Trem fantasma

The first time you listen to Trem fantasma, it catches you off guard: it's not just a psychedelic rock song, but a journey where the rhythm stretches like a sigh, and the echoes of Jovem Guarda collide with guitars that sound like the future. The song unfolds in a tempo that seems to float, as if the train in the title moves forward without haste but without pause, dragging voices that intertwine with locomotive noises recorded in some studio in São Paulo. There are no last-minute corrections, only takes where error and genius blend without warning.They recorded it in 1968, when Os Mutantes were still unknown outside Brazil but already buzzing on Record TV in the program O Pequeno Mundo, right before the Jovem Guarda segment.

The album was released on vinyl that same year with Polydor Records, and decades later it was reissued on CD first in 1992 and then in 2006, this time with Universal Records for the global market. In 2006, it also reached the U.S. thanks to Omplatten Records, but the most curious detail is that Rolling Stone magazine included it among the 100 essential Brazilian albums, ranked 9th, as if the jury couldn't decide whether it was more psychedelic or more Brazilian.