SECOS & MOLHADOS

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".

It�´s hard to picture nowadays the impact this album had in Brazil�´s music scene at the time. The mix of rock music to brazilian rhythms and styles were not exactly a novelty: Tropicalia is a good example of giving a modern and psychedelic treatment to MPB (the letters standing for brazilian popular music, in portuguese), but it didn�´t reach a big audience at the time. Secos & Molhados debut album, on the other hand had an immediate and profound impact. The mix of national folk music and rhythms with rock, blues and prog was so perfect, seamless and subtle no one dared call it a sell out to "american music", like all the other attempts up till then were. And their visual was extremely bold for the time, even dangerous: three androgynous men with heavy make up and outrageous clothes, making provocative poses at the height cold war and military government. It certainly appeal to the "glam"youth, but to a lot of people they just looked like a bunch of weirdos (or worse). Yet, their music captivated just about everybody: from hippies to squares, from adults to children. It was the bestselling album of the decade and one the biggest musical and cultural phenomenons in the brazilian music history.

Looking back, some details can be seen more clear: they had the songs (Jo�£o Ricardo was a gifted songwriter), an excellent and fluid backing band and, more than anything else, an extraordinary singer in Ney Matogrosso. His unique vocal style made many people think it was a woman singing. Small wonder he is regarded as one of MPB�´s living legends with an ongoing solo career after all these years. The lyrics were a novelty too: they actually chose to put music into already written poetry, some of it penned by Jo�£o Ricardo�´s father, portuguese poet Jo�£o Apolin�¡rio. The result was some of the most intelligent and poignant words to be put into music at the time, like Rosa de Hiroshima (Hiroshima�´s Rose), a well known poem about the effects of the atomic bomb on Japanese people written by famous poet Vinicius de Moraes.

As almost anything that arrived too much too soon, it would not last long: the band dissolving about an year latter, among bitter fights regarding money, jealousy and bloated egos. But their legacy was a lasting one. And their music still stands as one of the best to ever grace popular radio and the charts. For once quality music, with sophisticated lyrics, was a big hit, both with intellectuals and the common men. A rare feat indeed. But it did happen. And I still love this CD to this day.

Rating: for all the sheer quality, groundbreaking novelty and historical importance, anything less than five stars would be criminal. Liking it or not. A real classic of the 70�´s.

The supernova that destroyed, reshaped, shone impossibly bright, and died right after: 10/10

(note: SECOS & MOLHADOS = album, SECOS E MOLHADOS = band)

I want to clarify that I the album and its context are deeply intertwined, it is impossible to evaluate the first without the latter. How the music sounds and what it represents are fruits of its setting. Of course, without knowledge of its background the album will still be enjoyable, but perhaps not nearly as fascinating as it truly is.

And so, to claim SECOS & MOLHADOS is a revolutionary album is an understatement. Released in 1973, during the worst period of the military dictatorship in Brazil, its eclectic variety and daring nature captivated Brazilians in a way never seen before; they became a hit so monstrous they threatened to dethrone the nation's Elton John, Roberto Carlos, from the top. The album's style was built over the structure of the psychedelic "subversive" (but culturally enrichening) Tropicália movement. Nurtured by those roots, SECOS outputted something equally meaningful and audacious. Rather than doing so through a multifaceted effort that required numerous artists, all SECOS needed was thirty minutes, androgynous makeup, and lush songwriting. After those thirty minutes, the deed was done: they defined the direction of a nation's pop music on a way done before only by Sgt. Peppers, and broke so many paradigms - musical and socially speaking - that the Brazilian society would never be the same anymore. The album (& band) name is a term used to define bazars that sell all sorts of stuff. Alternatively, as spoken by bandleader João Ricardo, "a name that doesn't determine anything, [a name] which is open to all genres". He believes (rather fairly) the album is engrained on popular music, and consider the band (but not its music) rock - their libertarian, paradigm-breaker attitude.

As we can attest, SECOS E MOLHADOS' manifesto was indeed to be open to all: ranging from glam rock to Brazilian folk, from Latin to Portuguese folklore and music. This eclecticism was a way to be appealing & please all distinct tastes: [politically] engaged would enjoy Primavera nos Dentes and Mulher Barriguda; Rosa de Hiroshima would become pacifists' anthem; Prece Cósmica was rapidly adopted by hippies; Rondó do Capitão pleased the infant public; Vira was a sensation to the massive public of the radios, and lastly, the music poems brought a (non-pompous) erudite tone for the delight of the scholarly. Highly emblematic, the lyrics (especially the music poems) are more often than not vastly lavish, "offering a lyrical richness seldom seen in Brazilian popular music (MPB)". João Ricardo's songwriting skills are laudable, especially if you consider he composed roughly all songs. Ney Matogrosso's feminine, delicate tenor vocals fascinate listeners from its first appearance. The musicianship isn't in any way excelling (aside from Ney), but the innovating blend of electronic devices (such as distortion or synthesizers) with traditional instruments to play folksy Brazilian music makes up for that.

Some tracks deserve highlight. Sangue Latino (Latin Blood) opens with a bassline whose arrangement "is marked by the characteristics of the epoch's pop music" whilst the lyrics alluded to "the Latin American condition of waywardness and resistance". Nonetheless, the way they used rattles and guitar makes it an allegoric Brazilian folk song. O Vira (The Turn) refers to the Portuguese folkloric choreography dance with the same name, except that on SECOS E MOLHADOS' version it has an electronic and distorted rock sound, which later changes to traditional accordion-driven melody of the gaúchos or nordestinos, (regional) peoples from Brazil. O Patrão Nosso de Cada Dia ("Our Everyday Employer") is a melancholic acoustic song, with a strong performance by Ney and sweet pastoral flutes sweeps that reminds me of STORIA DI UN MINUTO. Assim Assado is the "progressive rock" properly said, using heavy guitar distortion, 7/8 time signatures and generous amounts of bongo and flutes. The title and lyrics feature wordplay between the words "Assim Assado", which is a popular term that means "like this and that", but if taken literally, can mean "Cooked like this" as "assado" means cooked. Last and not least is Rosa de Hiroshima ("Hiroshima Rose"), acclaimed poet Vinicius de Moraes' poem, musicalized. The title might be self-explanatory: an antiwar, anti-nuclear cry, "The Hiroshima rose / the hereditary rose / the radioactive rose / stupid and invalid / the rose with cirrhosis / the atomic anti-rose".

SECOS & MOLHADOS' biggest achievement was not flirting with various genres nor its beautiful lyricism, though; it was slipping through violent censorship. Their creativity and insolence managed to overcome repression and signified a scream of victory for freedom. Inadvertently, they reinvented how music would sound like in the future, a reason that makes it an authentic progressive record.

Rather obviously, the only way they could influence society as profoundly as they did was if they harnessed immense support - which they did. Although slightly popular since its roots, their devastating fame was achieved after appearing on national television. Used to the same-old musicians, the masses were enthralled, to say the least, when they first watched the trio, ornate with profligate face paint, playing that strange uncommon music. Dumbstruck, then, when they watched Ney Matogrosso's sweetly feminine vocals singing Sangue Latino while rhythmically belly dancing. On the following days, curious hundreds of thousands checked vinyl stores looking for those weird "Secos e Molhados" dudes, who then sold almost 300,000 albums in 60 days, setting a record for the Brazilian phonographic industry.

I always dismissed Brazilian music as "too folksy" or "uncreative", while praising other nations' folk bands? after meeting SECOS & MOLHADOS I realized how wrong I was. Brazil offers true masterpieces just like any country. For me, the album is an illuminating epiphany, in a certain way similar to what it originally was forty years ago for so many others. For as much as I recommend this to everyone (check YouTube for a sneak peek), from folk lovers to prog lovers to Brazilian music lovers, I need to warn you: this is not your average progressive rock, as it lacks rock. This is just progressive. Pure, distilled, progressive.

Secos & Molhados' debut album is an eccentric mashup of Brazilian folk, art pop and prog sensibilities, with frontman Ney Matogrosso and the gang blending together a broad mixture of influences into a product which was simultaneously undeniably Brazilian in character but at the same time celebrated a vision of Brazilian culture far from the dour conservativism of the military junta of the time. Matogrosso's startling singing voice is applied to various poems, whilst the musical backing reminds me at points of Audience on a Brazilian vacation. Add an injection of glam androgyny and you get a feast which at the time was surely as rich and startling as the one on the cover, though musically speaking Matogrosso's vocals are the most interesting thing here.

In assessing this classic Brazilian release from 1973, one that enthralled millions at the time and influenced thousands in the decades since, I feel almost as heretical as SECOS & MOLHADOS surely were at the time. Visually part of the glam movement, with a lead vocalist who in short order professed sexual interest in men, their mere existence flouted the military dictatorship of the time. They grew out of the Tropicalia movement of the 1960s which was spearheaded by OS MUTANTES among others, and that forms a pretty reasonable summation of their sound at the time of this debut. To those who have arrived here via the prog folk classification, I must warn you this isn't especially folky, acoustic guitars and woodwinds notwithstanding, but that does seem to be the default position when world music trumpets its presence in these parts.

Not surprisingly, the more acoustic oriented pieces have aged the best, with the opener "Sangue latino" (Latin blood) being the strongest, an irresistible bass line lying down first and having its way with the strummed and picked guitars that form the upper layer. Most strikingly is the voice of Ney Matogrosso. To say it's androgynous is to imply ambiguity of a sort, but his pitch perfect and versatile counter tenor is a ringer for a woman singer, and an accomplished one at that. His voice is one of the calling cards of the group, and, while later lineups did not include him, it's hard to think of them as emanating from the same collective. Other superb contributions in this vein are "Amor", again with killer bass but also harmony vocals.

In contrast to the sultry acoustic numbers are the more upbeat fuzzy leftovers from a bad 1960s hangover. "O vira" would be one of the best/worst examples. The approach is light and silly while retaining musical professionalism, like the aforementioned OS MUTANTES but also like what QUEEN would cash in on a few years later. I'm not sure if this would have been considered groundbreaking at the time, but my prog antennae barely rise from the horizontal.

A suite of 5 tracks toward the tail end all clock in at barely 2 minutes or less, and, apart from the mammoth 2:02 length "Rosa de Hiroshima", are predictably both pretty and as fleeting as the proverbial ephemeroptera. Sadly, this lineup mimicked said life cycle, and split before their follow up was even released. I realize that awarding two stars for a landmark debut might result in my certificate of cultural competency being shredded before my eyes, so a weak 3 stars it is. I'm not saying you had to be there in both space and time to fully appreciate SECOS & MOLHADOS' calling card, but I'd wager a tastefully stocked boutique of wet and dry goods that it would sure help.

4.5 stars. I'm rating this the same as their followup but I slightly prefer this one, more consistent even if my favourite song by them is on the second album. Both albums are in the same style with lots of acoustic guitars along with male and female vocals. Again plenty of short tracks and a folky vibe but the songs are so meaningful and well done, I just love their sound. A three piece but with seven guests filling out their sound.

"Sangue Latino" opens with bass and drums as strummed guitar and female vocals arrive. She has such a nice voice. "O Vira" has some distorted guitar to start as it kicks into an uptempo, catchy sound with male and female vocals. Hard not to move to this one but it's far from a favourite. We get a guitar solo after a minute and accordion late.

"O Patrao Nosso De Cadia Dia" opens with bells ringing out before some warm acoustic guitar takes over then female vocals. Flute after a minute as the vocals step aside. Contrasts continue then bells end it. "Amor" has strummed acoustic guitar before the bass and drums kick in. Multi-vocals follow. Great sound! Love that bass too. Harmonica before 2 minutes followed by vocal melodies. The bass continues to be upfront. Nice.

"Primavera Nos Dentes" is one of my favourites. The piano tinkles away as the bass supports before the drums join in then guitar. They seem to jam here in a relaxed manner. Male vocals 3 minutes in. So good! "Assim Assado" opens with drums and percussion as the bass and flute join in with fuzzed out guitar. Female vocals then multi-vocals. It picks up after 1 1/2 minutes instrumentally as the vocals stop. It settles with female vocals. Flute and percussion end it.

"Mulher Barriguda" features drums and upfront bass before the piano and vocals kick in. A festive mood here as female vocals lead the way. Harmonica will come and go. Some vocal melodies late. "El Rey" has strummed acoustic guitar and female vocals. What a beautiful sound and we get some flute as well. "Rosa De Hiroshima" is mainly flute, acoustic guitar and female vocals.

Prece Cosmica" has a catchy sound with male and female vocals. Violin a minute in as electric guitar follows. A cool tune. "Rondo De Capitao" has these vocals and flute that almost trade off but they do overlap as we also get some picked acoustic guitar. "As Andorinhas" opens with rolling drums followed each time by outbursts of sound before female vocals and piano take over.

"Fala" is such a good closer with piano, female vocals, bass and a beat. I like the vocal melodies. Some adventerous sounds too with that violin, synths and orchestral movements. A great way to end this fantastic record.

Yes I am so into their sound that I forget I'm not into short tracks and folky music. What can I say, this must be magic.