LAR DE MARAVILHAS

Most of the tracks on this album feature an ear-pleasing combination of electric piano and moog, with the former giving a slightly celestial feeling and the latter inevitably marking this as a ‘heavy’ band. Which they are really, based on their other studio albums. This appears to be the most reserved studio work by the band, and even here there are a couple of tracks where the boys kick up their heels a bit.

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