Nada a Ver

The first album by Engenheiros do Hawaii sounds like a bold experiment: they blended ska and reggae with lyrics that already revealed the sharp irony that would define them. "Nada a Ver" is one of those songs that captures that exact moment, when the band had not yet defined its definitive path but already made it clear they would not follow conventional formulas. The track lasts just over three minutes, yet in that time it achieves something many others don’t: a rhythm that sways between catchiness and unpredictability, as if the bass of Humberto Gessinger and the drums of Carlos Maltz were playing at chasing the rest of the instruments without ever quite reaching them.Recorded in just four weeks between May and June 1986 at RCA’s studios in São Paulo, the album hit the market in October of that same year.

The original lineup—featuring Gessinger, Carlos Stein, Marcelo Pitz, and Maltz—never formed again: Pitz left in 1987, and Augusto Licks took his place, marking the start of a new chapter. The album had only one single, "Toda Forma de Poder," but two of its tracks ended up in soap operas, a strategy that in those days helped songs break through on the radio. "Nada a Ver" wasn’t among the most promoted, yet it remains a testament to that sonic search that would later define them.