Trementina
810
Reviewed by: Max Miller
Venerable Californian label Burger Records, once solely proprietors of grimy garage pop and scuzzy punk, have steadily been extending their outreach to encompass bands of vastly different genres and origins. Case in point, Chilean shoegazers Trementina, whose third album 810 arrives as their debut release on Burger. The album’s title refers to the 810 kilometers between Santiago, Chile’s capital and largest city, and Valdivia, Trementina’s hometown, located farther south amidst the country’s lush rainforests. This focus on distance implies a sense of isolation, but, if anything, Trementina’s music reflects a very tapped-in sensibility when it comes to modern guitar pop.
Opener “Please, Let’s Go Away” begins with a looping hook from guitarist Cristobal Ortiz which steadily unspools into a gripping distorted riff by the song’s end. In between, vocalist Vanessa Cea sings several reverb-laden, anthemic verses with an ear for dynamics reminiscent of Beach House or Chvrches. Cuts like “All I Wanted” and “A Place Up In The Sky” tread a decidedly more chilled out path, with bassist Lucas Martinic and mononymous drummer Andrés laying down a groove comparable to some of Future Islands’ slow-burners. In true shoegaze fashion, Ortiz’s parts rarely sound like guitar, instead often taking on an organ-like texture that hints at the influence of Philip Glass.
Some tracks, like “Oh Child” and “No Control,” have a downright dance beat, with the latter straying into moments of trap, while the entrancing “Out Of The Lights” has a dub feel, replete with one of Martinic’s funkiest bass lines. It is a testament to Trementina’s songcraft that they strive for such diversity where many self-described shoegaze bands are content to repeat the same droning, washed out soundscapes ad nauseum. Of course, the grounding force behind the album is Cea, whose deft vocal melodies create a sun around which the band’s sonic solar system can revolve. Trementina’s strengths all coalesce most evenly on “Fall Over Myself,” 810’s penultimate track, which makes the driving pop stylings of vintage U2 sound fresh again.
810 is an expertly crafted album that has the curious effect of making one feel nostalgic for the indie pop wave that crested around 2011-2012. Trementina push the isolation aspect of their biography, but if they are disconnected from the musical landscape, it’s in a way that chooses to ignore the most prevailing trends while borrowing from the recent past, as if to say, “There’s still more here that we missed.”
Rating: Bad-Ass
