After releasing a pair of pioneering psychedelic albums in the late 1960s, Brazil's Os Mutantes ("the Mutants") evolved into a noodling prog-rock band and broke up. Haih or Amortecedor, their first new album in 35 years, isn't the gritty collision of Beatles, Picasso and indigenous Brazilian music that their earliest works were, but it mixes things up nicely. With a new lineup, founding member Sérgio Dias tapped fellow Tropicália legend Tom Zé to co-write tracks that run from dense avant-rock ("Querida Querida") to rubbery Latin jazz ("Samba Do Fidel"). The transitions from fluttery Brazilian rhythms to R.E.M.-ish jangle can be jarring, but Haih is much better than it ought to be.

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MARK KEMP

(Posted: Sep 8, 2009)