For those that aren’t familiar with Tom Zé, this is the perfect album to be introduced to his amazing work. Zé is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, innovator and composer who was hugely influential in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Brazil. You may hear him described as Brazil’s answer to Zappa or Captain Beefheart; as like them Zé is a true innovator and a true artist. After the peak of the Tropicália period, Zé went into relative obscurity. It was only in the 1990s, when musician and Luaca Bop label founder David Byrne discovered an album recorded by Zé many years earlier, that he returned to performing and releasing new material. We re-issued his debut record ‘Grande Liquidicao’ (originally released in 1968) a couple of years ago, and this, his self-titled second solo album, was originally released by RGE Discos in 1970. Continuing in a similar musical vein to Grande Liquidicao, ‘Tom Ze’ is a wonderful combination of guitars, layered percussion and tough rock ’n’ roll, underpinned by Ze’s instantly recognisable vocal. Ze is infact one of Brazil’s most sampled artists. ‘Jimmy, renda-se’ has one of the most recognisable intro’s you will hear so it was no great surprise that Ameriie sampled it for her smash ‘Take Control’.