Brazilian artist Tom Zé began his career as a street performer in his hometown of Irara, later becoming a Tropicalista renowned for his sharply satiric songs. By the mid-'70s he had again switched gears, creating highly experimental music by means of blenders, floor polishers, radios, typewriters and prepared acoustic guitars; the evolution left Zé something of a musical exile in his homeland, however, and he struggled well into the late '80s, at which time he was contacted by David Byrne, who'd come into possession of one of his old LPs. Byrne agreed to begin issuing Zé's music on his Luaka Bop label, resulting in a series of collections including 1990's Brazil Classics 4: Best of Tom Zé--Massive Hits, 1992's The Hips of Tradition and 1998's Com Defecto de Fabricacao (Fabrication Defect). Postmodern Platos Remixes was released in 1999.