Brazilian Prog

[Supersonic Scientist]

Debut album from Stratus Luna:

I just picked this up yesterday....ABSOLUTELY LOVE EVERY NOTE OF THIS !!!!!


Very mature compositions from some very young musicians...looking for them to have a long and fruitful career.

[Zalmoxe]

Debut album from Stratus Luna:

I just came back here to post about the same band but looks like you beat me to it. Here's another clip on YT:

[Zalmoxe]

Another great act from Brazil that I knew nothing about until yesterday. Rate Your Music says Mantra was formed in 1999 and they even list an EP released in 2001. Their only album called "Próximo" was released last year and is very, very good. Here is the third track of the album:

[aith01]

^ I completely forgot that I have that one! I'm gonna put it on today. Thanks for the reminder.

[timehat]

I'll have to go over this thread more closely later. Lately I've been listening to a lot of late Elis Regina and 80's Gal Costa, which I think it is safe to say are not prog, but there's a fusion-y vibe married to the usual Brazilian harmonic sophistication in a lot of that stuff that I think would go over well with a lot of prog fans. Certainly tickles my fancy, anyway

[Marco]

I'll have to go over this thread more closely later. Lately I've been listening to a lot of late Elis Regina and 80's Gal Costa, which I think it is safe to say are not prog, but there's a fusion-y vibe married to the usual Brazilian harmonic sophistication in a lot of that stuff that I think would go over well with a lot of prog fans. Certainly tickles my fancy, anyway

Oooh, check out Djavan:



And Marcos Valle as well:

[timehat]

Oooh, check out Djavan:


And Marcos Valle as well:

Ooh, I just learned about Djavan (I mean, simply that he exists) because he wrote one of my favorite tunes on one of those Gal Costa records. My wife actually hipped me to Marcos Valle. Came up on her Spotify and I was like "this is incredible!" But in general, I'm not super familiar with him either, so thanks for putting their names back in my mind!

[Scrotum Scissor]

80's Gal Costa, which I think it is safe to say are not prog, but there's a fusion-y vibe married to the usual Brazilian harmonic

Granted I've only heard limited bits of her 80s output, but even her very earliest records display her impressively advanced sence of harmonic depth, which I suppose stems from an unusual approach to chord-dynamics on the main instruments of guitar (especially) and piano. She knew Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Tom Zé personally from already in her teens.

I'm listening again to that Parafernália debut from 2011, and I have to say I'm almost amazed how they aren't better known at least with purveyors of "retro" progressive and particularly that from early 70s South America and Brazil. Extremely little could be bettered here; tight, dramatic and busy yet wholly melodic arrangements, excellent instrumentation of voices, neat analog equipment, fine vocals, hard rock-meets-"symph" antics galores akin to classic O Terco, Veludo, Mutantes ca. Tudo Foi Feito Pelo Sol etc. Completely over the top on all accounts, but arguably into the core of what always defined that flair of 70s Brazilian "prog" sound. Very, very good.

[aith01]

Granted I've only heard limited bits of her 80s output, but even her very earliest records display her impressively advanced sence of harmonic depth, which I suppose stems from an unusual approach to chord-dynamics on the main instruments of guitar (especially) and piano. She knew Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Tom Zé personally from already in her teens.

Back in 2017, I saw Natalie Prass open for The New Pornographers in Birmingham, AL. After the opening act was finished, I went to the merch table to buy her CD and talked to her for a few minutes. When I asked who some of her favorite musicians were, Gal Costa was the one she talked about most as being influential on her.

Natalie and her band were really good; some of the songs they played were from her as-yet-unreleased second album.

I meant to check out some of Gal's stuff but never got around to it. Really should remedy that now.

[Progbear]

Here’s something that someone recently brought to my attention: Magamaquiavérica em canturbano by Leticia Garcia. I really don’t know how to classify this, it’s certainly unusual. Give it a shot, it may be to your taste!

[stickman393]

If I may go slightly wide-topic... there's a documentary series on Netflix called "Break It All" and I highly recommend it. It cover Latin American Rock from the late 60's through to the 2000's and you'll hear about a lot of bands.

It introduced me to Maldita Vecindad and Santa Sabina, quite proggy in places. Good stuff.