Os Mutantes @ Old Fruitmarket
Cheesy synths and poor acoustics fail to do justice to their genius
| 08 Sep 2007
Tumbleweed moments are the last thing you would expect from an Os Mutantes live performance. Integral members of the creatively virulent Brazilian tropicalia movement of the late 1960s, the Sao Paulo pioneers were responsible for some of that decade's most revolutionary music; their melange of British beat-pop, psychedelia, samba and all-round weirdness marking them out as unimpeachable titans. Yet an opening collaboration with JD Twitch gets a potentially valedictory evening off to a worrying start – the Optimo co-founder's backing track getting lost in the Fruitmarket's cavernous expanses while Mutantes mainman Sergio Dias mugs away hopefully on guitar.
Things barely improve as the band strike out on their own. There's nothing wrong with the songs – choice selections from their heyday getting an airing alongside less familiar offerings – but cheesy synths and poor acoustics fail to do justice to their genius. Miraculously, the show eventually takes flight, versions of classics Ando meio desligado, A Minha Menina and a closing Bat Macumba making a last-gasp grasp for greatness that rescues an otherwise underwhelming occasion. [Duncan Forgan]
Things barely improve as the band strike out on their own. There's nothing wrong with the songs – choice selections from their heyday getting an airing alongside less familiar offerings – but cheesy synths and poor acoustics fail to do justice to their genius. Miraculously, the show eventually takes flight, versions of classics Ando meio desligado, A Minha Menina and a closing Bat Macumba making a last-gasp grasp for greatness that rescues an otherwise underwhelming occasion. [Duncan Forgan]