
The Mars Volta
Lucro Sucio; Los Ojos Del Vacio
Originally released in 2019, O Terno's modern Brazilian pop DIY masterpiece is finally being reissued. The first limited vinyl pressing of the album, which also features Devendra Banhart and Shintaro Sakamoto, sold out immediately on release, necessitating this essential reissue and giving the Psychic Hotline label an opportunity to introduce O Terno ("The Suit") to a wider audience with their fourth and best album.
The core of the band consists of Tim Bernardes (lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist), Guilherme "Peixe" D'Almeida (bass) and Gabriel "Biel" Basile (drums), with all three also involved in the production. Bernardes is responsible for the mix of this album and also composed and arranged the orchestral elements of . The album is very different from their previous albums - more sixties pop and less indie and psych rock - and is the result of the band working in a familiar studio (RISCO), surrounded by a creative community. There, they followed the open-source formula of The Beatles, The Kinks, Os Mutantes, Harry Nilson and others: write a good song (the hardest part), create a simple but elegant arrangement for bass, drums and guitar/piano, embellish the song with complementary instruments and melodies, and record it well, using studio techniques purposefully and intentionally.
The result is an album that sounds both retro in its analog texture and minimalist production and contemporary in Bernardes' songwriting and vocal style, which owes as much to Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes) and Grizzly Bear as it does to Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso or John Lennon.