TREMOLO AUDIO
Visitas
MRCD009
Mil Records 2008
13 Tracks. 58mins24secs

Buy: MP3 | iTunes

Mexico may have had some had press recently, but its electronic scene has been prospering in recent years, with, most notably, the Nortec Collective and Murcof, establishing the country as one of the strongest calling ports for electronic music in Latin America. A member of Nortec himself when performing as Clorofila, Tijuana born and bred Jorge Verdin steps away from the shadow of the collective for his other project, Tremolo Audio, seeking inspiration from the music he listened to when growing up in the eighties. Naming influences ranging from Brian Eno to This Mortal Coil, and New Order to Durutti Column, the scope of the project can only be as vast as the cover of this album suggests.

Yet, Verdin has made an odd choice for his debut release as Tremolo Audio. During the recording of his album, he decided to send the unfinished tracks to a number of artists and producers around the globe, inviting them to interpret his work in progress. The resulting remixes were then collected on this album and released ahead of his proper debut. It is therefore extremely difficult to get any idea of what Tremolo Audio sounds like, so varied are the remixes. With contributions from a handful of Latin American artists, including fellow Nortec member Pepe Mogt, here officiating under his Latinsizer guise, Chilean producer Andrés Bucci, or Argentinean producers Gustavo Lamas and Leandro Fresco, together with Californian-based Take, aka Thomas Wilson, or Ghost Box co-founder Jim Jupp, as Belbury Poly, Visitas is an interesting melting pot of sounds and ambiences, some drafting particularly electronic forms (the excellent Beamer mix of Transito by Andrés Bucci, Gustavo Lamas’s version of Nylon), occasionally reinforcing them with hip-hop grooves (the reworking of El Ya Sabia by Take or the Ras G remix of Umbral), others adopting a much more fluid approach by using various blends of acoustic and electronics (both remixes of Nylon 2, or the Lucrecia remake of Rosita, on which she also contributes vocals). Latinsizer’s Pepe Mogt adhere to the Nortec spirit by originally toying with neat percussions to Chitu Chitu before making a u-turn and heading straight for Minotaur Shock territory, while Belbury Poly creates a gentle and polished piece of sixties retro-futurism on Taxi Negro.

Despite its incredibly wide range, Visitas actually holds together pretty well, each remix bringing a particular tone to the overall project without ever throwing it off course. It doesn’t however totally dispel the fact that, without any prior notion of what Tremolo Audio actually sounds like, it can occasionally prove frustrating, especially during the stronger moments, to try and identify Verdin’s input and that of his guests. Only the release of Verdin’s solo effort will give this album its real identity. In the meantime, Visitas should be enjoyed for what it is: an overall rather fine collection of electronic music.

3.7/5

Tremolo Audio (MySpace) | Mil Records
Buy: MP3 | iTunes