IDENTIDADE

Having a Brazilian wife and being a progressive rock lover to the bone I just had to try some Brazilian prog-rock bands. Not knowing where to start I just began surfing the web and ended up at www.rockprogressivo.com.br and www.rocksymphony.com.br

After reading some reviews on those sites and of course on www.progarchives.com I decided to kick of with Aether (also known as the Brazilian Camel) and Index. Wow! What a way to start! I liked Aether better at the beginning probably because it sounded more familiar, (I almost have all Camel albums) but later on my preference switched to Index! Progressive rock is probably one of the smaller musical genres represented in Brazil, but the Brazilian progressive bands are musically just as great as any North American or British prog-rock band, so lets get out there and give some of those great Brazilian musicians a chance!

Index first self titled album was merely an instrumental piece. Their second album, Liber Secundus, contains vocals as well. Probably the vocals could be better, but the Portuguese language sounds magnificent and perfectly matches the music. On "Identidade", Index' third album they would return to their instrumental basis again which I personally find somewhat a petty. Even though the vocals could be better Liber Secundus is my favorite Index album, but "Identidade" is still pretty good. A bit more "jazzy" and a bit less "symphonic" though.

If you are not familiar with any Brazilian progressive music yet AETHER, INDEX, TARKUS, SOLIS and TEMPUS FUGIT are probably the best bands to start with!