... In terms of its production style, his would have sounded at home with North American pop from about two or three years earlier. It's not overtly embarassing, but it's certainly not worth going out of your way to track it down, either. Nothing special, really. Bandmembers included Marcello Azevedo, Roberto De Recife, Marcelo Faria and Ze Henrique. The album closes with a cover of the Os Mutantes oldie, "Vida De Cachorro"; another song, "Mordida De Amor," was used as the theme of a Brazilian TV show.
Inacio Zatz "Zatz" (Dabliu, 2000)
A striking, surprising, and quite pleasant new example of the Brazilian mix'n'match method of music making... The album opens on a potentially troublesome note -- a piercing, BB King-style, electric blues riff, the sort of thing that in the United States has signified a muscle-bound, moribund musical genre ("urban blues") that has completely lost its creative edge for the last few decades... Naturally, when you hear someone in Brazil pick up a twang bar and wail away, your first instinct is to run and hide -- yet far from sucking, Inacio Zatz is a gas. For one thing, he's not a blues musician... at least he's not limited to the style. Actually, he doesn't seem to be limited to any style: this is an impressively eclectic record, incorporating bossa nova, afro-bloco percussion, Asian traditional and various shades of rock with equal ease. A few overly-goofy moments, but on the whole, well worth checking out!
Tom Ze - see artist discography
Brazilian Rock - Compilation Albums
Other Brazilian Styles
Main Brazil Index
