Vocês Querem Mate?

Vocês Querem Mate? is the latest instalment in Far Out's ongoing resurrection of the catalogue on Roberto Quartin's long-buried record label. It's billed as the ‘most free-spirited’ in the series, and there's no question fans of classic 70s Brazilian psych-folk will find much to drool over. Singer-songwriter Piry Reis is hardly a household name, though he has collaborated with the likes of Egberto Gismonti and Charlie Haden, and he did manage to round up names like Danilo Caymmi and Wilson Das Neves for this, his debut album. Acoustic guitars are laconically plucked and strummed, piano chords duck and lope, flutes wheel heavenwards and vocal harmonies go ‘deeb-a-dah-weeeh’ as if the military dictatorship of the time were nothing but a bad dream. The album manifests itself almost like a series of mini-incantations, supplicating some god of archetypally Brazilian hippy vibes. The folk-jazz canter of ‘Espiral’ draws not unfavourable comparison with Clube da Esquina-era Milton Nascimento, yet it's only when the mood takes a more pensive turn on the wonderful ‘Chão Vermelho’ that it really gets you in the gut, with Piri's disembodied, scatting lending it a real poignancy.