Album Review: Tom Ze - Tom Ze

Something of a lost classic, this tropicália nugget was gestated by small town bumpkin Tom Zé while navigating his way through the metropolitan sprawl of early ‘70s Brazil.

Cleary Zé’s melodic and harmonic imagination doesn’t contemplate too many boundaries, as his charming, sometimes oddball, compositions veer from the gently rhythmic samba-style lullabies to lurching horn sections (sometimes in the same song – see Dulcinéia Popular Brasileira). The quality ebbs a little in the second half, but it’s time this singular artist earned some long overdue recognition and maybe a new wave of fans.