Todas Las Anteriores | Mis ojos arden en el espacio ciego
Pan y Rosas Discos (DL)
Chicago-based netlabel Pan y Rosas Discos once again releases a really nice surprise from Todas Las Anteriores (Piaka Roela & Libertad Figueroa) described as a “Mexican ensemble of sound improvisation and experimentation with electronic media. A conversation between live coding with SuperCollider, sampling and exploration of sounds produced with electric guitar and objects which are decontextualized when using them.” The record is based on a poem by Margarita Michelena (1917-98) and is really in its own corner as it opens with the repeating electronic loop on the title track, translated roughly to the surreal, “My eyes burn in the blind space“.
The duo’s sonic sound bends channel sway and a warped electronica with an edge. This blends minimal synths and an almost psychedelic post-rock feel. It’s fiery and organic, and these ears most definitely appreciate the flow into the next track, Ni distancia. Ni música. Ni latido. Ni órbita. Here they are more restrained as it sounds as if they are peeling small layers from an onion as a quasi slo-mo lounge beat shimmies in the background, until you can’t firmly distinguish the back from the front and things get more and more cosmic. If you haven’t tried any form of meditative enhancement, try this! It percolates like animated spokes and cogs and other mechanisms.
Then comes A espaldas de la luz se ensaya la catástrofe (“Behind the light of the light the catastrophe is tried“), and these begin to become elusive shards of Michelena’s work, here whispered so effectively it will drive any of those autonomous sensory meridian response hipsters mad! It’s illuminated by obsessed ghosts and a break in the barriers of time. Or you may be hallucinating.
Fiera Lúcida moves away from this quizzical fidgeting pulse in order to take off midway with flavorings of prog rock and dislocated delays. My mind is reeling as the guitar processing dips low and loopy. It’s perhaps a Latina answer to a complex and contemporary outtake on the Grateful Dead – a heady hallucinogenic jam without edges – still very edgy (unlike the great-grandaddies of the genre). Yet it’s nothing like them at all, and on a dime, as they close with Caen los rostros a oscuras they generate stimulating vibrations through their chords and reverse effects. These faces in the dark are pops of color within a mix showcases great balance between light and dark, and a combination thereof. And while some may refer to this as “out there” there is this sense of proceeding with certain caution as the loops rotate and a little melodic ditty plays a modern day folk song to take us out.
toneshift.wordpress.com 