SOM IMAGINARIO Vinilo y CD

Review: From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, Brazil's population suffered at the hands of the brutal dictatorship of the Fifth Republic, arising from a coup at the hands of the country's armed forces with support from the US administration of the time. Human rights abuses, institutionalised torture and extrajudicial killings were par for the course of a regime, supported by religious and anti-Communist sections of society. At the same time, the domestic avant garde music scene was merging with the mainstream birth the Tropicalia arts movement, but this wasn't the only sound that was pushing back against the corridors of power. Forged from rock, folk, psychedelia and traditional Brazilian rhythms, while Som Imaginario aren't always considered part of that scene, they shared values and, in many ways, an approach to pushing sonic boundaries. This 1976 live album speaks volumes about the creative freedoms expressed as a form of protest against militarised conformity.