Raridades

At 83, tropicália's disrupter-in-chief Tom Zé is surely long overdue for the singles, rarities and B-sides treatment. This rarely less than brilliant anthology covers his early to mid-70s output for the RGE and Continental labels, and is arguably the most important since David Byrne resurrected his career back in the 90s. Curated by Brazilian journo Renato Vieira, it kicks off with the relatively obscure single, ‘Você Gosta?’, a mere two minutes-plus of irresistible vocal play, güiro and soaring horns, and a clear stylistic bridge between the baroque-pop excess of his debut album and his eponymous 1970 masterpiece. Almost as good and even more playful is the B-side ‘Feitiço’, slower than the Os Brazões cover but happily climaxing in a glorious racket of feedback and glottal-stop frenzy, and even reincarnating in a rousing, Sgt Pepper's-esque finale to a revelatory early version of ‘Dói’, credited to Betina.

The superlative 1974 single with Tiago Araripe, ‘Contos de Fraldas’, likewise definitively proves – in beatific, psychedelic washes of analogue synth and pure joy-in-language – that Zé was an unlikely master of the 45rpm format. That the vintage crooning of ‘Silêncio de Nós Dois’, meanwhile, could be credited to the same artist that hollers, stutters and grinds his way through Caetano Veloso's ‘Irene’ is barely believable. Zé's withering eye and rampant muse ranges impassively over all, back through the Bahian sertão with Tchaikovsky, on stage with Novos Baianos and a jazz big band or recording the obligatory telenovela theme with added theremin. A word-wizard and a true Brazilian star.