CRIATURAS DA NOITE & CASA ENCANTADA

This is a unique band from South America, sometimes sounding like Yes, but is very innovative for the time. This package brings the two major works of the band. Enjoy the fantastic 1974 song, with 12 minutes.Fantastic.

One of the best albuns I ever seen. It mix perfectily brazilian music with prog rock. And it is very beaultifull. You can actuly feel the music and the brazilian culture on it. Its a Hard album to find, but worth it. This disc is a complation of the first two albums, the best ones by far.

This 1999 "DOIS EM UM" ("two in one") CD contains the two most famous LPs released by Brazilian group O TERÇO. Read my reviews of "Criaturas Da Noite" and "Casa Encantada" for my opinion of the music itself. I would give this CD 4.5 stars if such a thing were possible.

The 1975 LP "Criaturas Da Noite" was re-released in the 1980s (1990s?) with a different cover and name (simply "O Terço"), and you will find that in 2003 EMI Brazil released a CD containing the latter LP plus the 1976 LP "Casa Encantada". Thus the 2003 CD - labelled "2em1" ("two in one") - has the same tracks as the 1999 "DOIS EM UM" CD, but the 2003 CD has copy-control software which is installed on the hard disc if you want to play it on a PC or Mac. The 1999 CD does not have copy protection and would therefore be the better one to get if you intend to play the CD on a PC or Mac. It's out of print, unfortunately, but some copies are still around.

In the late 80´s and the early 90´s most recording companies of the wrold were making tons of money without much investiment releasing hundreds of CDs versions of their old acts. Most of those CDs were not of great quality and the booklets (when they did bother to print something more than just the covers) were usually poor. But we didn´t care then. To hear the long out of print LP again in the new format was a dream come true for most of us. Unfortunatly that did not happen in Brazil. Or very little of it. Brazilian labels by the end of the 80´s were now united with radio and TV stations to play monopoly: one single style of music (of bad quality) was to get all the media atention. It was an awful time for anyone who liked a little more elaborated material than the corny commercial stuff that was to be played over and over again as if any other kind of music was dead. Internet, piracy and a general public discontent with such blatant shenanigans would ultimately spell the end of it by the end of that decade, but the damage was done. But slowly, some people in the business did try to rescue some of Brazil´s classics into CD and I was quite delighted when I found this one in a store in 1999.

As It was expected, the CD was not remastered and the booklet was nil (just the tracklist and songwriting credits). But I didn´t care. For the first time I could have both O Terço´s best, classic stuff of the 70´s in just one CD. And just for 5 dollars! What a bargain! Criaturas da Noite was one of the quintessential prog rock (not symphoniy prog) records of my country in the 70´s. A huge seller (for the style) and still sounding great after all these years. Casa Encantada was not that influential or groundbreaking, but it also includes some very fine stuff on it.

If you´re looking to have those two albums in one CD, however, I´d recommend the newer, this time remastered (with a better booklet, even though Criaturas Da Noite´s cover featured is not the original one) edition of 2003. For some reason it was called O Terço & Casa Encantada, but actually contains the Criaturas Da Noite stuff, and not the group´s first work, as someone might think.

But this one is not bad. I still have it. A nice pair. And I love it.

RAting: Not the best version of this 2 in 1 CD, but even then, 4 stars for the great songs on it.