CASA DAS MÁQUINAS

The band already had a new lead singer, Simbas, soon after the second album was out. His androgynous figure and high vocal tone always divided their audience, but he did a good job on the material here. Of course the keyboards were pushed back in the mix and the guitars up front. Still, Marinho Testoni did his best and he is quite featured on the three ballads (Certo Sim, Seu Errado, Mania de Ser and Sonho de Um Vagabundo ), where they also flirted with brazilian popular music for the first time. It would be an interesting path had they persisted longer, but, for a number of reasons, they did not survive the decade, disbanding about an year later. The title track did get some airplay at the time and it is hailed by many fans as one of their classic tracks. However, there is very little prog in here. In practical terms, Casa de Rock is as different from the previous album, the excellent Lar de Maravilhas, as that one was from their self titled debut. In other words, they was, again, a whole new band. In this case, it was not the best move.

Conclusion: the group did prove that they were more than competent musicians, good songwriters and capable of handling very different styles, which is good in many ways. But Casa do Rock was a step (or two, or three) back and if you´re looking for anything related to their excellent sophomore CD, you´ll be disappointed. The album is good collection of hard rockers and ballads, and that´s all. For PA, 2 stars.

Although the cover was quite striking for the time (the heavy make up of the members on the front cover clearly showed binfluences of Secos e Molhados and the whole glam rock international scene), there is little boldness or novelty in their recent written tunes. Listening to their eponymous album it seems that the new group did not really know where they were heading. About one third of the record is formed of hard rockers, while the bulk of their work did not differ much from what Os Incríveis were doing at the time: a competent but not outstanding mix of rock, pop and soul music. Nowhere in this LP one could guess that in about an year those same guys (minus Pique) would release one of the most interesting brazilian progressive albums of the 70´s. They definitely had to reinvent themselves in a very short time. And it would be a very successful reinvention.

So I guess this album is of little interest for anyone vaguely connected to prog music. Unless you´re into brazilian hard rock/pop/soul,of course. It has its value as an historical document, but not much more than that. A curio, if you will.

For collectors and hardcore fans, only.

The change within their sound was a radical one, but the album was well received, specially by the brazilian prog community. They certainly had the skill and songwriting abilities to pedal in the style and Lar de Maravilhas was a great leap forward, so much so it looked like it was a whole new band. Ok, the lyrics are not that good, but who cares? The vocals are above average and the instrumental passages are great, with some very inspired guitar/keyboards interplay, backed by a fine rhythm section. The songs stood well the test of time and some tracks like Astralização, Vale Verde and the title tracks are good samplers of the best prog rock produced in Brazil at the time, while Raios de Lua showed they could also write good prog folk stuff. The only exception is Epidemia de Rock, a typical simple rock and roll ditty, that may had worked well live, but really does not fit in here. I remember that almost all brazilian bands had to have a "real" rock song to prove they could... well.. rock. The cheese spoken words on the intro of O Sol/Reflexo Ativo is something they should have dropped off on the final cut. However, the remaining stuff more than compensate these missteps.

With a good production for the times, Lar de Maravilhas is one of the most interesting prog albums of the brazilian scene in the mid-70´s. It promised greater things that, unfortunately did not materialised. In any case, this a great find and an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection. Then, 4 stars it is.

Opener ` Vou Morar No Ar' swaps acoustic guitar-lifted verses for soaring group harmonies and funky electric guitars over swirling spacey synths in place of a chorus. The title track `Lar De Maravilhas' has plenty of passionate plucked acoustic guitar and sweet group harmonies that float like a soothing breeze, but it also jumps back and forth between doomy slow-burn electric guitars and a distorted, other-wordly treated vocal. `Liberdade Espacial' is an addictive smouldering grooving rocker with nice thick bass and a cool melting synth break in the middle, there's traces of Yes throughout `Astraliza''o' with its rolling electronics, buoyant bass, weeping guitars and restrained symphonic Hammond organ finale, and lethargic echoing voices and cooing chorus harmonies of `Cilindro C'nico' get blasted with fiery electric guitar wailing and up-tempo rattling drums in the second half.

With its lengthy instrumental bookended passages, `Vale Verde' is the big pure prog moment of the disc, not far removed in parts from the sounds of German bands Novalis' `Sommerabend' and Epidaurus' `Earthly Paradise' albums. A positive whirling Moog theme, E.L.P-like Hammond bluster and eventually soft falsetto harmonies glide through the piece, and the dramatic symphonic ending is legendary. The pretty `Raios de Lua' is a dreamy and romantic acoustic ballad that warmly embraces, but `Epidemia de Rock' is nothing more than a throwaway (if still well performed) rock 'n roller that would have been more at home on the debut or follow-up album `Casa de Rock'. The band close on the two-part `O Sol/Reflexo Ativo' that opens with a lengthy narration delivered by a drifting psychedelic voice (almost reminding of a similar introduction on the closing piece `Encyclopedia Terra' off German band Mythos' debut) before surging into a triumphant Hammond and Mini Moog-laden symphonic climax.

The mix of hard and acid rock, spacey instrumentation and progressive inventiveness with pop smarts throughout `Lar de Maravilhas' proves to be very addictive, and the sumptuous vocals and harmonies just lift this wonderful album even higher. It's well-worth picking up if you've already got plenty of the `big' bands and albums in your collection and are looking to expand it with more obscure yet equally worthwhile releases, so you can't go wrong with Casa Das Máquinas' defining musical statement.

Four stars.

Lar De Maravilhas (1975) is their most Prog album tough. If I would analyse only the music of the album, this would be a 4 stars without much thinking. But the fact is, I can understand the lyrics...

When it comes to the lyrics, Casa Das Máquinas was always lame, and it's no different here. I understand the surreal colors in many Prog Rock albums, and I like that. But it came all twisted to this band and they're singing about 'Conic Cilinders', 'Astralizations', 'Rays Of Moon' and 'Active Reflex' too much, too much. Will not even mention the 'Rock Epidemy'.

If you can't understand Portuguese it's a great album tough.

02. Tudo Porque Eu Te Amo Well what of Floyd this beginning. A vocal 'air one', somewhat how much ' trapeze acrobat ' this song, narrative and everything. Emotion on the surface of the skin, a declaration to a father.

03. Mundo De Paz That one from here has a face of Barry Manilow (laughters), has ground of sax and completely. A quite interesting melody with the doubled vocal ones (that I already spoke in another opportunity which era a mark of the rock 70's Brazilian).

04. Quero Que Você Me Diga Almost a psychedelic samba, a lot of foda. Existentialist and letter everything. The vocal ones in falsetto, a clever guitarrinha giving the tone. Almost a samba - rock

05. Canto Livre Almost a lullaby. A legal keyboard in a quite interesting melody, and a guitar of bottom. It has a what of MPB, with a few quite legal keys. It reminded me Silvio Britto a 70's Brazilian singer.

06. Trem Da Verdade This from here is a Rock and roll, with riff and completely. I risk telling that to the best of the disc full of energy and sticky melody, of those good ones even. And vocal many people leave the thing still more legal. Ground of battery of Netinho in the very legal environment. Only the riff as you only already is worth the same. Quite crazy end.

07. Preciso Lhe Ouvir Have a beginning of quite delicate keyboard, a flute permeates the whole belt, while the people of the House sings on a future devastation. A bleated conscious beauty!

08. Cantem Esse Som Com A Gente Riff wha and everything, gale in the bottom giving climão. A slope of rhythm, even a vaudeville appears, a clever guitar, a few sounds and everything more, it would hit the front, in English of the type we want to be understood sentences by all. And I sole rock. Then alone joy as the title suggests.

09. Domingo A Tarde I miss this sound of battery of the 70 years in Brazil! This belt is the most amusing, a sort of alien story. With a quite outstanding riff.

10. Sanduíche De Queijo This from here is total Made In Brazil, good nonsense same. But the instrumental thing is very good. A rockão 50's of chipping.

It is not the prog what any world comments of the House Of the Machines, but I decided on postair in order then this is the 1st disc. I think more interesting when the people hear in the chronological order.

www.progshine.com

At their second album, the band Casa das Máquinas dropped almost completely the hard rock (almost because the second to last song is a hard rock song) and went to explore the experimental and psychedelic side of music that was blossoming in the 70's (specially the mid 70's here in Brazil), probably influenced by Os Mutantes and O Terço. Besides Lar das Maravilhas being a good album, it never received all the attention it should, and that is probably because the brazilian prog giants released their albums in the same year (or almost in the same year) as Casa das Máquinas released Lar das Maravilhas: O Terço released Criaturas da Noite (their so called magnum opus), Os Mutantes released Tudo foi Feito pelo Sol and Terreno Baldio released their debut, also entitled Terreno Baldio.

In this album, as i said before, they went for a more experimental and psychedelic approach, concerning their music. However, at least here in Brazil, the psychedelic stuff had a big deal of hippie influence. That can be seen on almost all of Os Mutantes albums and in this whole album, except the song Epidemia de Rock.

About the songs, musicianship and other features there are some thing i would like to state:

Casa das Máquinas don't show us any sign of extraordinary musicianship in any part of the album. However, the songs don't require any kind of extraordinary musicianship because their most important feature is the feeling. In fact, i can see (or listen, i don't know) here many influences from prog giants like Supertramp, Yes, Os Mutantes (mainly lyric-wise) and Pink Floyd (mainly music-wise). Also, this band is only at PA because of this album and i don't understand why it is classified as prog-related since it has so many clear influences from the crossover and psychedelic prog.

Grade and Final Thoughts

Although i think this albums is unfairly underrated i must be fair and give it a fair grade, according with my feelings. I really wanted to give it the 5 stars grade, but it is simply not worthy. It hurts me to say, but this is a 4 stars album.

I don’t actually know anyone who knows much about this Brazilian band, but their albums all seem to be available on CD, so they must have a fan base somewhere. There aren’t too many Portuguese-language symphonic bands in my collection, mostly because I don’t know the language and I’m one of those music fans who likes to know what someone is singing about.

But that’s not particularly important on this album since the themes are fairly obvious, and none of them are overly deep or complex.

Like the band’s debut, this album treads pretty wide territory, ranging from symphonic to light psych to heavy rock, and even to pop ala ELO or the Beatles (“Epidemia De Rock”).

Most of the tracks though are fairly heavy on keyboards, and like so many South American bands, most also feature copious amounts of plucked acoustic guitar. The one exception is also the best track on the album – “O Sol Reflexo Ativo” (er…, something about the Sun). This one opens with a lengthy piano and acoustic guitar intro that is accompanied by some spoken-word ramblings, presumably about the Sun given the title. After a quasi-psychedelic transition of the voice and keyboards using digital manipulation, the moog and electric guitar come in for three or four minutes of extended instrumental noodling that is actually quite engaging as it slowly builds to a rather frenzied pitch before an abrupt drum roll and crashing cymbal bring it all to a finish. Like the rest of the album, there is nothing new, innovative, or particularly complex here, but I get a distinct sense of upbeat energy being exhibited by the musicians, and I’ve managed to play this a half-dozen times or so and find new little nuances, particularly in the acoustic guitar and piano, that catch my attention and make me think these guys put an honest effort into this collection of tunes.

This isn’t a masterpiece by any means, but it is a pretty decent record, and recommended to those who enjoy acoustic guitar with their seventies keyboards, and very loose arrangements that are pretty much devoid of the typical blues or jazz stylings one could expect from this time period and geographic location. Three stars is reasonable.

peace

Liberdade Espacial and Vale Verde are the best tracks, but all are wonderful. The Lyrics are a mix of non-sense, heavy drugs in the vein (lol) and some esoteric/spiritual. Of course you have to be familiar to the portuguese language, but if you are not don't worry... the instrumental is very good and worth the price!

I used to sleep listening to this album, it is a incredible journey! Very relaxing.

Art Rock/Symphonic Prog with some hard rock, space rock and pop/rock moments it's a resume of this brilliant album. The songs are not too complex, but are very very very creative! The feeling of rock and roll is very high, and the band put their heart on this!

Vocals, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards in perfect simetria!