VARIOUS - ATLANTIC MAVERICKS: A DECADE OF EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC IN PORTUGAL 1982 - 1993

Released: 05/07/2024

A testament to the extremely fertile Portuguese experimental music scene that existed between 1982 and 1993, it’s kind of amazing that it’s taken three decades for a compilation such as this to come into being. The 1980s in Portugal were a time of profound transformation, marked by the aftermath of a peaceful revolution and a burgeoning desire for artistic expression, and the eclectic range of acts displayed on Atlantic Mavericks reflects the burgeoning freedom experienced by musicians as they emerged from political turbulence.

Featuring a wide range of artists, including Linha Geral, Balladium, Ban, Santa Maria, Gasolina Em Teu Ventre!, and Fé de Sábio, some personal favourites on the first few listens include Carlos Maria Trindade’s ‘Em Campo Aberto’, a beguilingly strange new wave-ish electro jammer that sounds like Gary Newman crossed with Devo; and ‘We Build Cities’ by Croix Sainte, which mixes a Can-style shuffle beat with lovely Durutti Column-esque guitar, and spoken word that sounds like David Byrne if he was doing an impression of John Cale; and SPQR’s ‘Flow’, an arresting avant-garde collage drone piece that brings to mind both Throbbing Gristle and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. A brilliant primer for this relatively unknown period in Portuguese music, Atlantic Mavericks is a must for fans of gloriously strange experimental music.