Arnaldo Baptista - Let It Bed (2004)

Y seguimos con algo del mejor rock salido de Brasil. Y ahora vamos con una de los cabezas del legendario grupo brasilero Os Mutantes, pioneros en eso de la Tropicalia y el psicodélico brazuca, aquí en uno de sus álbumes solista (el último trabajo solista, para ser precisos). Y la semana que viene no toca revisar algo del trabajo discográficos de Os Mutantes, así que bien viene esto como introducción. Y seguiremos la semana que viene con nuestra saga brasilera, que aún nos queda muchísimo para presentarles.

Artista: Arnaldo Baptista
Álbum: Let it bed
Año: 2004
Género: Tropicalia / Rock psicodélico
Nacionalidad: Brasil

Antes que nada, vamos a un poco de su historia, que se las trae:

Arnaldo Dias Baptista (São Paulo, 6 de julio de 1948) es un cantautor y compositor brasileño, más conocido por su trabajo con la banda Os Mutantes.
Su carrera musical se inicia el año 1962 cuando forma junto a su hermano Cláudio César el grupo musical The Thunders. En 1966 junto a su otro hermano Sérgio Dias y la cantante Rita Lee forman el grupo Six Sides Rockers, que conformaría posteriormente la base del grupo Os Mutantes. Dentro de este conjunto desenvuelve sus talentos como compositor y para realizar arreglos musicales. Pese a sus dotes, los problemas internos del grupo y su adicción a las drogas lo llevan a separarse de la banda en 1973. Trata de continuar trabajando como productor musical, pero en 1974 estrena la carrera de solista, al editar su disco "Loki?", considerado por muchos como su mejor trabajo.
En 1977 rechaza la invitación de su hermano Sérgio para regresar a Os Mutantes, pasando él a conformar el grupo Patrulha do Espaço (Patrulla del Espacio). El nuevo proyecto termina rápidamente para Arnaldo, pese a la grabación de un disco de estudio que sería lanzado al mercado diez años después, con el nombre de Elo Perdido, al igual que una grabación en vivo de un show de su banda (Faremos Uma Noitada Excelente). Baptista deja la "Patrulha" en 1978, la que continúa en el underground del rock brasileño.
En el año 1982, Baptista publica otro disco en su carrera, llamado Singin' Alone, grabación muy lisérgica, desesperada, decepcionada, en la cual nace un rock profundamente experimental que establece nuevos patrones estéticos. El mismo año es internado en un hospital psiquiátrico debido a su comportamiento agresivo relacionado con su abuso de drogas. Durante su internación Arnaldo realiza un intento de suicidio que lo llevaría a pasar cuatro meses y once días en coma, por lanzarse de una ventana desde el tercer piso. Pese a su crítica condición, sobrevive de una seria fractura en el cráneo que le dejaría profundas secuelas permanentes.
Después de salir de su estado, continúa dedicado a la música, aunque más en consideración por su valor terapéutico que el musical. En 1986 es contratado por el sello Virgin para el relanzamiento de su álbum Singin’ Alone, aprovechando la ocasión para regrabar el clásico de Os Mutantes “Balada do Louco”, que fue lanzada como un bonus-track. En el 2004 lanzó su último trabajo como solista, con el disco Let it Band, producido por John Ulloa de la banda Pato Fu.
En el año 2006 se produce el reencuentro de Os Mutantes, cuando realizan un concierto en el Barbican Theatre de Londres. Después de 33 años de su salida de la banda y 30 del fin del grupo, Baptista junto a su hermano Sérgio Dias y el baterista Dinho Leme tocaron sus clásicas melodías, mientras que su ex esposa Rita Lee (con la que estuvo casado entre 1971 y 1977) se excusó cortésmente de participar. En reemplazo de Lee participó la joven Zélia Duncan.
Desde inicios de la década de 1990 habita en la localidad de Juiz de Fora, en el estado de Minas Gerais, con su actual esposa Lucinha Barbosa, mientras dedica el tiempo a pintar, componer y tocar música. A partir del reencuentro con su antigua banda, la que es considerada por varios de importancia histórica para el rock brasileño, la carrera de Baptista pasa a tener nuevas perspectivas.

Wikipedia

Biografía en inglés:

Born to a lyric singer father and a pianist mother (Clarisse Leite), Baptista studied classical piano from 1955 to 1959, double bass from 1962 to 1963, and acoustic guitar from 1963 to 1965.[citation needed] In 1966 he formed the influential Os Mutantes band with his brother Sérgio Dias and Rita Lee, where he played bass guitar, keyboards and sang. Baptista left the band in 1973 due to disagreements with the other members of the band and the excessive use of LSD.[citation needed] In 1974 he tried to work as a musical producer, with no success.[citation needed] This motivated him to try a solo career, and in the same year, he released the album Lóki, which is considered his best work.[who?]
Baptista recorded two albums with the band Patrulha do Espaço between 1977 and 1978, and later resumed his solo career. In 2006, Os Mutantes reunited without Rita Lee, and Baptista played with his brother Sérgio and the drummer Dinho Leme 33 years after originally leaving the band. In 2007 Baptista left the band again to pursue personal projects.
Baptista currently lives with his wife Lucinha Barbosa in the city of Juiz de Fora, where he spends most of his time painting, singing and writing songs

Wikipedia

Este trabajo y autor no es muy conocido en estas tierras, debo aclarar que los desarrollos de este hombre como pieza pensante de Os Mutantes ha dejado su secuela en el mundo de la música rock, habiendo influido en músicos como Beck, Cobain, David Byrne, y varios más, y son todo un icono del rock brasilero (ahora que lo pienso, me parece que Os Mutantes también tendrían que estar en el nuevo banner cabezón que de a poco voy haciendo, con mis tiempos).
Este es un álbum surrealista, un CD curioso cuyo concepto funde música concreta con piezas que recuerdan lejanamente el estilo del pop psicodélico de los años setenta, hay humor, algunas sonoridades complejas, halos sobrenaturales, mucho delirio, mucho guiños irónicos, juegos de palabras, parodias, siendo además un retrato pictórico que combina melodía folks de canciones popuares con ruidos de corral y sonidos electrónicos combinados con guitarras acústicas y acordeón, como en el caso de "Gurum Gudum", canción que incluyo en el video. Algunas canciones son composiciones o grabaciones muy antiguas que nunca se habían grabado o compilado en un CD.

With an array of assembled sketches, Arnaldo Baptista structures a new musical equation.
After numerous sanitarium sojourns, an attempted suicide, and his consequently long period of recuperation, poet, painter, and pianist Arnaldo Baptista, founder of Os Mutantes, returns with his first solo disc in almost twenty years. Disassociating Baptista from Os Mutantes (The Mutants), one of the most experimental and revolutionary Brazilian bands between 1968 and 1970, is difficult, as he was its mastermind. In addition to a faithful legion of fans, Os Mutantes has acquired what can only be described as mythological status. The avalanche of press material about their discovery decades later by musicians like David Byrne, Beck, and Kurt Cobain, even the release internationally of albums cut from the Brazilian catalog, has ironically brought back neither Baptista’s solo recordings nor those by Os Mutantes. But Baptista’s iconic presence as a composer continues to be felt, enduring as a cult figure in bars, at music festivals, in academic centers, and on recordings of his music by artists from the mainstream to the underground. Insomuch as Baptista’s jumping from a mental institution window left him comatose for several months, suffering serious cerebral injuries, and with a prognosis of never developing creatively, few expected him to record again. Under these circumstances, the appearance of Let it Bed, a disc that finds him celebrating new affiliations, is an event affirming the brain’s rejuvenating capacity.
Although several artists had invited him to record, budget and studio time pressures were for Baptista distressing. The idea of recording only started to materialize when John Ulhoa, a musician who responds dynamically to Baptista’s imagination, installed new audio software in Baptista’s computer. Ulhoa and Rubinho Trol (who created three videos encoded on the disc) tutored Baptista in the possibilities of new digital tools and systems that had only been available in the finest studios. The disc, revealing his own material executed in his own way, is Baptista’s encounter with the latest recording technology, not electronically manipulated samples of his playing. Fragments are refigured then overdubbed, edited, orchestrated, and processed into richly-textured collages of sound with finishing touches supplied courtesy of John Ulhoa, a producer who ensured that the details of his own contributions had no intrusive effect. It is a curious CD whose concept melds musique concrète with pieces distantly reminiscent of seventies style psychedelic pop. There are times, however, when the thematic material and connecting tissue seem somewhat stretched. In poker terms, the CD is a handful of wild cards.
Despite his impressive reputation, Baptista doesn’t grab the CD by the scruff of the neck and make it work through the sheer force of his personality. Some songs, or better, vignettes, are very old tunes that he had never recorded. His adaptation of the mournfully expressive Negro spiritual “Nobody Knows (de Trouble I Seen),” has a contrastingly zany quality. “Cacilda,” came from an old voice and piano demo-tape over which John Ulhoa, attempting a synthesis of forms, built an arrangement with added piano parts, an orchestration, and supplemental strings doubling many of the piano’s phrases. “Everybody Thinks I'm Crazy,” from the 1941 Woody Woodpecker cartoon soundtrack, triggers memories of the typically Os Mutantes kind of humor, but the inane lyrics tend to wear thin. Inspired by science fiction, “Imagino” (I Imagine) is an attractive miniature of metallic resonance that gives rise to complex sonorities and unearthly halos. It speaks of life after death, love without sex, mythical entities replaced by thought, and immortality via DNA. “Tacape” (Bludgeon), an old recording with some audio restoration, recalls the stone age and the paradox between it and modern culture. And “Carrossel,” tracking in at twenty seconds, is a profoundly forgettable concoction of piano étude and merry-go-round music that incorporates a phrase from the 1978 “Emergindo da Ciência” (Emerging from Science).
Among the new songs, “To Burn or Not To Burn,” a tip of the hat to the famous soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, uses the currently fashionable Big-beat groove and is cleverly programmed to be as contemporary as one could wish; nonetheless, it sounds stuck in the mid-eighties. The lyrics of “Deve Ser Amor” (It Might be Love), like the CD title, allude to one of Baptista’s heroes, John Lennon, but is a rather stodgy affair, hinting almost at parody. Aside from the obvious, “LSD” is full of puns and pays tribute with the lyric “Louvado Seja Deus” (Blessed be God) to J.S. Bach and by free association to John Lennon (“Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”). Its electronic component is a witty composite of distorted echoes and tiny patterns developed within the limits of an unchanging modality and steady beat. “Encantamento” (Enchantment) talks about a being with two heads and the desire for wisdom and satisfaction. Its evocative effects achieve a dense, shadowed atmosphere. “Gurum Gudum” is based on an old folk tune Baptista learned from his grandfather and is quite pictorial in its clangorous effects. Capturing the country lifestyle, he blends folkish melody, barnyard noise, and circuitous electronic sound imagery with acoustic guitars and an accordion, assimilating the electronic to the natural sounds.
Unlikely to register serious commercial success, Baptista does bring a tangible desire to communicate emotionally, however sophisticated his own concepts may be. Given the (tongue-in-cheek) title of this highly personal program, which seems to have been collated more for contrast and mood rather than cohesiveness, it would be a mistake for listeners to approach this disc with too much hope of an emotional experience. The heterogeneous collages, industrial noise, and wispy, disembodied electronics do, nevertheless, reveal the threshold of a style that could have wide resonance, as they constantly hint at other dimensions. By this I am not endorsing, but suggesting that a strong talent with clear-cut ideas can sail close to the wind in any form. Whichever direction Baptista is coming from, he can sail closer than most. His key talent is the quiet distillation of experience as if it has already passed, when in fact, it is still happening. That is a special talent, a special intensity, and an acquired taste. It might be worth your while to acquire the taste for this disc, or simply Let it Bed.

Bruce Gilman

This highly anticipated CD by one of the ex-Mutantes and one of the greatest geniuses of Brazilian music is a dive into subjectivity, creativity, humour and imagination. Produced by Pato Fu's John Ulhoa and Rubinho Tro, "Let It Bed" brings all the poetry, sounds and unique brand of rock 'n roll created by this Tropicalia legend who has lived on a farm over 20 years in Minas Gerais. Among the 13 songs are the essential "Cacilda", "Deve Ser Amor" and "To Burn Or Not To Burn". The CD is enhanced with multimedia content with photos, videos, paintings by Arnaldo and texts.

Amazon

After more than a decade of silence, the Brazilian rock legend Arnaldo Baptista made a surprising comeback in 2004 with this release. Even more surprising is that Let It Bed is the strongest and most consistent album that Baptista has released since the breakup of Os Mutantes in the early '70s. The bulk of the album consists of rather short, melancholic, sweet, and sincere songs, gently sung by Baptista, who also plays most of the instruments. Glimpses of Baptista's Monty Python-like humor pop up on several occasions and prevent the record from ever being depressing. There are also two very strong tracks -- "Tacape" and "Cacilda" -- recorded by Arnaldo in the early '80s that for some inexplicable reason were left out of the albums released by Baptista back then and instead appear here. "Tacape" is a beautiful, bittersweet piano- and voice-only composition with typically dreamy and somewhat absurd lyrics about love. "Cacilda" is a lovely Beatlesque pop song with a modern production and a rather light and catchy melody, but at the same time with a distinct and intriguing sadness (or even desperation) to it. Together, these two tracks add extra dimensions to the newly recorded material. Let It Bed is very nicely produced by John, from the popular and Mutantes-inspired pop group Pato Fu. John undoubtedly played a very important role in creating the special atmosphere of the album.

Philip Jandovsky

Este no es un CD que busque el éxito comercial, parece que esto es más un ejercicio terapéutico de Baptista que desea y necesita comunicarse emocionalmente con el mundo, por muy sofisticados que sean sus conceptos. Un disco muy personal pero no por ello me parece "íntimo", recopilado más por acercarse a un estado de ánimo que por cohesión musical, y sería un error para los oyentes que piensen que van a escuchar este disco para obtener una experiencia emocional o simplemente musical. Esta es una locura terapéutica de un gran músico con un talento especial, y donde los collages heterogéneos, los ruidos industriales mezclados con la música electrónica no dejan mucha esperanza de que podamos tener una experiencia musical como la que estamos acostumbrados.
En todo caso, dejo un video y el espacio en Soundcloud, para ver si te interesa adentrarte a este mundo de delirios que es este álbum

https://soundcloud.com/arnaldo-baptista/sets/arnaldo-baptista-let-it-bed

 

 

Lista de Temas:
01. Gurum Gudum
02. Everybody thinks i'm crazy
03. LSD
04. To burn or not to burn
05. Bailarina
06. Deve ser o amor
07. Nodoby knows
08. Cacilda
09. Imagino
10. Ai Garupa!
11. Encantamento
12. Carrossel
13. Tacape

Alineación:
- Arnaldo Baptista / Todos los instrumentos