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Secos & Molhados - Secos & Molhados CD (album) cover

SECOS & MOLHADOS

Secos & Molhados

 

Prog Folk

4.05 | 43 ratings

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GKR
5 stars In 1973, Brazilian music was not the same as a few years ago. The rock (more of the roots origins) continued to produce their hits, but without the same innovation. Os Mutantes passed changes in formations, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil had already launched its major albums, perfectly exemplifying the Tropicalia movement. And then ... came SECOS & MOLHADOS.

Brazil had not had, since the launch of "Panis et Circences", the Tropic'lia manifesto, songs so well rooted and able to reflect the national reality. And even more important: music that was in fact aproved by the people, who could be able to identify themselve with the songs. If Tropic'lia sometimes sinned for a certain academicism, the first album of SECOS & MOLHADOS became a huge commercial success, so even before appearing live with all the look today we see from the pictures or perpetuated by Ney Matogrosso' concerts.

But let's go to the music itself: The first track, "Sangue Latino" can easily be one of the cleariest tracks to identify the folk roots (even in the sense of the "American folk singer"), of Jo'o Ricardo. The lyrics, anti-establishment and assertion of our relations with the Latin American continent has become a true icon. The next track, "O Vira" is another example. I usually play it at parties in college and I've done several experiments: be after Led Zeppelin and even Queen, it puts people to dance with the same or greater enthusiasm. "O Patr'o Nosso de Cada Dia", almost a protest song, takes very well to tune to one of the highest points of the album, "Amor", where the influences of psychedelia and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are very clear. "Primavera nos Dentes", at which the great musician of skill that was Z' Rodrix stands strongly, is a poem that clearly shows the political ideas of Jo'o Ricardo's father, the portuguese and communist poet Jo'o Apolinario: a poem to the class struggle . The free-jazz psychedelic that follows is one of the great moments of Brazilian music. "Assim Assado", on the other hand, enters precisely in fine line and difficult category. It is folk, it is Latin American, its rock. "Mulher Barriguda" is a return to roots of Brazilian rock, towards ie ie ie and Beatlemania - and at once a cry of protest against the wars that ravaged the world in the mid 70's. The more acoustic, "El Rey," "Rosa de Hiroshima", "Rond' do Capit'o" and "As Andorinhas" demonstrate the great ability of the group to build the music versions of the poems (intersected with the great pop of "Prece C'smica"), and not simply using the lyrics with no prospect of keeping the delicacy and importance of the texts. "Fala" is a grand finale to the incredible 30 minutes trip that took place. Ze Rodrix' moog fit very well with the orchestration placed in the background. Progressively speaking.

Overall, the musicians play with a competence still impressive after more than 40 years of the album's release. The vocals full of passion and personality of NEY MATOGROSSO, the arrangements and compositions of JO'O RICARDO and GERSON CONRAD, and especially the virtuosity of guitarist JOHN FLAVIN and bassist WILLIE VERDAGUER, without which certain tracks would certainly lack magic. The bass lines of "Sangue Latino" and "Amor" and guitar solos from "O Vira" and "Assim Assado" are exceptional and current trade marks of SECOS & MOLHADOS. The SERGIO ROSADA's flute also impresses with its competence and correct timing - sometimes minimalistic beautiful, as in "Rosa de Hiroshima".

If you ask me how I would define a Brazilian masterpiece, what album could bring the post-Tropicalia sound to its logical conclusion and thus almost founding the genre of "Brasilian Rock Music" (which sadly was an aborted experiment) I would definetly say: "the first album of SECOS & MOLHADOS".

GKR | 5/5 |

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