Pitchfork

Last fall Pitchfork news reported that Os Mutantes were working on a new album; after playing reunion gigs (including the 2006 Pitchfork Festival) and releasing a live album last fall on Luaka Bop, guitarist and bandleader Sérgio Dias revealed that they were writing new songs. "Mutantes Depois" is the first glimpse of this new material (while the prior news story mentioned a collaboration with Tom Zé, this song was written solely by Dias). Beginning with clean, economical guitar strums, subtle percussion accents, and hints of processing, the song grows more playful and psychedelic as it goes along, eventually building to a zany finish touched with dissonance. The song finds the band in a reflective sort of mood, thinking about what has come before but also looking toward the future. The rough translation, as provided by Dias, begins with the line, "Oh my babe where are you going to/ Now that Tropicália's wave it's fading out." But it also speaks of regeneration and thinking about tomorrow ("You are the seed tossed to the ground/ You are the Mutantes forever"). Dias said that he hopes that this song might inspire listeners to make a donation of some kind to a charity of their choice, to help the world in some small way; a humble request, then, from a band that has made a lot of people happy.

 

 

MP3:> Os Mutantes: "Mutantes Depois"

[from a forthcoming album; expected in late June 2008]