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• the best tropicalia album is... tom ze's "estudando o samba". this is real great music.

  Posted by Joe Fishburn at 1:22 AM GMT 22/04/2006 Report Abuse

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• 1972's Transa by Caetano Veloso is not technicaly a Tropicália Record (it was recorded in England during his exile years). But it can still send shivers down your spine. In "9 out of 10" we heard the word reggae for the first time, in "You Don' know me", an entire generation could feel the pain and loneliness of the composer obliged where he didn't want to. Nowadyas in Brazil to be a Caetano fan is not much different of being, let's say, an Elton John fan in Europe, something, that kind of guy for whow you must fight to prove that used to have value, Transa works for these kind of people the same way Yellow Brick Road or Captain Fantastic probably does over there in UK.

  Posted by Leandro Saueia at 3:24 AM GMT 22/04/2006 Report Abuse

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• the first two albums by gal costa are marvelous. some say she is the brazilian janis joplin in the album called gal it's true and rogerio duprat the producer is a genious as is the guitarist. his carreer has stopped because he has a lsd bad trip.
  the other album is a great pop record with fabulous compositions by caetano and gil.
  i really like the first caetano record, it's a classic psychedelic record with such songs like tropicalia. but don't forget one of the craziest album ever, it's first since his return from exile. It's called "araça azul", brazilian "blue orange" and it's very minimalist with a lot of vocals overdub. It's very strange but also very good/ I'm a great caetano fan and still i am. I've seen him live more than ten times.
  Don't forget the second and third gilberto gil albums. It's more groovy and dance orientated because gil is a very good guitarist and vocalist. He can do anything. It's like mangue beat, twenty years before, because he mixed samba with chorro, with rock. It was really ahead of it's time even if his masterpiece remains "expresso 2222"from 1972.
  And the last but not the least, listen to the tropicalia manifesto from caetano with rita lee and her group: "e proibido proibir" (it is forbidden to forbid) which causes great problems for caetano and forces him to leave his cherished country.

  Posted by bertrand ricard at 8:32 AM GMT 22/04/2006 Report Abuse

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• There is only one album that you need when dipping your toe into the rich well that is Tropicalia and that is the brand new release from the experts at Soul Jazz records, funnily titled ‘Tropicália’. It is the first album to bring together all the key artists involved in the movement – Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé, Gal Costa and more. The booklet within is exhaustive in its complete coverage of the movement, but it is the groovy-psycho-avant sounds on the disc from all of the main players that makes this the only place to start. Essential!

  Posted by SpaceIsDeep at 2:28 AM GMT 24/04/2006 Report Abuse

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• All Os Mutantes’ albums are great and any of them could easily figure in a “best of” guide to Tropicália. But a hidden gem had just been rediscovered here in Brazil: "A Banda Tropicalista do Duprat", an album by Rogério Duprat, the maestro who made arrangements for Os Mutantes records. Or, if you may call him, Tropicália’s George Martin. (He is the one holding a chamber-pot in the cover of the "Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis" collective album)

  This record was released in 1968 and was considered a rarity among Brazilian music enthusiasts until last December, when it was remastered and issued for the first time on CD. It has 12 tracks, and Os Mutantes play in four of them. The majority is of instrumental versions for American, English and Brazilian well known songs, like Jobim’s Chega de Saudade or The Beatles’ Flying. Others have lyrics sung with heartwarming freshness by the then under 20 year olds Mutantes Sérgio, Arnaldo and Rita.

  All of the tracks, obviously, are completely twisted by the Brazilian psychedelic touch of Duprat, who had no fear of taking the most unusual roads to build his music.

  Posted by Cleison Quedeo at 8:00 AM GMT 02/05/2006 Report Abuse

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• The Mutantes' Una Comedia Divina o Ando de Meio Desligado is the epitome of mindblowing rock music. Forget Tropicalia, forget the great Brazilian revolution, this is as essential as Abbey Road or Safe As Milk.

  Posted by Fred Bussu at 8:28 AM GMT 19/05/2006 Report Abuse

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• 
  All Tropicália recondings are excelent as well, but if we had to choose one, The "EP" Caetano Veloso And Mutantes " reconding live at Tropicalia Tv Show " DIVINO MARAVILHOSO", its Incredible,extremely amazing, cause have all the best issues to movement, great guitars,wonderful lyrics, post modernity view of the world, culture and mass media,contradiction,Guerrila,a permanent state of schock,an revolution in a world counterculture. Its That.

  Posted by Enzio Andrade at 1:04 AM GMT 20/05/2006 Report Abuse

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• I have quit YouTube and will be committing ritual suicide online.
  The Rock Star life is just too much for me.
  Here is my farewell video:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mpkAdaG9yU

  Posted by Raymond Stolp at 10:18 PM GMT 30/07/2007 Report Abuse

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• What a great chance to share my modest knowledge about the most adventurous, innovative and relevant music ever made in the globe. Everybody knows the Tropicalia discography is composed by just a few recordings that totally shook up the music scene of the country, at that time completely dominated by the popularity of Bossa Nova together with the so called "Jovem Guarda", brazilian's own Beat movement, led by "O Rei" (the king) Roberto Carlos together with Erasmo Carlos. Those records are:

  - GILBERTO GIL s/t 1968 (aka "Frevo Rasgado"): Gil's in its full innovative and grooviest best. Recorded with, in one side, Os Mutantes, providing the right dose of weirdness with their fuzz guitar riffs, crazy noises you won't even dare to wonder where the hell do they come from and freaky voices and, on the other side, maestro Rogerio Duprat in charge of the magnificent orchestrations Tropicalia is known for.
  - CAETANO VELOSO s/t 1968: to me, Caetano's personal manifesto of the movement. Starting from the covert art (meaning a huge lot of what Tropicalia would be all about) to the opening song "Tropicalia", responsible for naming the movement, before the concept album that would come months later, or even before they would consider it as such. With the Beat Boys as backing band and also Os Mutantes (on the last song).
  - TROPICALIA Panis et Circentses (the manifesto album of the movement with most of the participants in the covert). An absolutely essential gem for everybody interested on exploring the genre.
  - OS MUTANTES both Self Titled records, 1968 and 1969: Two absolut masterpieces. Mixing higher dosis of Psychadelic sounds than their movement conuterparts but without letting out elements of Brazilian traditional music. Rogerio Duprat arrangements can be heard in full splendor.
  - GAL COSTA "s/t", "Legal" and "Cinema Olympia": three beauties that tend not be considered as relevant as the above mentioned but I really don't understand why. Under Gil and Caetano's guidance, Gal incorporated many exported elements that surely enriched and expanded Tropicalia'a bonderies, developing a style that could be understood as some sort of James Brown meets Janis Joplin in a hot Bahia's summer, if I'm allowed to the description.
  - TOM ZE s/t 1968: invited by Caetano to come from Salvador to Sao Paulo in order to integrate the movement (because Caetano saw on his extremely provocative creativity, the perfect match with the movement's philosophy), Tom Ze delivers top class lyrics and terribly exciting experimentation. Like all tropicalia records, way ahead of its time.
  GILBERTO GIL s/t 1969 (aka Cerebro Electronico): one the hardest to fine and yet one the grooviests. Recorded just before being forced to leave the country on excile, with key participations of some of the greatest musicians around. It follows the route traced by the previous release but it has a more "introspective" feel (listen for example to the rendition of "Aquele Abraço").
  CAETANO VELOSO s/t 1969 (white cover): Caetano recorded just guitar and vocals in Bahia after being released from political prisoning (and before leaving the country together with Gil) and sent the tapes to Sao Paulo for Rogerio Duprat to complete the record. The album is somehow a sad but yet powerful farewell, as heard on the beautiful Empty Boat.
  ROGERIO DUPRAT "A banda tropicalista do Duprat": an extremely rare record recently rediscovered with the Maestro showing his genius arrangements in full orchestration.

  These are to me, the essential Tropicalia albums.

  Alex.

  Posted by Alex Figueira at 11:28 AM GMT 15/08/2007 Report Abuse

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