I didn’t really understand Tropicalia 2 when I first bought it. It’s a reunion album from Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil—the two most prominent figures of Brazil’s wild, fascinating and psychedelic Tropicalia movement in the late 60s and early 70s. In the time since, both have donned musical style after style, and emerged as two of the great singer-songwriters of the late 20th Century, anywhere in the world. Twenty-five years after the height of the brilliant recordings that made them household names in Brazil, the pair teamed up for a studio recording of new and old material in 1993.
The opening track, “Haiti,” is as masterpiece—it’s an ingenious fusion of hip hop rhythm with a beautiful bridge.
A year later, they went on the road, producing some of the greatest bootleg live recordings I’ve ever heard. The stripped down, duet version of “Haiti” is even more powerful and stark.
Another track, “Cada Macaco No Seu Galho (Cho Chu?),” is a reworking of an early 70s Gilberto Gil tune that receives a catchy, percussion-heavy arrangement.
Originally published at Late Republic Nonsense.