TODOS OS OLHOS

"Walter Smetak, who was born in Zurich, taught Zé violin, cello and the building of his own instruments, which were sometimes transformed from typewriters, blenders and water conduits. It was these peculiar, experimental instruments which would later become the trademark of Tom Zé's music" - PETER FIGLESTAHLER

Todos os Olhos (1973) is the fourth effort by the brazilian composer and musician Tom Zé, where his avant-psychedelic-samba back to live. His orchestration includes from polisher machines to keyboards. You can notice the strangeness of his music from Cademar (the opening track) to the strange Complexo de Épico (ending track), without lose the Tropicalia vein. A nice experiment for open minded listeners and avant-garde music fans.

"If I could make the rice and beans (i.e. brazilian for "the basic"), I wouldnt make such a weird music".

Tom Zé is more than a free spirit: Its the roots of everything that would be Avant-gard in Brazil from the 1970's onward. He participated of the Tropicalia movement (mainly in his first album and in the Tropicalia Manifesto, Panes et Circenses) just to see that others musical paths were opened to him... and then "Todos os Olhos" were born.

The highlights of the album for me are various, but iniciating with "Complexo de Épico" (Epic Complex) and finishing with the same song... he attack one of the characteristic of the music he criticizes (academic, full of great intentions) while doing it! Its a great parody, he himself has putted in a humoristic fashion: "its a album that eat itslef, like a sanke". While the music shows a great negligence, with repetitive sounds and the lyrics going "there he goes completly serious / all brazilian composers are full of complexes / be serious like this / in hell" (in portuguese is more aligned, of course). Its a great track (in two parts) representing everything from him in this new phase. Even when you think the sound is going to be like this forever, with "Todos os olhos" without a proper ending and "Dodo e Zeze" playing with a musical narrative, the beautiful track "Brigite Bardot" comes with a poetry, accesible and full of meaning, maily the passage of time and our finitude.

Mixture of avant-gard, samba and poetry: The seeds of brazilian avant-garde were planted since the first guy tapped a box of matches in a bar to make samba - Tom Zé is just the logical conclusion of this history.

What is it about these Brazilian bands like SECOS & MOLHADOS and this particular album by Tom Ze where they are pretty much all acoustic and simplistic, almost folky yet they have this incredible sense of melody and rhythm that sucks me in like a vacuum. Nylon-stringed guitars that are amazingly well played, such technique along with percussions and Tom's Portuguese vocals which are usually quite laid back but it all works so incredibly well. The word playful gets used a lot with Tom's music and while this is listed under Avant there's little of that to my ears unless the lyrics are way out there which I wouldn't know. Twelve songs over 36 minutes and this was released in 1973 the same year as SECOS & MOLHADOS' debut.

"Complexo De Epico" is the less than 1 1/2 minute intro which had me begging for more until I noticed the album ends with the same song but there it's almost 7 minutes in length. This is very repetitive with vocals and backing vocals along with percussions. So rhythmic and relaxed with those almost spoken vocals. So playful and catchy. "Cademar" has percussions, organ, nylon stringed guitars and reserved vocals for less than a minute. it works! "Todos Os Olhos" is so catchy with those percussions and vocals along with backing vocals. Just boppin' around to this one. Some weird vocals too. Great track!

"Dodo E Zeze" has multi-guitars that are strummed and picked along with vocals. Kind of folky. Multi-vocals before 2 1/2 minutes then the tempo picks up. Really good. "Quando Eh Era Sem Ninguem" sounds excellent with that opening guitar as the vocals come in being quite playful along with the sound as backing vocals, strummed guitars and percussion help out. It settles to percussion, laid back guitar and reserved vocals before kicking in again as contrasts continue.

"Brigitte Bradot" has a simple sounding guitar with percussion and spoken vocals. It picks up briefly before 2 minutes then settles right down again with some whistling then more vocals. "Augusta, Angelica E Consolasao" is catchy with percussion, vocals and guitar. It turns fuller with drums, still it's catchy and relaxed as backing vocals come and go. "Betaram Tanta Fumaca" has determined vocals that soon turn into a party mode with drums, guitar and backing vocals.

"O Riso E A Faca" has a guitar melody and more as relaxed vocals join in. Sounds like violin too. "Um Oh E Um Ah" is pretty funny the way the vocals are off-set singing the words in the title. I like this one as guitar and percussion helps out. It ends with the song it opened with that I've already talked about and yes almost 7 minutes still seems too short.

A pretty cool album that can be quite uplifting at times. I don't enjoy it as much as those first two albums from SECOS & MOLHADOS but this is well worth tracking down.