Like any heritage act, Azymuth is the band that keeps on giving. Since their first release, Azimuth, in 1975, the creative output of the Brazilian jazz-funk-fusion lords has rarely let up, with nearly 30 studio albums issued on labels including Milestone and London's Far Out Recordings, which reconvened the trio in the mid-1990s and have kept their freak flag flying with releases, re-releases and remixes ever since. It was the latter's Joe Davis and Roc Hunter who happened upon these largely unreleased tracks, recorded by keyboardist Jose Roberto Bertrami and company in the days when, nameless, they played backing band to just about every major artist in Brazil. This collection of raw, but serene, tracks reflects both a fascination with developments in improvised music, progressive rock and their forward-thinking samba doido (crazy samba) sound. Azymuth's sonic experiments were ahead of their time, particularly in Brazil in the early 1970s, and much of this - opener ‘Prefacio’, a psychedelic Hancockian wig-out that would eventually appear on 1996's Carnival; spacey analogue adventure ‘Xingo (Version 1)’; Bateria Do Mamáo, with Conti's magnificent seven-minute drum solo - were deemed too out there for the world at large. Listening now, you can almost bottle that famed energy, and smell the shaping of a keen creative vision. A trip, and a privilege.