More Brazilian Space Rock: Invisible Opera Company of Tibet

Today we return to Brazil for another disk of retro-prog psychedelia. The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet has a nice album going with UFO Planante (Voiceprint Brazil 125CD). It's guitarist Fabio Golfetti with bassist Gabriel Costa (from the Violeta de Outono band discussed yesterday), plus drummer Fred Barley.

This is some prime retro cosmic rock with some long jams, some very nice Golfetti electric slide and pick-driven guitar work, a prog Canterbury sort of approach and some very idiomatic songs with the vocals and lyrics to match. Floyd is in there somewhere again as an influence and there is also a very nice rendition of Robert Wyatt's "Moon in June," originally done as side three of Soft Machine's Third. They do it as a guitar-centered power trio and Golfetti's realization of the song gives it enough distinction that I never felt like I was hearing a reproduction of the original.

If anything this CD is even more attractive than the one from yesterday. Put the two together and you get a pretty good idea of the Golfetti way to go about things. Those who like the space rock jams of yesterday and today will find simpatico vibes happening throughout. A very good excursion for anyone inclined.

Violeta de Outono: Vol 7, Brazilian Prog Rockers

Fabio Golfetti, guitarist, vocalist, and songster, heads Brazil's Violeta de Outono for a seventh album (Volume 7 [Voiceprint Brazil 123CD]). Since I don't follow the Brazilian rock world I come to them for the first time. That doesn't stop me from liking what I hear.

It's classic prog with a definite retro flavor. The lineup involves the organ-synth, bass, drums and guitar configuration. They can sound a bit like early-mid Pink Floyd (with a hint of the sound of Meddle or Ummagumma), especially with the space slide guitar work of Golfetti, which only means that song form can be accompanied by longer atmospherical space oddities.

They take on the sound with their own energies, an un-selfconscious commitment to their version of the style complex. There are a couple of longer space jams and some shorter, more pithy FM psychedelic-garage-prog nuggets.

If you went through the music of the late-sixties and still like it I think this one will be a most pleasant return for you. If you are younger and missed the original phase this will still give you something to center your attention on. And if you don't like prog I can't help you out with this. Not everything is for everyone.

I found this one quite worth hearing. It's worthy retro-prog that will probably stymie the most fanatical devotees in a blindfold test. You'll swear you've heard this band before, but then you'll doubtless find enough new to get into that you wont care whether you have or have not.

Coral "Magic and Medicine"

Originally posted on July 18, 2008

Concerned with the history of all musics and with what’s going on now, I always seem to have one foot in the past and the other in the future. So when a group comes along that incorporates earlier rock stylings with a contemporary outlook, I take notice. So a little more alt here with a CD released a few years ago.

I don’t know much of anything about the Coral. I was streaming a progressive web radio station when they played one of their cuts, which had a bit of jamming and I liked that. The CD turned out to be Magic and Medicine (Columbia) and it has a bonus disk of two of their earlier EPs. They have an attractive, rawly conceived ‘60s-meets-today sound. The tunes are not especially strong, but instrumentally I like what they are doing. I wonder where they will go from this?