OS MUTANTES
Ao Vivo—Live at
the Barbican Theatre
(Luaka Bop)
1/2
Most of the world still has no idea how much there is to love about
Os Mutantes. For a few years in the early ’70s, the Brazilian
psych-rock trio adventured through the farthest reaches of pop music
with a loony, Technicolor fearlessness that surpassed even the Beatles
and the Beach Boys. Reacting to the stranglehold of conservative
Brazilian politics of the era, the band spiked their music (and the
Tropicália movement it was identified with) with a sense of
guile, subterfuge, and humor that’s difficult for outsiders to
understand. In a broad sense, their political nose thumbing and
innovative music making links them to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, who
was igniting the streets of Nigeria around the same time Os Mutantes
were tripping through São Paolo.
You listen to David Byrne, Of Montreal, Beck, and Devendra Banhart,
so you should know that they all cite Os Mutantes as a major influence.
You’re in Seattle, so you should know that back in 1993, Kurt Cobain
angled for an Os Mutantes reunion. It finally happened last
year—after three decades out of the public eye, brothers Arnaldo
Baptista and Sérgio Dias enlisted star vocalist Zélia
Duncan to replace original member Rita Lee, signed up a five-piece
backing band, and played a handful of shows around the U.S. and
England. This double-disc live set is taken from their first night
back—May 22 at London’s Barbican Theatre.
If you’re a Mutantes newcomer, it’s not the place to start
appreciating the band. Their best material is represented, but in the
live setting, the dark garageyness and spaced-out dubiness of the
albums are replaced by the guitar pyrotechnics of Brother
Sérgio—reportedly an acid casualty since the mid-’70s. The
baroque-pop grandeur is present onstage—wild-eyed anthems like
“Don Quixote” and “Bat Macumba” sound bigger, more elevated than
ever—but the albums’ studio-rendered schizoid ecstasy is dimmed
by bandleader Arnaldo’s mellowed delivery and Sérgio’s
aforementioned noodling. The songs are stunning,
brilliant—compared to anything but other Mutantes music, they’re
unparalleled—but those first few albums are even more so.
As of September, Arnaldo has again dropped out of the band and
Sérgio is working on new material with Tropicália
godfather Tom Zé. That the band is back is good news, but to
really experience Os Mutantes in all their mind-melting, heart-swelling
glory, it’s best to go back to the source. JONATHAN ZWICKEL
DAFT PUNK
Alive 2007
(EMI)
In 1993, Thomas Bangalter and Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo attended a
rave at the Euro Disney theme park outside of Paris. Techno hasn’t been
the same since.
On the duo’s recent U.S. tour—their first in 10 years—it
was clear that Daft Punk learned a thing or two from old Uncle Walt.
Their show, a sort of career-spanning Daft Punk megamix, was a massive
spectacle of light and sound, with every element carefully constructed
and synchronized to elicit maximum squealing glee.
Alive 2007, a sequel of sorts to Alive 1997,
attempts to capture that experience. The album contains a live Daft
Punk performance (recorded in Bercy, France, on June 14, 2007) and a
bonus disc featuring a fan-shot video for “Harder, Better, Faster,
Stronger” directed by Oliver “Brother of Michel” Gondry. The flat
camcorder shots and quick cuts of the video aren’t quite up to the
task, but the music more than stands on its own.
For the tour, Daft Punk radically reedited their back catalog,
adding jitters and jumps to familiar hooks, and more importantly,
mapping out new combinations and mixes of classic tracks. “Harder,
Better, Faster, Stronger” is more of all of those things with the
stomping bass line and vocal hook (not to mention some unidentified
synth squelches) of “Around the World” behind it. “One More Time” pops
like champagne out of the bell toll of “Aerodynamic” before diving into
the latter’s gleaming guitar solo before one more elated chorus.
The first thing you hear on Alive 2007 is the crowd
cheering; the audience’s roar and hand claps are present throughout,
echoing the peaks and filling in the breakdowns. The live show’s most
striking visual element may have been the flashing red words “ROBOT”
and “HUMAN” on the enormous stage backdrop that, by the end of the
show, turned into “HUMAN” and “TOGETHER.” There’s a utopian spirit
behind Daft Punk’s rave theme park, and listening to that roaring crowd
and these anthemic songs, it’s easy to believe a Daft Punk concert is
the happiest (hardest, bestest, fastest, strongest) place on earth.
ERIC GRANDY
Baker
Crystal
Stevens
Hood