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Postmodern Platos
Studio album by Tom Zé
Released	1999
Label	Luaka Bop
Tom Zé chronology
Com Defeito de Fabricação (1998) Postmodern Platos (1999) 20 Preferidas (1999)

Postmodern Platos is an EP by the Brazilian musician Tom Zé, released in 1999. It contains remixes of tracks found on his album Com Defeito de Fabricação. The album and the EP helped to increase Zé's popularity in the United States and Brazil.

Zé supported the EP by touring North America (for the first time) with Tortoise; Zé sold the EP at his concerts and online. The remix EP conforms to Zé's philosophy of arrastão, where art can be "stolen" and repurposed.

Production

The tracks were remixed by the High Llamas, John McEntire, Sean Lennon, Amon Tobin, and Sasha-Frere Jones (as Gene to Gene). Zé was surprised that his music was so appreciated by artists working in various genres; he also was pleased that some songs sped up his rhythms. "Canudos" was a new song by Zé.

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Orange County Register
Pitchfork	6.7/10
Rolling Stone

Pitchfork wrote: "When, four minutes into the almost seven- minute-long nebulaic journey, Tobin breaks out his trademark frenzied rhythmic assault, he casually casts off the best one-and-a-half minutes Postmodern Platos has to offer." Spin determined that "rarely has weird alien funkaplinking been so relaxing." The Star Tribune noted that the remixers "breathe their own musicality into Ze's songs." The Orange County Register labeled the EP "little more than an appetizer for his full-length CD—but it's tasty nonetheless."

The Los Angeles Times deemed the EP "a kind of '90s pop music echo of the eclectic, cut-and-paste avant-garde music of the '60s, an early influence on Ze during his student days." The Village Voice concluded that "McEntire's 'Defect 2: Curiosidade' remix ... doesn't demonstrate particular insight." Rolling Stone wrote that "the High Llamas dismantle song into free-floating radio transmissions that murmur above a plaintive, warbling synthesizer."

Track listing

References

1. "1999 Rewind". The Wire.
2. "Tom Zé Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic.
3. Dunn, Christopher (January 1, 2014). Brutality Garden: Tropicália and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture. UNC Press Books.
4. "Tom Zé: Postmodern Platos". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
5. Pareles, Jon (16 May 1999). "Weaving a Counterpoint of Ideas". 2. The New York Times. p. 23.
6. "Tom Zé Recruits Tortoise for Inaugural U.S. Tour". MTV. Archived from the original on July 29, 2022.
7. Marzorati, Gerald (Apr 25, 1999). "Tropicalia, agora!". The New York Times. pp. 6, 48.
8. ^ Chonin, Neva (Jun 10, 1999). "Postmodern Platos". Rolling Stone. No. 814. pp. 123–124.
9. Rollefson, J. Griffith (Jul 2007). "Tom Ze's Fabrication Defect and the 'Esthetics of Plagiarism': A Postmodern/Postcolonial "Cannibalist Manifesto"". Popular Music and Society. 30 (3): 305–327, 447.
10. Darling, Cary (April 23, 1999). "New world-beat sounds". Orange County Register. p. F45.
11. Athitakis, Mark. "New world disorder". Dallas Observer.
12. ^ Larkin, Colin (2006). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 8. MUZE. p. 865.
13. Ouellette, Dan (May 23, 1999). "Still Crazy After All These Years – Brazil's eclectic Tropicalia founder embarks on first tour of United States". Sunday Datebook. San Francisco Chronicle. p. 45.
14. ^ Darling, Cary (May 7, 1999). "Time for Brazil to bust out". Orange County Register. p. F52.
15. ^ "Tom Zé: Postmodern Platos EP". Pitchfork.
16. Clover, Joshua (Aug 1999). "The Shredder". Spin. Vol. 15, no. 8. p. 157.
17. Gilmer, Vickie (21 May 1999). "Dada poet of Brazil music is a barrier-buster". Star Tribune. p. 1E.
18. Heckman, Don (23 May 1999). "Brazil's Rebel with a Cause". Calendar. Los Angeles Times. p. 55.
19. Krasnow, David (1 June 1999). "Practical magic". The Village Voice. Vol. 44, no. 21. p. 74.

• Tom Zé albums
• 1999 albums
• Luaka Bop albums