Amid the world's hurricane of bad news, Esotérica Tropical infuses her Latin alt music with intention and healing
Plus more new releases by noise goth quartet JOCK, dark ambient duo XXU & UXX, and Baltimore club meets the Bay producer-duo Jialing and Farsight
This Tuesday, October 8, join us on Lower Grand Radio at 8:30 PM PT for a live performance and interview with Esotérica Tropical, the Latin alternative project of singer-songwriter María José Montijo!
Esotérica Tropical debuted last month with a self-titled album described as a collection of love letters to Puerto Rico from the artist’s current home in Oakland. Connecting one homeland to the other, the songs are buoyant, fresh, nourishing, gentle, and jubilant, reflecting the artist’s aim to transform trauma into art. With two decades of experience across a wide range of healing practices—including tai-chi and qi-gong practice, meditation, traditional medicine, and acupuncture—Montijo’s music is infused with intention and spirit.
From the words and sound of the first song “Despierta” (“Wake Up”), for example, the artist offers up gratitude for the sun, the sea, friends, her body, and breath. Then comes “Huracán” (“Hurricane”), addressing “colonialism, vulture capitalism, and femicide” in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the devastating Category 5 hurricane that struck Puerto Rico in 2017. It’s a singular work by a budding artist, creatively blending Latin rhythms and indie electronic stylings in collaboration with many other musicians, including Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards on “Realismo Mágico.”
Hear Esotérica Tropical live on LGR this Tuesday, October 8 at 8:30 PM PT!
— White Crate
ATMOSPHERIC AS HELL
Atmospheric as hell yet grungy, punkish, and unfraid of a whiny screaming guitar solo (see “O1”), Labyrinth by JOCK is another worthy entrant in the Cherub Dream Records catalog. The band call themselves “noise goth,” and the 24-min EP delivers with hypnotic basslines, massive washes of strummed white static, and devilish themes. It all feels largely instrumental, even when it isn’t, like when angelic vocals stream ethereal upon the punchy bass and rumbling drum rhythms on “Down in Hell.” Or on the almost-too-real track “Desperate,” when the extremely agitated protagonist shrieks for help.
— Ronny Kerr
GORGEOUS INCANTATIONS
“[channel] takes place in the Bardo, a Himalayan Buddhist term for the discontinuities in consciousness that occur between wake and sleep, sleep and dream, and death and rebirth.”
XXU & UXX return one year after their debut with [channel], a creeping gothwave record twining sonic industrial accoutrements to gorgeous witchy incantations. On “Cold,” the duo is joined by local metal and dark ambient stalwart Leila Abdul-Rauf (of Vastum and many other heavy projects) whose haunting trumpet to adds another layer to the foggy evolving soundscape. “Touch” is another standout: The arrhythmic thrumming and whirring, uneasy synth backdrop offering a stage for subdued but theatrical singing, ruminating on love—“serious as a heart attack.” Out now on Katabatik.
— Ronny Kerr
BALTIMORE MEETS THE BAY
Blow the whistle, and bring in the heaters: Out now on London’s Clasico Records, Whistle Tip is a new four-track collaborative EP by Jialing and Farsight. It’s Baltimore-meets-the-Bay both in the artists coming together as well as the sounds offered up, with the title track alternating between breaks-inflected house and big bass techno. It’s all designed to keep the energy high, each track feeling like tinder for a party already on fire. Originally hailing from Oakland but now based in SF, Farsight closes out the EP with a massively spacious, dubbed out flip of the title track that will vacuum up whatever lingering thoughts you’ve brought to the dancefloor.
— Ronny Kerr
SHOW RECS
Our top show recommendations for the coming week:
[rock] Thunder Boys, Horrhaus, Heat — Oct 3 at the Knockout
[club] Sega Bodega, Lexc Stacy, Clearcast, dogtooth — Oct 3 at 1015 Folsom
[bluegrass] Hardly Strictly Bluegrass — Oct 4-6 at Golden Gate Park
[experimental] Vital Arts Presents: Fundamental — Oct 4 at the Lab
[club] MOMENTUM ft. Water Spirit, Technopagan, Merdok, Dimez b2b Egodeath, SNAQ, DMN TWNK, Papa Xanny, L1A — Oct 4 at F8
[club] YERBA BUENA ft. AAAA, Farsight, Kudeki, Eichef — Oct 4 at Yerbua Buena Estudio
[experimental] Bill Mackay, Chuck Johnson & Cole Pulice, Lalin St. Juste — Oct 5 at the First Presbyterian Church of Oakland
[electronic] HYDEFM & DARK ENTRIES ft. Safe Mind, Loveshadow, Hot Goth GF, SO + LU — Oct 5 at Neck of the Woods
[electronic] Pride Month Barbie, Mirrored Fatality, Tricky FM, DJ Three 6 Sashia — Oct 6 at Eli’s Mile High Club
[experimental] Matt Robidoux, Split Bell Chime, Dean Spunt, Newcomer Can't Swim — Oct 8 at Thee Stork Club
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