Marcos Valle
Previsão Do Tempo (Light in the Attic)Marcos Valle
Garra (Light in the Attic)Eighteen years before a naked baby swam into pop culture consciousness on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind, a floating Marcos Valle stared blankly through the water on the jacket of 1973 LP Previsão Do Tempo, his unwieldy beard and long hair drifting toward the surface. Light in the Attic has reissued four Valle LPs released between 1970 and 1973, a streak of creative brilliance highlighted by the sunbaked samba-soul of Previsão Do Tempo and grandiose bossa-experimentalism of 1971’s Garra. Backed by an early incarnation of jazz-funk fusion trio Azymuth, Previsão oozes sticky synth-laden grooves, none better than the hazy sing-song funk of “Mentira.” The pair of albums mark the peak of a 50-year career that began with straitlaced bossa nova and continues to present day. Released at the height of the military dictatorship, both albums – and particularly Garra – offer clandestine social critiques that Marcos and his songwriting brother were able to slip past the censors. “Historians like to point to the usual suspects from the Tropicalia set … as the lyrical rebels during these years,” writes Allen Thayer in the insightful liners jammed with quotes from an interview with Valle. “But they’re missing one – well, actually two: Marcos & Paulo Sérgio Valle.”
This article appears in August 16 • 2013.
