Os Tropies, Toronto’s own purveyors of the Brazilian phenomenon known as tropicália, have produced one of the year’s most unique and important records in the form of their epic full-length debut album The Soil.
Os Tropies grew out of the impossibility of travelling back in time. Influenced by the revolutionary tropicália movement of late 1960s Brazil, these six Canadians versed themselves in tropicália’s ideals in order to imagine what it was like to be a Brazilian music radical in a time of heavy political turmoil and protest song purism. It turns out that in present day Toronto, the struggle continues.
Recorded at Toronto’s Union Sound Company with engineer Ian Gomes, The Soil’s 14 tracks encompass a range of vibrant and unstoppable sounds and words, with the title symbolizing political issues such as women’s bodies, colonized land, the matrix of plantation labor and dire and ignored environmental issues.
At first glance, it might seem this has nothing to do with Brazilian music, but the opposite is true. The tropicália movement embraced a metaphor known as “cultural cannibalism.” Simply put, it meant devouring disparate influences in the formation of Brazilian culture. Os Tropies explore this idea on The Soil, asking what it means to eat and be eaten.
Release Date: November 26, 2016
Label: Os Tropies / Bandcamp
Genre: Tropicalia
1. Vir Me Amar
2. Undercovers Girl
3. Wicked Annabella
4. Thinking Stop Thinking
5. You Can Only Know
6. Attar Of Roses
7. Tropicanadense
8. Love Song
9. As Animais
10. Lua Escura
11. Isis Desvelada
12. The Soil
13. Seu Heka
14. The Haunted House Of The Americas
Web: ostropies.com
Facebook: /ostropies
Twitter: @ostropies
YouTube: /ostropies