*** Reviewed by great fellow Adamus67 ***
One of the places where psychedelic music flourished in the late 1960s was Brazil. The most popular Brazilian band were Os Mutantes, but there were also a host of others there putting a Brazilian spin on the far-out sounds coming from British and American acts like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, and Jimi Hendrix. One of those acts was Bango, who released this impressive self-titled album of psychedelic hard rock in 1970 (making its’ debut here on CD) which sounds like Led Zeppelin, if their debut was released in 1967, and they were Brazilian. It features a ton of heavy fuzzed-out guitars, wild organ and wailing vocals, which are sometimes in English and sometimes Portuguese. There are also a few lighter songs, similar in nature to the psychedelic tropicalia of Os Mutantes. It’s one of the better re-issues of its sort, and hard-psych fans should snatch it up. My only complaint is that the booklet doesn’t tell you much about the band. This group was short-lived and leave only this record, but is highly rated by the followers of psychedelia. They are compared or associated with the group of Brazilian bands that appeared in the vicinity of Os Mutantes, premium band psychedelia of Brazil, but the truth is that I think Bango has its own personality and tremendous sound of garage.
The group "Bango" was, in fact, another name, used just for this album, adopted by the band "Os Canibais" (The Canibals). "Os Canibais" were in the 60's (in fact, still are) a light-pop band, but according to their own words, they decided to record an album which would reflect the influences of the time (late 60's), more heavy, with more instrumental passages, etc. and with more adequated gear (Fenders, Ludwig drums, etc.). I suppose that they did not used the "Canibais" name on this album in order to not cause some kind of shock to their fans, used to the traditional light-pop sound they were associated. The last time I listened to this album...well, may be 10 years ago, but I will download it for memory-refreshing purposes and try to make some additional comments.
Originally released in 1970,(MUSIDISC HI-FI 2236 Mono 1970 Original BRASIL Press.) this is extra-heavy Brazilian psych, with killer guitars and well-crafted original songs. This is one of the most sought-after albums from Brazil in the realm of hard psych, and you may already know one track from the Love Peace & Poetry: Brazilian Psychedelic Music album which is quite a standout. Every track is a winner. For many underground collectors this is the ultimate psych album, so it needed a good reissue.
"Bango The group recorded just one album, in the early seventies, to then dissolve. Integrated the Bango musicians Fernandinho (lead guitar), Elydio (bass), Roosevelt (piano and organ), Max (drums) and Aramis (guitar, guitar and vocals), graduates of the Cannibals. Bango's album was originally released by Brazilian label Musidisc.O band's sound is a mix of Os Mutantes, hard rock and progressive, with a strong presence of fuzz-guitars, keyboards (organ, especially) and vocals in Portuguese and English. With international quality, the disc contains a varied repertoire, with heavy rock, country rock a la '2001 ', the aforementioned mutants, and pop.Os songs are the highlights of the disc tracks ‘Inferno no Mundo’ (fuzz-guitars on the stalk), ‘Rolling Like a Boat’ (one rock & boogie with tecladinhos garageiros),‘Motor Maravilha’(the strongest influences of Baptista brothers) and 'Rock Dream' ( hard heavy, with treble and vocal berrados.) The last track, 'Ode To Billy', a drum solo takes a long time music. Unheard CD in Brazil, the album was re-releasing on vinyl in Germany by Shadocks label based in Berlin. "
Bango is allegedly a much-sought-after rarity on the psych collector's market; presumably Brazilian psych-rock records didn't have as wide a distribution as, say, the Quicksilver Messenger Service, whose records provide one with a very similar sonic experience. The collector's aura and the international pedigree of this album shouldn't mislead anyone into thinking it's anything other than a run-of-the-mill psych record, however. Give the band credit for some creepy cover art -- four bleeding heads on a platter resting on the wings of an enormous vulture -- and for having mastered some rudimentary English, which they brandish on the knock off "Rolling like a Boat." But don't expect anything revolutionary or surprising: Bango fulfills any expectations one has of the psychedelic-rock genre without ever transcending them. Os Mutantes this is not. That groundbreaking Brazilian band presented a dazzling mélange of stylistic influences held together by an irreverent and unpredictable sense of humor, impeccable and inventive musicianship, and memorable melodies. Whereas Bango's album consists of spirited but slightly inept recastings of familiar songs like Los Bravos' "Black Is Black" or the Outsiders' "Time Won't Let Me" into a different idiom. If you prefer "Motor Maravilha" to "Black Is Black," it's only because you've heard "Black Is Black" ten thousand times.
Aside from the humble pleasures of genre listening, of hearing unknowns execute a cherished musical formula, the only pleasures owning a disc like this can provide stem from it's rarity (you might impress other collectors with having found something like this out) and its exoticness (you might convince yourself something profound is happening because you can't really understand what it is). Both these pleasures are threatened by the eventual re-release of everything and the capacity the Internet furnishes to distribute everything everywhere. Collectors have their vinyl fetish to cling to but they can no longer pretend that it's the quality of the music that licenses their madness. With once-rare music like Bango demystified, those interested in music for the sake of music and not the sake of amassing artifacts will perhaps be less tempted to waste their time trying to imagine what some impossibly obscure curio sounds like and will put more effort into appreciating the brilliant music that is in plain view.
A cruise through samba, Hendrix, tropicalia, the Beatles, garage rock, even—gasp!—indigenous music, with an afternoon-long stop at each site. With everything already discovered, you, the listener, are free to sit back and enjoy the sunshine...Originally released in 1970, Bango does capture the playful exuberance of some of that era’s best music. In fact, it is archetypal, the essence of Brazilian psych rock, so perfectly distilled it might as well be available in pill form. From heavy guitar riffs and organ trills of “Inferno No Mundo” to the confused Americanisms of “Only,” Bango presents a calculated synthesis of a fundamentally uncalculated musical movement—it’s this sort of calculation that transforms musical experiments into genres.
That said, Bango isn’t a bad genre record, and certainly succeeds at sounding like Brazilian psych rock. Though the chorus of “Rolling Like a Boat” recalls the more stellar “Inferno no Mundo,” (only without the panache of Tina Turner’s original or the rough-hewn despair of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s cover), the frenzied vocal squalls on “Rock Dream” make amusing counterpoint (and a passable impersonation of Mick Jagger after a handful of speed). If you’ve read about Brazil in the guidebooks, this trip probably offers everything you might expect. Then again, Music is structured around that same quality, eliminating the surprises to create a product so refined it becomes part of the environment. This group was short-lived and leave only this record, but is highly rated by the followers of psychedelia. They are compared or associated with the group of Brazilian bands that appeared in the vicinity of Os Mutantes, premium band psychedelia of Brazil, but the truth is that I think Bango has its own personality and tremendous sound of garage.
Thank you so much Adam for that effort
The few things I had heard regarding the Brazilian band Bangos 1970 s/t album went something like this “killer fuzz, swirling organs, heavy-psych, blah, blah.” Anybody who has ever read a review of some obscure psychedelic rock reissue is almost guaranteed to encounter these adjectives as they are so loosely used when talking about any music that falls under the large umbrella of psychedelia.
The first track on this album Inferno no Mundo (Hell in the World) had previously been included on the Love, Peace & Poetry: Brazilian Psychedelic Music compilation and does in fact live up to those aforementioned descriptions. The track opens up with a short intro of voices played at half-speed tape and then just explodes into this ascending bass line with some truly sick guitar soloing conjuring the perfect images to match the songs title.
As far as the heavy-psych tag goes though, there are only three other songs on the ten track album ( Rock Dream, Only,and Ode to Billy) that could be construed as being killer, or fuzz riddled. What I find amazing about Bango is their ability to interpret a really eclectic range of American and British influences in English and Portuguese lyrics resulting in an album that while only twenty-nine minutes long, displays a diversity of styles that runs the gamut from the Los Bravos Black is Black and the Stones Under my Thumb influenced Motor Maravilha to the C.C.R. Travelin Band and Ike and Tina's Rolling on the River overt influence on Rolling Like A Boat.
By 1970, psychedelic musics heyday was essentially over in the States but in other places those sounds inevitably took longer to make their way down to places like Brazil, remember no Internet, no downloading. A band like Bango allowed those influences to percolate through them and then had a go at it. Mas Senti (But I Felt) starts off with a gently strummed acoustic guitar and builds with organ, electric guitar, and some pretty sugary harmonies. Aside from the lyrics in Portuguese, the song wouldnt sound out of place on a west coast psyche compilation alongside bands like Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Its a Beautiful Day.
For me though Bango sound their best when they dont sound like anybody else. Its on tracks like Marta, Zeca, The Priest, The Mayor, The Doctor and Me where they really take those outside influences, mix it with more indigenous sounds and convert it into something highly original much in the same way as Tropicalia contemporaries Os Mutantes did. Highly recommended!
(~acidvisions)
Tracks:
01.Inferno No Mundo
02.Mas Senti
03.Rolling Like A Boat
04.Motor Maravilha
05.Marta, Zéca, O Padre, O Prefeito O Doutor E Eu
06.Rock Dream
07.Geninha
08.Only
09.Vou Caminhar
10.Ode To Billy
BANGO - ROCK DREAM
Bango:
Fernandinho (guitar)
Elydio (bass)
Roosevelt (keyboards)
Max (drums)
Aramis (guitar, violin, vocals)
[Rip and Scans by gigic2255]
Link: 297 mb/file
