“Líneas En Hojas” by Lorelle Meets the Obsolete

Lorelle Meets the Obsolete are a duo from Guadalajara, Mexico and “Líneas En Hojas” is a track from their recently released (third?) album “De Facto”:

The track combines melodic dream-pop with tense experimental post-punk tinged psychedelia. That minimal drum, bass, voice, guitar, synth repetition, building up into layered constructions and the contrast between light and dark/ dream and nightmare/ soft and harsh is a feature of many of the songs on this intriguing album.

Lorelle Meets the Obsolete are Lorena Quintanilla (Lorelle) and Alberto González (The Obsolete) with “De Facto” featuring a handful of additional musicians.

“Raven Raven” by Exploded View

Exploded View – a collaborative project involving UK-born, Berlin-based musician Anika Henderson with Mexico City based musicians Martin Thulin and Hugo Quezada – have a new album – “Obey” – coming out in September and are sharing “Raven Raven” (well) ahead of the release.

Exploded View’s peculiar take on experimental art-pop has an unpolished and non-conformist roughness that sets the band apart from the free-spirited damaged art-pop of Broadcast or the more mannered retro-futuristic synth nostalgia of Death And Vanilla.

As with the earlier releases (highly recommended) “Raven Raven” demonstrates the new album should continue to incorporate some essence of the raw thrill of The Velvet Underground, and even early Can into its intriguing sonic mix.

“Obey” is out on Sacred Bones Records on 28 September.

“Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” by Mint Field

Hailing from Tijuana, Mexico, the duo Mint Field –  Estrella Sanchez (vocals & guitar) and Amor Amezcua (drums & synths) – are about to release their first album “Pasar de las Luces” next week. “Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” (which translates as “I want autumn again”) is one of two tracks available to stream ahead of the release.

It was a difficult choice to pick one to share here as both are very different and also very wonderful. I’m a sucker for a motorik drum-beat though so “Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” wins out over “Ojos on el Carro” which takes more of a post-rock via shoegaze trip through reverb-washed quiet-to-loud territory reminiscent of the early sounds of Icelandic adventurers Sigur Ros.

“Quiero Otoño De Nuevo” channels that Neu! styled drum/ bass groove for sure, but the guitar and vocals here take the song in all sorts of interesting directions – part psychedelic rock, part dream-pop.

These two tracks are a good enough reason to want to hear the rest of the album. Once again it’s a pity the postage costs for both the LP and even the CD format are so expensive so digital format it will have to be.