MISANTROPICALIA

This is strange and different in so many ways . . . .

First of all, i would like to start my review saying that this band is probably the most unusual band i have ever heard. Their name doess not make any sense: they are not a trio (the band have 5 musicians), they do not play samba (they have some samba influence though) and they are not satanic also.

Besides that, they mock the black metal bands through their song titles (that connote bad things / satan / evil, like most of the black metal songs do), their band name (that is supposedly written in a ancient and strange language, like some black metal bands are) , their cover (that portrait evil deeds) and their logo, with unintelligible letters and an inverted cross. All this mockery appears to achieve Zappa-like characteristics, specially because the stile of the jokes, and there are some Zappa in their music also, at least concerning experimentalism.

These characteristics are what drove me to them, what made me interested in finding more about this band, and i was not disappointed, though i am not exactly keen to the avant-garde style of composition and playing. As i said before, there is some samba influence here, but it does not play such an important role as you may think by this band name. they are more into experimenting music, since there can be heard even some brazilian baroque influence (specially in the Canção para Atrair Má Sorte songs, that have that baroque-like singing).

Grade and Final Thoughts

This band is very obscure and it took me some time to find things about them, including their albums. However, the effort payed off and, though this is a rather short album, it is still worth it.

The highlights here go to the Seis Temas Tropicais para Mestre Lúcifer suite, to the acts (atos) of the Canção para Atrair Má Sorte and to the Dança das Quiumbas, that is actually 2 minutes long and, after a long period of silence, have a secret song that is actually a reprise, much bigger that the actual song.

SATANIQUE SAMBA TRIO is a very strange band from Brasilia, Brazil. Their name and imagery suggest a black metal band, but this is more of a parody of black metal because this is nothing even remotely close soundwise. The name is also a misnomer as this is neither Satanic nor a trio. The band throughout its history ranges from five to seven members. This music is actually a hybrid of the avant-prog of such greats as Henry Cow or Univers Zero mixed with traditional Brazilian pop and avant-garde samba jazz.

The instruments consist of guitar, bass, drums, trumpet and cavaquinho which is a small Portuguese guitar with four strings. This music is very avant-garde to say the least utilizing the most dissonant avant-prog and RIO leanings as heard in the strangest offerings of Henry Cow, Art Zoyd or Aqsak Maboul only presented with samba-jazz instrumentation. The weaving of traditional Brazilian sounds into the mix is what makes this truly unique. While the samba sound can be discerned at times, it is often obfuscated and twisted with extremely complex time sigs and electronic manipulations.

While the best of what this band has to offer from their future releases is here on the debut album MISANTROPICALIA, they also have a strange fascination with "The Snow EP" from Coil on a few ambient tracks with the vocals and melody almost identical to that release. If you are not familiar with Coil's music this could be an interesting addition outside the avant-samba offerings heard here but i find it a little irritating to hear it here interspersed between the regular tracks. It sounds like they just throw in the ambient vocal tracks for filler and it is basically too much of a Coil rip off for my comfort. This is a decent slice of avant-prog-jazz by SST but it is better displayed on the following albums "Sangrou" and "Bad Trip Simulators 2 & 1" where they shine in their fullest avant-garde samba jazz regalia.