TECNICOLOR

The fabled Technicolor, long-forgotten English-language album from the Brazilian band Os Mutantes, recorded in 1970 and promised for July, 1999, was finally released in April, 2000 - almost thirty years after recorded! - without the recognition that it deserved, crowning one of the largest injustices of the history of the Brazilian musical industry. No longer a legend, an object of the desire, it became one more classic of the Brazilian and world rock. The amazing sound was recorded in one week in the studio Des Dames, Paris, in November, 1970, produced by Carlos Olmes. then manager of Polydor of London, during a season of shows of the band in the influential theater Olympia. But the album was not released on that year. Without any explanations Polydor, that had plans of lauching the group abroad, gave up the project. Shelved by mysterious reasons, a copy of the tape was discovered in 1994 - after long hibernation - by the journalist, musical critic and writer from São Paulo, Carlos Calado, while interviewing the plastic artist Antonio Peticov (old friend of Rita Lee, Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Dias), who carried the tape for years world around. He didn´t remind very well what was in that old 7 1/2 ips tape. The musician Arnaldo Dias Baptista cried when hearing the recovered recording for the first time. A long calvary preceded the relauching. The album finally came to the light, in September of 1999, having as godfather - among others - Sean Ono Lennon, who met Arnaldo Baptista and performed an English version of "Panis et Circencis" together at the Free Jazz festival in Rio. Sean signs the cover art of the album... During the time that the tape was left in dust Mr Olmes' drawer to the release, Tecnicolor left footprints in the territory of the refined world piracy. With the arrival of David Byrne to Brazil, in 1997, to launch the Mutantes in the United States, the snowball grows from size to the release of 'Tecnicolor' - one of the shining syntheses of the career of the group. The original name of the album was changed from Technicolor to Tecnicolor, without "h". The lyrics present a mixture of English's, Portuguese, Spanish (or "Portuñol", a mix of Portuguese and Spanish) and French. In fact, some people say that Olms arrested the disk because it was sung in a lot of languages... The "brazilianism" imposed by the producer mixed with the then recent influence of groups as Yes, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and even of Santana and The Beatles gave to the work an own personality, always potentiated in the versions in English where they try to preserve the humor present in the works of the group. Tecnicolor consists mainly of reworkings of earlier tracks, with a few new ones, the band delivering loose, relaxed performances. It is funny to compare the arrangements of the english (or french) versions of the "Tecnicolor" tunes vs. the originals, they sound different. Generally, the group sounds a lot more conventional here than on their first two albums. -"Panis et Circences" is an classic song of the Mutantes, here in shorter version (2'12), that shows certain Beatles influence, in the style of "Magical Mistery Tour" or "Abbey Road". It loses much of its appeal, replacing the heady sonic rush of the original recording with a fairly bland pop approach. -"Bat Macumba" has a basic arrangement of bass, guitar bongos and tambourine in psychedelic workouts. Highlight for the guitar solo of Sérgio Dias and Rita Lee groan- orgasm. -"Virginia" also shows Beatles influence. It was included later in the album "Jardim Elétrico". -"She's my Shoo Shoo (My Girl)" is maybe the song that most differs from the original version. The anthological distorted guitar, that gives the identity to the original recordings, was replaced by a held keyboard. Shortened in half, it doesn't allow comparisons. In short, the original is very superior... -"I Fell Little Spaced Out (Ando Meio Desligado)" has the most drastic changes, with good presence of bass and keyboard and benefits from the instrumental muscle. There is a good jam session of blues in the final part of the song. -Rita Lee seduces in "Baby". -In "Tecnicolor" the band hypnotizes. Clear influency from Beatles, phase Abbey Road. Precise vocals, evenly distributed instruments, it is the high point of the album, justifies naming it . Also incorporates some Crosby, Stills, Nash e Young. -"El Justiciero" Unpublished at that time, it was thrown later in the album "Jardim Elétrico". Basically with guitars, bongo and maracas, it is a classic example of the refined humor of the Mutantes, with funny lyrics in mixture of Portuguese and Spanish with mistakes obviously deliberate, after brief introduction in English half sung half spoken by Rita Lee with curious Mexican accent. The lyrics printed in the insert omits a pearl of the Mutantes' nonsense: ... "Besame mucho Juanita Banana, when caliente el sol... " -"I'm Sorry Babe (Desculpe Baby)" presents a Vocal in "vibrato" that results interesting. -"Adeus Maria Fulô" maybe the funniest of them, with the original lyrics in portuguese, sounds like Hawaiian music. -"Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour" changed definitively in a piece typically French, something as a bolero, with arrangement a la Vivaldi and almost Andean flutes. Rita astonishes. -"Saravah (Saravá)" is played in faster mode than the original. -"Panis et Circences (Reprise)" has one only phrase repetead ad infinitum (The music lighed with the heat of the sun) with profusion of flutes. If you can read portuguese, see more detailed review (or simply look at the pictures) in http://soundchaser.com.br/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5162

Let's deal with the whimsy first - this works really well a few times, such as the irrepressible "Virginia", which sounds like some of the better material that would later come from QUEEN, and the harmonious "I'm Sorry Baby". In fact, the harmonies here are the real highlight. But for every undeniably sunny ditty there are several that probably didn't even smell fresh when they first bloomed almost 40 years ago, such as "She's my Shoo Shoo" and "Baby". As for the more jammy numbers, neither "I feel a little spaced out" nor "Sarava" really sound convincing, although the interjection of vocal exercises among the organs gives them some fleeting interest, especially in the latter.

This isn't a bad album, but overall lacks even the minimal requisite seriousness I expect from a good progressive album. While its retrograde pout is part of the charm it does have, the technical precision and a sense that it's all an act washes out some of the colours that could otherwise have cajoled me into rounding up rather than down.