CD Reviews

Gal Costa

Gal | Dusty Groove America

By GUSTAVO TURNER | June 9, 2008

3.0 Stars

The Brazilian tropicália movement had it bad for the Beatles, with the likes of Os Mutantes (in tune with hundreds of progressive combos around the world) busy exploring Pepperland. By 1969, however, tropicalist chanteuse Costa had moved on to an idiosyncratic mash-up of psychedelia, avant-garde, folk, funk, and vaudeville that mirrored the Beatles’ own progression through the “White Album” sessions and beyond. She released two albums that year, both equally daring, though the first one was conceived as “more commercial.” This welcome reissue by Dusty Groove is the other one, a cult classic where Costa lets her freak flag fly at full mast. Here the expected collaborations with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Jorge Ben are drenched in post-Hendrix fuzz, and the atmospherics turn from bossa nova to the “heavy” sound of ’69-’70 on a dime. But world-class heavy tracks like Veloso’s “The Empty Boat” (the only cut in English) are merely the more conventional parts of this indispensable journey into the post-psych mind. And Gal’s closer, “Pulsars e Quasars,” even gives you a pretty good idea of what Abbey Road would have sounded like if Yoko had seduced Paul instead of John.

Related: Scott Walker, The Major Labels, You had to be there, More

Topics: CD Reviews , The Beatles, Caetano Veloso, Jorge Ben, More

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