Guest curator : Three videos selected and commented by Babe, Terror :
1 – A Nova Estrela
“This is a censored 70’s short by The Som Imaginário guys who are a hidden treasures of Brazilian music guys. Guests on the record include singers and composers like Gal Costa, Milton Nascimento (for whom Som Imaginário worked as support band), who were only children at the time.
The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and was soon censored by the military Brazilian Government. I’m not sure if it was because of the libertarian poetry recited over the prog piece which was recorded originally on the second Som Imaginário record (their best), or maybe just the nude hippie men.”
2 – Thundercats with Portuguese dubbing
“One day I’ll try to sample everything on this, from the voices in Portuguese (except Snarff) to all the effects and music.
The combo is perfect. I love the sci-fi/adventure style 80′s cartoons, the score is usually awesome with lots of 80′s avant echoes, an old tape lo-finess by today’s standards and Brazil has a tradition of incredible dubbing. Snarff is incredibly annoying however. The plot on this inaugural episode is amazing too; a lion gets older during space travel.”
3 – Genesis – “Watcher Of The Skies”
“The first time I was introduced to this brutal freak of a figure, the weird-hair-shaving Gabriel circa 1973/ 74, I was frozen.
Before Youtube I used to send and receive mid 70’s Genesis pirate VHS’s all over the world, as the images of these concerts were really rare when I was teenager. It was a community of around maybe 50 collectors in the world. Youtube crashed us by blowing the secret, which was bittersweet as it’s good that everyone has everything now. Although friends used to come over just to watch them, which wouldn’t happen so much now.
“Foxtrot”, the record from which “Watcher Of The Skies” comes, is one of my faves. Of all times.”
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About Babe, Terror :
“Hypnotic and mesmeric, the haunting music that Brazilian artist Babe, Terror makes belies its origins: originally conceived as a soundtrack to “cold Saturday afternoons” at home and long, late night walks around his hometown of Sao Paulo, his tracks are not so much songs as compelling, unsettling aural landscapes; lush, cinematic stories rendered as washes of electronica, absorbing influences as disparate as 50’s pop, Tropicalia and cold wave and distilling them to their ghostly essence.
After winning acclaim with releases in 2008 from the likes of The New Yorker, Pitchfork and Uncut, Phantasy Sound (founded by Erol Alkan and home to fellow mavericks like Connan Mockasin and Late of the Pier) is finally introducing the UK to the unusual charms of Babe, Terror. “Summertime Our League” is due to drop in late September, featuring the spectral chill of the title track, twisted pop that the reconfigures the Beach Boys’ lush harmonies into something haunted by the night time of the city.
October meanwhile will see the release of the second EP, with “Havai” the lead track, sounding like a Joe Meek record being played in reverse, with Spartan whirrs and clicks, gorgeously desolate vocals and shredded, atmospheric layers all creating a magnificently sustained exercise in suspense and eerie beauty. Remixes come courtesy of dream pop merchant Memory Tapes, and, on the other end of the spectrum, Duke Dumont, to create a tantalising one-two punch to introduce UK audiences to the strange, spooked world of Babe, Terror. ”
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