SOM IMAGINÁRIO

Experimentalism, psychedelicism and tropicalism brazilian movement define this album. And, of course, strong Beatles influences, like I state in the Biography of this band. The band was composed by a movement from Minas Gerais/Brazil called "O Clube da Esquina" (The street-corner club) - yes, like Pennylane. Made part of this club names like Milton Nascimento, Naná Vasconcellos, Toninho Horta, Wagner Tiso, Tavito e José Rodrix. The instruments in this album are various: broken glasses, cow's bell, ocarina, hunt's whistle, triangle, and many others improvisations. Some songs are sung in portuguese, others in english. Nepal is an hymn against capitalism played with nepalese conga: "in Nepal all is very cheap...". "Tema dos deuses" (Gods's theme) is an instrumental song composed by Milton Nascimento with voices (no lyrics) by himself. "Feira moderna" (Modern market) became a famous song in the Beto Guedes (other street-corner club member)'s record (in my opinion, better than original with a beautiful sax and more melodic than original version). Other song deserves mention: "Poison", by José Rodrix and Marco Antônio Araújo (who released four great progressive albums later). This one is a psychedelic Beatles-song, with lyrics like that: "I always get the poison that I need to be alive, to see and sing/so poison me to get my mind way out/my mind way in". Three stars to this psychedelic-brazilian album with honour. I prefer their last album, but this one is a great choice as well.

A very confident prog-psych release from Brazil, Som Imaginario display a unique and innovative approach to a genre which by 1970 had become kind of overcrowded. Songs like Super God, which sounds like nothing else from the era (the closest comparison I can come up with would be the Jimi Hendrix Experience covering CAN), prove that the band were not content to simply replicate the sounds of other groups but were keeping their finger on the pulse and striving to make their own contribution to the progressive scene, and that makes them stand out from a good many bands who were happy to simply tread water.

Som Imaginario's debut is a strong, confident work, which proves that South American bands from this era weren't just mimicing their more famous influences from the US or UK but had something to add themselves. In fact, had this come out from a British or American band I'm sure it'd be much more famous than it currently is. Anyone seeking to expand their musical horizons - and let's face it, if you weren't you wouldn't be here - would be well served by checking these guys out.