En un lugar llamado Cydonia
Trópico de Capricornio
SCORE: 6.5
Unlike his previous album, in which the songs were shorter and concise, the tracks on Trópico de Capricornio are long and somewhat redundant, but with glimpses of true raw potential.
On his previous album, León-based musician, En un lugar llamado Cydonia, showed us how an ephemeral stance is just as effective as an extended narrative, delivering a handful of songs that were brief, but felt complete; they went straight to the point and then moved on, which made for a very concise album. Now, on his latest release, the artist wanted to play within larger structures, but the tracks feel long just for the sake of being long. Cydonia aimed for a darker and more abstract sound, but abstraction alone cannot carry an album if the explorations presented in it are not substantial. Trópico sounds too synthetic and lacks enough original soundscapes to grab the listener’s attention.
All the songs follow a similar road, and it is a long one. While there are good moments, they feel like bumps we’re hitting along our journey. The tracks didn’t need to be this long; they could have, at least, been divided in shorter pieces to let the highlights stand out on their own. Whenever something grabbed my attention, I needed to look at the tracklist just to see if I was on the same song or if it had already changed.
The first minutes of “Fucking Stage” feature a repurposing of pre-existing songs, showcasing Cydonia’s digital-manipulation ability and sense of structure. Unfortunately, it eventually loses its way with what could have been separate songs, and towards the end, it just becomes too reminiscent of Rogelio Sosa’s work on “Puber-Hostil”. Similarly, after the second track’s painful intro, we’re placed among an interesting dark ambient passage, but, again, Cydonia’s transitions are too blatant: sounds just disappear and something new, that might as well be another track, comes in and compromises the flow.
The title track is the one instance in which the artist commits to an idea, and even though his transitions are still at fault, “Trópico de Capricornio” is the most thematically and aesthetically coherent piece. The ambient passage is mysterious and vast, and although the reintegration of the cumbia sample from the beginning feels forced, it doesn’t affect the great ending that follows. “The complex of the abstract” -the album’s closer- is another example of how effective Cydonia’s sound would be if he weren’t trying too hard to make complex and disjointed sound collages.
This is not to say that the album is not worth your time. While Cydonia doesn’t quite succeed at presenting fully engaging pieces, when taken as a whole, Trópico de Capricornio does provide a unique experience among all its meandering nature. You may not finish this album feeling impressed, shocked or disturbed, but you will definitely say “uhm… well, that was… something” which shows that Cydonia has the peculiarity part covered (a great asset to have in this oversaturated market), he just needs to be more focused. With more direction and purpose, his pieces have all the potential of becoming truly interesting and enthralling.
