Tag: Chilean psychedelic rock

Rewind Review: Vuelveteloca – Sonora (2017)

I discovered Vuelveteloca at the 2017 Levitation Music Festival where they played a great show at the now long-gone Barracuda club. I hadn’t heard them before then, but their Chilean version of metal, psych, krautrock, and stoner metal was something to behold. I snagged their Sonora album from their merch table…and it got lost in a stack of CDs in my office for years. It’s a shame I’m finally getting around to reviewing it eight years later, because it’s a slick record.

First, you should know that the band’s name translates as “Go crazy.” in English. That lets you know what you’re in for with this record. It’s a fitting name.

The album’s title translates as “Sonorous” – which implies something deep and powerful. Opening track, “La Niebla” (“The Fog”), stomps the gas pedal to the floor and charges through the titular weather with reckless abandon. The brief moment of coasting (around the 3:30 mark) lets you feel the wind on your face for a bit before the guitars from Marcos De Iruarrizaga and Tomás Olivos come back to melt it.

“Alta Montaña” (“High Mountain”) displays their love of stoner metal and cosmic rock, as Juan Gili hammers out mantra-like beats to induce rhythmic head-nodding. “Ataque Masivo” isn’t necessarily a tribute to the band “Massive Attack,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if Massive Attack were an influence on them. The track has krautrock leanings, but also synth touches that lean it a bit in Massive Attack’s direction.

The fuzz returns in full force on “Carnaval,” sending us on a trippy journey down streets full of masked people who might have dark intentions. “L.A.” slows things down into 1960s psych-rock. It’s a neat change in tone from the heavy stuff that’s come before it as the song builds in power and volume. “El Lado Frio” (“The Cold Side”) takes that power and volume and uses it to cause your brain to swirl in your skull.

“Tormento” (“Torment”) is a song you’ll want to blast while competing in a demolition derby. “Chepical” dives back into krautrock, but adds soaring cosmic rock guitars to the mix. Ending with the interestingly titled “Cientologia & Altiplano” (“Scientology & Plateau”), the album uses Jose Navarrete‘s bass grooves to maximum effect and creates a great jam track with limited vocals and maximum head-trip riffs.

It’s a wild record, and one I slept on for too long. Don’t do the same.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Föllakzoid – I

I’m not sure if anyone but Föllakzoid would have the guts to make an album like I. Every track on the album – guitar, synths, drums, vocals, and bass – was recorded in isolation. This is the first time the band haven’t recorded an album all together and in one take for each track. They then gave all of these elements to their producer, Atom TM, who hadn’t heard any of them before, and told him to arrange the elements in whatever order or time length he wanted. As a result, the album is a wild experiment that is a collaborative effort and yet order brought out of chaos.

The album is just four tracks, “I,” “II,” “III,” and “IIII.” They alternate between seventeen and thirteen minutes in length. The first is like a synth wave dreamscape that includes a neon-lit highway and roadside ramen bars. It blends so seamlessly in to “II” that you’ve taken an offramp from that synth wave highway into an industrial park that builds androids before you’ve realized it.

There’s a slight break before “III,” which is not unlike pulling over at one of those ramen bars and getting out of your hover-car to stretch, double check the power source on your laser gun, and scan the horizon for bounty hunter drones before heading inside to order a bowl of soup and a green tea. As the track grows over the next few minutes, you look up at the mirror behind the bar and see the reflection of hunter drone lights in the far distance approaching your location. You might have time to finish the soup and tea, but not much. The ramen is far better than you expected, and might be the last meal you have for a day. Is it worth the risk of being caught, or killed?

In “IIII,” the hunter drones are scanning the ramen bar for traces of your DNA and heat signature while you’re driving, but not too quickly, through an industrial area to camouflage your hover car’s thermal image among all the heat put out by the plants churning out recycled metal.  The drones follow your trail to the factories, soon setting up a wide perimeter around it.  You ditch the hover car and head out on foot, immediately gaining the notice of unsavory characters in faux-leather coats (Real leather is a luxury only afforded by the elite.) who wonder if you’re the cause of the drone perimeter around their neighborhood.  Some wonder if there’s a hefty price on your head.  Some look ready to collect.  You know someone at the protein mill who might be able to hide you, but…is that an Ultra Corporation helicopter landing nearby?  They’re the ones who hired you to find her, but why are they unloading corporate gunmen?  The situation has gone from bad to worse.  Action is imminent.

I is a stunning record, both in its sound and how it was made.  The way it melds so many solo elements into a creepy, trippy, hypnotic landscape is nothing short of astounding.

Keep your mind open.

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