Longe Demais Das Capitais

The first time I heard Longe Demais Das Capitais, what struck me most was that rhythm that never quite fits, as if the beat breathes in a sway between what’s expected and what never arrives. It’s not a song that moves in clean four-four time: the drums have a sway that repeats with a cadence that seems to drag the rest along, as if the song walks at its own pace, neither rushed nor slow. The guitar enters with a riff that doesn’t sound like conventional eighties rock, but something closer to ska or reggae, with the air of a band that still wasn’t sure where it was headed. It’s as if the song carried within it the seed of what was to come, yet with a sound they would never again explore with the same freshness.

They recorded it in May and June of 1986 at the RCA studios in São Paulo, in just four weeks. The album came out that October, and though it wasn’t Engenheiros do Hawaii’s first release, it was the only one featuring all four original members: Humberto Gessinger, Carlos Stein, Marcelo Pitz, and Carlos Maltz. By 1987, Pitz had already left the band, replaced by Augusto Licks. The record label gave it strong support, releasing a single —Toda Forma de Poder— and even two songs in telenovela soundtracks, plus two music videos. The exact length of Longe Demais Das Capitais is four minutes and seven seconds, just enough time for that unruly rhythm to stick in your head without the oddness becoming too noticeable.