Tristeza - s/t EP
(Gravity)
"Opiate Slopes," the last song on Tristeza's Dream Signals in Full Circles
ends with a heavily delayed guitar playing a
simple line over the phrase the song had established, closing the album with
a flourish unlike any they had done before.
This EP picks up right where that song left off, same delayed guitar sound
and everything.
The music backing up this wash of tone is less robotic and sterile than past
releases (this EP is virtually devoid of
Tristeza's signature doubled arpeggio guitar sound), instead favoring a warm
and flowing, free sound. It sounds like the
songs stem largely from improvisations, possibly even improvised for the
recordings. The songs on past releases have been
highly melodic, repetitive, and very, very clean. These new songs are no
less melodic, but much more raw or dirty, while
being far more ambient. The keyboards in the past had taken a back seat to
the guitars, but here, they often gurgle and
whir high in the mix, laying the foundation for the guitars to accent.
The biggest surprise comes in the last track, "Auxilio Mate," when a
baritone saxophone and trumpet blurt and scream their
way through a very jazzy song. I have few reference points in jazz, but the
way the horns sync up between passages of free
improvisation to play modal melodies sounds very similar to an Ethopian
Jazz CD I heard. Now, despite the fact that this
site is called fakejazz, I don't like jazz be it real or fake, and, I
wouldn't feel qualified to say whether this qualifies
as good, bad, fake, real, or whatever, but it's not to my liking. Luckily,
this track sticks out from the rest, and I'll
just hope it won't be the stepping stone to their next release.
This EP was mixed with Pall Jenkins of Black Heart Procession and Three Mile
Pilot. I can only hope that the collaboration
between The Album Leaf and Pall will be this invigorating and expanding.
This EP is the sound of a band succeeding at
completely shifting their sound in a new direction. It's exciting to hear,
and hopefully will only be the beginning of
this phase for Tristeza.
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