[the rotten
musical producer]
According to Steven Butterman,
[Glauco Mattoso's repertoire of literary contributions has recently
transgressed the boundaries of the written word and, since 1994, he has
found new expression of old and new themes as co-founder and director of
an independent record label called "Rotten Records." Two of his songs
that constitute part of the popular 1996 compilation called URBANOISE,
"Xupaxu" ("Chupa-shoe") and "Curral," are songs which have inspired
various musicians of the "som de rua" of the late 1990s São Paulo to
candidly express the "lado maldito" of their own sexuality. Future
studies of Glauco Mattoso's most recent work may explore the "punk"
music scene as a venue for transgressive expression as well as the final
two books of his trilogy of sonnets initiated by the 1999 CENTOPÉIA:
SONETOS NOJENTOS & QUEJANDOS and finished in the final months of the
same year: PAULISSÉIA ILHADA: SONETOS TÓPICOS [...]; and GELÉIA DE
ROCOCÓ: SONETOS BARROCOS [...] [1]
In 2001, Mattoso updated the site of his label [2] with the following
text:
ROTTEN RECORDS
A NEW PLACE
FOR STREETSOUND
[Rotten Records has a new face. Initially oriented toward a
genre known as Oi! music (a punk rock style skinheads listen
to), our indie label broke new ground in Brazil when it
opened the door for the so-called streetrock "tribes" to
enter the CD recording market: punks, skinheads,
rockabillies, mods, hardcore and ska fans, etc. Now the
recording department has primarily assumed a punk and
hardcore profile, as much in its own releases as it has with
the titles resold through the catalogue, where the main
preference was already geared toward punk sound.
The name ROTTEN isn't merely a tribute to Johnny. It was
chosen because the label's founder, Português, was a Rotten
Kid; that is, the former drummer of the punk/Oi! band,
"Garotos Podres" (Rotten Kids), formed in 1982 and
well-known in their scene. His partner in Rotten projects,
Glauco Mattoso, is a poet/lyricist also known as Pedro o
Podre (Peter the Rotten), a pseudonym coined in the 70s,
when Mattoso became a "Clockwork Orange" maniac and devoted
fan of Alex the Large and his boots.
Founded in 1994, the label debuted in 1995 with the
compilation, "OI! UM GRITO DE UNIÃO" (OI! A CALL FOR UNITY).
Two more volumes of the same collection were released;
another series, "URBANOISE", appeared with two volumes; and
various titles from bands like "Garotos Podres" (whose debut
album we reissued as a CD), "M.M.D.C." (with similar line-up
as the group 365), "Cynics" (a Rio de Janeiro punk group),
"The Herberts" (French Oi!), "Carbonário" (Brazilian Oi!),
and "Klasse Kriminale" (Italian Oi!). The latter
compilation, released at the end of the year 2000, closes a
cycle of bands whose audience in Brazil has very specific
and discriminating taste: the so-called "carecas"
("baldies"). By principle, we are opposed to any
discriminatory attitude whatsoever, whether expressed in the
field of music or in a social or ideological sense.
Throughout the last several years, we have tried to
encourage the production of anti-racist bands, with the goal
of privileging a climate of confraternization between the
various "tribes" or sub-cultures. We believe that our record
label has contributed to a level of awareness by those who
appreciate music and disapprove of intolerance, especially
considering the translated lyrics from Klasse Kriminale's CD
as well as the compilation, "AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY
MINUTES".
From now on, we will keep our doors open for bands directly
connected with the punk and hardcore audiences, as they are
the ones who are in highest demand. Projected for the year
2001 are CD titles from the bands "Wallride" (Spanish
hardcore), "Sanity Assassins" (American hardcore) and
"Argies" (Argentine punk). Our ever-growing catalogue will
continue to expand to include titles representative of other
styles as well.
Separate from the recording department, Rotten maintains a
mail-order distribution service, supplying merchants and
individual consumers alike with a variety of products,
including imported items such as European labels who have
also been re-releasing Brazilian bands from our cast in
their respective countries.]
Among the CDs released during the year 2001, Mattoso's own project
called MELOPÉIA was also included. It appears on the site as follows:
"MELOPÉIA", A CD WITH GLAUCO MATTOSO'S SONNETS
MADE INTO SONGS
Bands and singers/composers from the most varied styles
(from punk to samba, including rockabilly, blues, jazz,
funk, folk and techno) made into songs and played/sang some
sonnets of the underground poet Glauco Mattoso. The bands
are Inocentes, 365, Devotos, Elefunk, Billy Brothers and
Laranja Mecânica. The singers are Tato Ficher, Arnaldo
Antunes (from Titãs), Humberto Gessinger (from Engenheiros
do Hawaii), Edvaldo Santana, Luiz Roberto Guedes, Wander
Wildner (from Replicantes), Ayrton Mugnaini (from Língua de
Trapo), Falcão, Alexandre Nero (from Fato), Madan, Itamar
Assumpção and Claudia Wonder, besides the collaboration of
Eriberto Leão, Renata Mattar, Edson Cordeiro and DJ Krâneo.
A concept album with 23 tracks. Cover art by the cartoonist
Lourenço Mutarelli. Booklet with lyrics. A limited edition
for collectors.
A more detailed press-release text on MELOPÉIA is given under the link
"Som" from Mattoso's official site [2], translated as follows:
In 2001, Mattoso released, through his independent record label Rotten
Records, a brand new project in the musical realm: a CD compilation of
his own sonnets, performed in different rhythms and arrangements by
great individual talents on the music scene today, including such
irreverent celebrities as Falcão and Lobão.
The concept of the album is "anthropophagic" in nature, featuring
re-readings by provocative and controversial artists as they choose and
transform Mattoso's sonnets into song. Falcão, Humberto Gessinger (from
the band Engenheiros do Hawaii), Wander Wildner (from the band
Replicantes) and Claudia Wonder are only a few examples. Bands
historically associated with the punk scene are also featured (such as
the Inocentes, Devotos, and 365) as well as composers with unique styles
and their own peculiar trademarks, including Arnaldo Antunes (from the
band Titãs), Itamar Assumpção, Ayrton Mugnaini, Tato Ficher, Madan, and
Edvaldo Santana. Finally, the collection is comprised of groups under
the rubric of a "tribal" style, such as Laranja Mecânica's "mods," Billy
Brothers' "rockers," and Elefunk's "fusionists."
In the beginning of the project, there was an attempt made to resist
duplication of sonnets (after all, such duplication is hardly necessary
when there is a corpus of over four hundred poems from which to choose),
but composer Arnaldo Antunes changed his choice at the last minute and
decided to record a sonnet already selected by Laranja Mecânica (Antunes
was not aware of the prior recording). At this point, Mattoso realized
that multiple musical adaptations of the same sonnet was the way to go.
Unlike musical lyrics (written especially for the respective melody),
the ready-made poem functions as a ready-made "cantabile" object,
susceptible to infinite (and quite disparate) re-readings, in accordance
with Umberto Eco's notion of the "open work" or Oswald de Andrade's "to
see with free eyes." Incidentally, such a strategy has strong precedents
in contemporary Brazilian literature: Paulo Leminski's works of poetry
were often musically adapted in two very distinct fashions (if it were
up to him, even three or more musical interpretations of each poem was a
desirable project).
This leads us to yet another case of coincidental choice (which, by the
way, is a good means of measuring the degree of palatability of
individual sonnets): the same sonnet was selected by both Elefunk and
Claudia Wonder. This pattern serves to reinforce the concept of the
"anthropophagic" anthology and the "tropicalist" spirit that unifies all
the songs under the title MELOPÉIA: SONETOS MUSICADOS. The CD, whose
cover was designed by Lourenço Mutarelli (a well-known underground
cartoonist), proposes the following sequence for the listener [3]:
1 TATO FICHER: "Tropicalista"
2 INOCENTES: "Preguicista"
3 ARNALDO ANTUNES: "Confessional"
4 HUMBERTO GESSINGER: "Revista"
5 DJ KRÂNEO: "Utópico" (fragment)
6 EDVALDO SANTANA: "Bélico"
7 GUEDES & STEFANI: "Pacifista" (demo version)
8 ELEFUNK: "Virtual" (demo version)
9 WANDER WILDNER: "Ensaístico"
10 DJ KRÂNEO: "Utópico" (fragment)
11 365: "Desertado"
12 AYRTON MUGNAINI: "Flatulento"
13 BILLY BROTHERS: "Escatológico"
14 DEVOTOS: "Dercy Gonçalves" (demo version)
15 DJ KRÂNEO: "Inescrupuloso" (fragment)
16 FALCÃO & ERIBERTO LEÃO: "Precípuo"
17 ELEFUNK: "Virtual" (memo version)
18 ALEXANDRE NERO: "Manifesto Obsoneto"
19 LARANJA MECÂNICA: "Confessional"
20 DJ KRÂNEO: "Inescrupuloso" (fragment)
21 MADAN: "Ao Maior"
22 ITAMAR ASSUMPÇÃO & RENATA MATTAR: "Amélia & Emília"
23 CLAUDIA WONDER & EDSON CORDEIRO: "Virtual"
The first set opens with two of Glauco Mattoso's old friends whom he
invited to a 1988 Poetry and Rock Workshop at the Oficinas Culturais
Oswald de Andrade (a popular cultural center in São Paulo): Tato Ficher
and Inocentes' leader Clemente. The next two names (Arnaldo Antunes and
Humberto Gessinger) are particularly respected within the rock scene due
to their successful solo careers as well as their extraordinary vocal
versatility.
After the digression of a pertinacious and mysterious DJ from Rio named
Krâneo, survivor of disasters, disorders, and dyslexias, the second set
ushers in, featuring two East São Paulo suburban composers, Edvaldo
Santana and Luiz Roberto Guedes, singing two sonnets on the same theme.
Elefunk's Diddley-style "jungle beat" and Wander Wildner's
Reedylan-style "jingle-jangle" follow these songs.
An additional set includes the reappearance of 365 in their original
line-up and vocalist Finho in his best performance, followed by the
disconcerting Ayrton Mugnaini and the debauched Bambam with his Billy
Brothers and finally the Devotos fighting punks from Recife, led by the
ferocious Cannibal.
The next set features the "dodecadent" (mega) star Falcão accompanied by
the playful group Cavaleiros Mascarados and then a heavier dose of
Elefunk, followed by Maquinaíma exhibiting Nero's experimentalism,
concluding with the clockworkaholic Laranja Mecânica.
The final set closes with Madan, the most refined folk minstrel of
contemporary poets; Itamar Assumpção, the most personal and
temperamental of the Olympian Afro-Dionysiac gods; Claudia Wonder, the
walker-on-the-wild-side inhabiting the nightlife of São Paulo, and Edson
Cordeiro, the most lyrical of pop voices today. The deceased "maudit"
singer-songwriter Sérgio Sampaio blesses all the listeners at the end of
the compilation. Evoe!
The repertoire (un)covers a little of the vegetarian and carnivorous pot
of rich Brazilian musicality, in synch with the lexical-semantic
eclecticism of Mattosian verses, from samba-enredo to techno-samba to
samba-canção; from rock ballads to punk rock to rockabilly; from
bluejazz to Beatlemania to "folkaipira" (country folk). An interesting
detail refers to fragments of sonatas which precede the tracks: not all
of the singers were acquainted with Scarlatti's baroque work, but they
nonetheless seemed to magnetically (or perhaps uncannily) match each
sonata whose number corresponds to the chosen sonnet, providing more
evidence that a dithyrambic spirit presides over the general atmosphere
of MELOPÉIA.
MELOPÉIA has a limited number of copies and it is not commercially
distributed, but CDs can be ordered from the Rotten Records' catalogue
or purchased in stores such as [Baratos Afins] or [Futuro Infinito]. It
is quite possible that the CD may be re-issued under a commercial label
so as to be sold on a larger scale, depending upon demand.
Due to the wide diversity of composer-singers who could have been
included in this edition but, for one reason or another, were unable to
participate (such as Lobão, Tom Zé, Chico César, Laura Finocchiaro,
Arrigo Barnabé, Comunidade Ninjitsu, Skamundongos, and others), the
planning for a second volume is in the works. However, no formal
deadline has been announced at the present time.
[NOTES]
[1] Click [SOURCES].
[2] Click [LINKS AND ADDRESSES].
[3] An audio sample can be accessed at [CLIQUEMUSIC].
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