Capitão Coração by Dos Cafundós
 

This thread is an invitation to comment on an album that won a recent FAIR album club poll. What is your opinion of this short, exotic album ?

I thought that this album was incredible. The blend of rock music, ska (only at certain points, though), metal, Latin, and even some noise textures all combine fantastically in this really unique form of fusion. I wasn't expecting it to be so rock based, since I didn't click on the video and just voted going by description, and that definitely is not a bad thing.

This definitely does have a heavy Zappa influence, and it reminds me of the Latin equivalent to the German band Panzerballett, which blends heavy metal, funk, jazz, and also is very hectic. I can also hear a heavy influence from the band Magma, especially in the vocals.

The drumming gets incredibly jazzy at points, and I adored that as well. The guitarist is great too, and the trade off between the bass and violin in the Capitao Coracao segments remind me a lot of John Mclaughlin in Mahavishnu Orchestra. The songs with the slow and minimalist interludes are my favourite, and the album both ends and begins on a strong note, with the musique concrete portion at the end of the final segment in the Capitao Coracao series.

A lot of the time, groups that sound like a melting pot of their influences can sound unoriginal, but in a case such as this, the outcome was spectacular. I voted excellent.

For me, despite its best intentions and promising premise, Capitao Coracao ultimately failed by losing the spirit of adventure that could easily have led such an ambitious fusion of styles. Failing that, some small success of excitement could have easily won me over for a second or third listen, but the music's variety of styles just ended up nullifying each other and making the whole seem like just another progressive rock album seeking to show off geographic diversity in its members' record collections. I voted disappointing.

I'm writing a small description of what I thought, but I will say now that the album was good, and I enjoyed how different it is!

Have you heard Mr. Bungle's album Disco Volante? They're both similar in the genre hopping vein and a lot of people didn't like it for the same reason that you didn't like Capitao Coracao. Just curious what you think.

I listened through the Mr. Bungle discography since I've heard about them before and figured they deserved an opinion. Mr. Bungle also doesn't work for me at all, but it's because I think they lack proficiency in the styles they try to use, where Dos Cafundos are clearly skilled enough to pull out a decent album from this material if they focused on one or two styles (which I will insist had I not had fairly good expectations, it wouldn't have in any world disappointed me, though it surely wouldn't be something I would be interested in revisiting).

To my mind, being compared to Zappa may be good or bad, as FZ was something of a flawed genius.

Like the best of Zappa, this album is a display of extraordinary musicianship; tight, complex, co-ordinated music in which the band can all change direction in a second, so that the music is constantly full of surprises.
For me, the downside is actually the same as the upside. I find all the hectic swirling through a dozen styles in a dozen minutes rather unsettling, and for some reason, as with Zappa, it makes me doubt the sincerity of what the musicians are doing; are they really "into it" or is this just a little spoof they`re running through ? Listening to the album one more time while I writing this, I found I had to take it off as it was just too distracting, and I came to this conclusion:-
Making music is like making love - for everyone`s satisfaction, you should keep going for a good few minutes before you mix things up and head off in some unexpected direction!

So, after a long trial period, I`m just voting OK for this album; impressive, sophisticated, but not my style tbh.

While style-wise this album is something of a musical pastiche (although that in itself is a style I suppose) they do it extremely well with flawless changes in rhythm and tempo. I like the acoustic interludes and textures too which kind of break up the frenetic pace and add some unexpected turns. All up I'd probably place this album just short of excellent but I'll go with good on my voting just because there isn't a good and a half.