Tristeza, "En Nuestro Desafio"

I'll start with the ending, the last track, the title track. I had never heard Tristeza before when this track came on the radio in my car. It sounds like Suicide - or Martin Rev their instrumentalist, because there are no vocals - ventured out on a deep-space expedition a la early '70s Cluster. It's got the primitive rhythm machine and some chincey keyboards that characterize the Suicide sound, but the lack of vocals, the long, droning drive of the song, and the feel of the guitar give it that dark, electronic Kosmische Musik sound you hear on "Cluster II". It was because of it's uncanny replication of those two wonderful groups' sounds that I went striaght to the record store and bought the album, and the one before it - "Colores".

"Colores" has a much different sound more sqaurely in the post-rock of, say, Tortoise. I don't know what Tristeza's earlier material sounds like, but judging by the sound of "Colores" fans might be put off by "En Nuestro Desafio". The whole album is spacey, repetitive, impressionistic. Like the early Cluster/Kluster albums, it has a forboding atmosphere and is heavy on the electronics and effects, sounding more like a studio creation than an instrumental group playing a composition. The tracks are sometimes quite brief; track 1, 'Comun', is barely 2 minutes long and finishes just as you think it's getting going; track 7, "Rugidos De Mar", is more like an interlude. The impression of unfinished sketches prevails throughout. For those to whom this fractured aesthetic combined with droning repetition feels like a rip-off: may the preceding adjectives and nouns serve as red flags. For others, like myself, for whom Spacemen 3, Stereolab, early PiL, or the groups mentioned above are tantalizing reference points, this album is our post-psychedelic cup of tea.