"Os Mutantes"

[doug deeper]

i havent been around these parts much as of late...
but i recall there being some Mutantes fans here,with a bit of gear info.(in regaurd to effects)
i remember the sewing machine trem (bat macumba)...but does anyone know whats behind that killer fuzztone?

[Marcos - Munky]

Sérgio (the guitarist) have homebuilt gear. This include a guitar called "Regulus", with a fuzz for each string and with gold inside of the guitar, and almost all his effects. He and his brother Cláudio built his effects, guitars and PAs. Cláudio created cool effects for his brother, and published a few ones in a brazilian magazine. I have a copy of everything that he published, if anybody wants it, just e-mail me. And Sérgio said in a few interviews that his brother created effects in 70's that the biggest effects companies didn't discovered how to create yet!!! He don't give much info about what these effects do, but he may have a great treasure. His brother Cláudio is really a electronics genious.

[doug deeper]

you have been emailed!
also...how hard is it to find mutantes lps in brazil?

[Marcos - Munky]

Files sent. About the LPs, where I live is a little hard to find them. I live in a small city, and there's a few stores that sells used LPs, almost all the LPs aren't interesting, but sometimes I find cool things, like George Benson LPs (bought Breezin' today ), ACDC, and I found a Joe Satriani and a Stanley Jordan LP. But I will take a look, maybe I find something.

[doug deeper]

cool man...
id love to get these records on vinyl...(there some of my favorites!)
just that people want hundreds of dollars for them in the us...
i figured they would be a bit more affordable in brazil since thats where they're from/they were actualy popular there!
thanks again!

[Marcos - Munky]

Here is the link of the files. Could anybody convert them to PDF? I will try to translate at least a few articles later.

http://dc1.4shared.com/download/49386/184894ca/cddb.html

[GFR]

Mutantes on vinyl are very hard to get here because they were out of print for a long time. I think some of it was reissued by the "Baratos Afins" label (São Paulo) in the early 80's but that was an independent label, not many copies pressed and distributed to few shops. Even back when they were originally released, they were not so popular, only "freaks" digged them But in spite of that they were very important to brazilian music of the period (and of the future!) because of their influence on artists that were much more popular like Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso.

For something even more rare try to find Arnaldo Baptista solo works or the first Sergio Dias record (and if you find it please tell me!), where he uses the "guitar synth" that his brother Claudio designed/built and the "Regulus" guitar (semi acoustic with hex pickups, hex built-in fuzz and gold plated shielding).

I have some vinyls of early Rita Lee.

Claudio is Arnaldo's and Sergio's brother, and he has many articles published in a (not published anymore) brazilian electronics magazine "Nova Eletronica", about PA's, recording studios, loudspeaker boxes, effects. I have them all He built many effects for his brothers, and lately he was building custom made mixng desks for recording, and some very nice and flexible SS bass amps and PA stuff.

His articles are really freaky, he inserts philosophical and UFO stuff all around And you have to read them with some reservations... For example, his first article in Nova Eletronica was about "his" sustainer - he says he started with an imported sustainer and improved it. Well, I can't see a single difference in his schematic from a MXR Dynacomp. In another article he publishes "his" phaser, and says how upset he was that a brazilian organ builder copied "his" phaser. That was a MXR Phase 90 schematic. His octave up seems original, though, and it's an excellent design. The fuzzes he published were pretty basic, I don't know if they're original.

The "guitar synth" he built for his brother is much more interesting. It's a modular approach with VCF's and VCA's processing the guitar signal (after it passes "normal" fx like compressor, fuzz, phaser, octaver, etc.) . The VC modules can be controlled by independent  ADSR generators trigged by the guitar signal or by external expression pedals or by a very flexible modulation section, with multiple waveforms to choose and even a noise generator. The VC modules are moog-like.

[Marcos - Munky]

The files that I gave the link are the same ones that you uploaded a few times ago. I will take a look to see if I find something in vinyl format.

GFR, o vinil do Sérgio que você diz é o "Sérgio Dias", de 1980? Eu vou dar uma olhada por aqui pra ver se eu acho alguma coisa do Sérgio, Arnaldo e Mutantes. Por aqui eu encontro discos da Rita facilmente, mas não são muitos da discografia dela, a maioria é repetido. O mais comum por aqui é "Rita Lee e Roberto de Carvalho" de 1982, mas já achei outrocs, como o "Rita Lee" de 1980.

[Ricardo Antunes]

hY....I´ve got the Os Mutantes`s full discography in MP3 format here. Have all the albums covers too. Really great.
Marcos, tenho também um CD da Rita Lee e Tutti Futti (Luís Carlini on guitars) de 1975. The original "Ovelha Negra" is here.

[barret77]

hardcore mutantes fan here...

I have spent an afternoon with Sergio at his home in Sao Paulo, and I even "touched" the mythical golden guitar, with the curse engraved on its back.

He's a very nice guy. He said he has tons of never-heard-before material, but he can't release them (too many signatures needed)...

I recommend to fetch with soulseek the song "mande um abraco para a velha" (try also as "mande um abraco pra velha"), a song only released in a collective non-mutantes sixties album, and that I consider amazing - the song has everything, and for those who know the sixties music festivals in Brazil and understand portuguese the lyrics are amazing as well...

anyway, I love the "o A e o Z" album - it's not the mutantes signature sounds, but one of the best progressive rock albums ever...

[doug deeper]

very cool!
is there any info on the fuzz used on the furst album?(i dont speak portuguese!)
ive just never played anything with that kind of buzz!!!
also im a big fan of the filter sound on "ave,lucifer"...
great stuff!

[Marcos - Munky]

I believe that in the first records, Sérgio used his "synth" that his brother built to him. I don't know if it was completely published, but the articles in the pack of files that I've posted is for the same effects that Sérgio used in his "synth". In the R-VIII Fuzz article, Cláudio said that this is the fuzz that Sérgio used in almost all the songs that Os Mutantes recordered. Which article do you want me to (try to ) translate first? I think I will get some time tonight to make it. And if will be great if somebody put the articles in PDF.

[doug deeper]

if you could translate the fuzz one that would be great!
thanks!

[GFR]

Eu tenho os Lps (vinil) Babilonia, Entradas e Bandeiras, Rita Lee (o que tem "chega mais"), além dos mais recentes Saude, Lanca Perfume, Rita Lee (que tem "Flagra"), Bombom, Flerte Fatal, Zona Zen. O resto em CD

Pessoal, em

http://audiolist.cjb.net

tem alguns artigos da Nova Eletronica, além de esquematicos.

Eu tenho uma entrevista da década de 90 com o CCDB na revista "Musica e Tecnologia", aonde ele se concentra principalmente nas mesas de mixagem.

Marcos,
>>GFR, o vinil do Sérgio que você diz é o "Sérgio Dias", de 1980?

É. Aparentemente o Synth foi usado em profusão neste LP.

No Mercado Livre tem um anúncio de uma coletânea de 3 CDs "Mutantes - Rarities", não sei se é pirata ou não.

[GFR]

O CCDB é pirado mesmo!

http://www.ccdb.gea.nom.br/

A "guitarra de ouro":

http://www.ccdb.gea.nom.br/Guitarra%20de%20Ouro%20CCDB.html
http://www.ccdb.gea.nom.br/Guitarra%20de%20Ouro%20II%20no%20ZOD.html

http://www.ccdb.gea.nom.br/Contrabaixo%20Raul%20-%20Erasmo.html

O ampli "Turbo Compressor":

http://www.ccdb.gea.nom.br/TC%20QUAD%20foto.html

Eu tenho um esquema que supostamente é do módulo de potência deste ampli...

[GFR]

Na pagina do Sergio Dias tem amostras do disco, e nos créditos de todas as músicas vem o synth CCDB

http://www.sergiodias.com.br/cd1.htm

Gostei!

PS. Li uma entrevista do Sergio onde ele conta que o Julian Lennon veio falar com e disse que era fã dos Mutantes, depois perguntou quais eram as influências deles. Ao que Sergio teria olhado pra ele com uma cara de "Tá me zoando?"  :lol:

[doug deeper]

huh very informative.(help)

[GFR]

Summary (in english) for Doug:

in http://audiolist.cjb.net  there are some articles by Claudio (Sergio & Arnaldo's brother, who built electronic stuff for os Mutantes). The site and the articles are in Portuguese. CCDB stands for "Claudio Cesar Dias Baptista".

The original line-up of Os Mutantes were Arnaldo Dias Baptista, Sergio Dias Baptista and Rita Lee. I listed some Rita Lee vinyks I've got. Someone mentioned "O A e o Z", it's not the original line-up, and it's not psicodelic like early Mutantes, but (a very nice) progressive rock. Arnaldo's solo work is perhaps the more psicodelic, while Sergio is fusion/progressive, and early Rita Lee is good old Rock'n'Roll and lately pop and ballads.

In "mercado Livre" (brazilian site similar to e-bay) there's someone selling a 3 CD compilation "Mutantes - Rarities" - I don't kinow if it's legal or not...

The LP "Sergio Dias" (1980) http://www.sergiodias.com.br/cd1.htm

features the "guitar synth" as described in the articles Marcos uploaded, in almost every track. In the link above there are samples.

http://www.ccdb.gea.nom.br/ is Claudio's site, with lot of whacky stuff about a sci-fi/esoteric book he wrote and a few photos about his electronic projects.

Once Julian Lennon met Sergio and asked him what were os Mutantes main influences. Sergio stared at him, like, are you kidding?

[doug deeper]

cool thanks!

[doug deeper]

ok!
that fuzz is fantasic!
used it at my gig tonight...and it sounds sooo good!
not exactly the mutantes sound...but really quite good!
thanks munky!