Ink Mathematics

Tropicalismo!

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Hi.

Looks as if another nor’easter is heading my way tonight, damn it all, so I decided to hunker down this sunday and post a hot new mix I’ve been dreaming of. Back in November I came across a compilation called, “Tropicália: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound“, and I was floored, more than that even. I’ve spent the last 4 months or so gathering up the key albums from the movement and I was totally pumped to make a mix out of some of my favorite tunes. This mix is heavy on Os Mutantes and Tom Ze, undoubtedly my two favorites to emerge from the albums I have gotten. Anyway, here is a pretty solid write-up from Wikipedia, the most holy of informational sources.

• In the beginning, Tropicalia was not only a musical movement, but also took form in the visual arts scene of 1960s Brazil, by the hands of the artists Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, Rogério Duprat and Antonio Dias. The name “Tropicália” came from an Hélio Oiticica art installation of the same name. It is important to note that one of the cultural constructs of the Tropicalia movement was “Antropofagia” or the cultural and musical cannibalism of all societies, taking in without prejudice influences from all types of genres and concocting something unique. The concept of antropofagia as embraced by the Tropicália movement was created by poet Oswald de Andrade in his 1928 “Manifesto Antropófago (Cannibal Manifesto)” The 1968 collaboration album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circenses is considered the musical manifesto of the movement. Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil are considered to be the leaders of the movement. Veloso, Gil and other artists commonly associated with the movement, notably Os Mutantes, have experimented with unusual time signatures and other means of unorthodox song structures. A lot of Tropicalismo artists were driven by socially aware lyrics and political activism following the coup of 1964, much like its contemporary Brazilian film movement, Cinema Novo (Brazilian new wave). The movement only lasted consistently for a few years, and, in part, is responsible for what is now known as Música Popular Brasileira (Brazilian Popular Music), or MPB. Tropicália as a movement ended in 1969 when its leaders, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, were jailed for about a month and, shortly after their release, exiled by the military government. (They relocated to London until 1972.)

WHAT WE ARE LISTENING TO: (artist, album, song)

Os Mutantes / Os Mutantes / Panis et Circenses

Tom Zé / Estudando O Samba / Doi

Gal Costa / Gal Costa / Baby

Os Mutantes / Os Mutantes / Minha Menina

Gilberto Gil / Frevo Rasgado / Procissão

Tom Zé / Estudando O Samba / Hein?

Caetano Veloso / 1969 / Irene

Os Mutantes / Mutantes / Nao Va Se Perder Por Ai

Caetano Veloso / Beleza Tropical /Um Canto De Afoxé Para O Bloco De Ilê (Ilê Ayê)