Lorelle meets The Obsolete - De Facto (2019)

After recording three murkily psychedelic albums heavily influenced by living in the swirl of Mexico City, Lorelle Meets the Obsolete's sound changed when the duo moved out of the bustling metropolis to the more relaxed locale of Ensenada in Baja, California. Their music became more expansive on 2016's Balance, and shifted again when they built their own studio and had more time to experiment. When recording 2018's De Facto, they were joined by members of their live band -- synthesizer wiz José Orozco, drummer Andrea Davi, and bassist Fernando Nuti -- and the five musicians recorded much of the album together in one room, constructing songs from loops and fragments before masterfully patching them together. In a break from their usual method, the guitars were added later, though they sound fully integrated and as brilliantly psychedelic as ever. It's also the first time that Lorelle sings all the lyrics in Spanish -- as though seeking the solace and depth of feeling only her native tongue could provide. The duo's new approach and approach leads to some avant-garde departures, like the menacing opening track "Ana," which throbs with menace and is underpinned by bracing synths, or the formless "El Derrumbe," which shimmers with feedback and effects. It also leads to tracks like "Líneas en Hojas," probably their poppiest-sounding track to date with its "Billie Jean" bassline, strutting percussion, and sunny chorus. Between these extremes are songs that refine their usual approach into tightly wound bursts of dreamy post-rock ("Acción-Vaciar"), art-damaged pop songs ("Lux, Lumina"), or swaggering biker psych ("Resistir"), while at the same time delving into long, blown-out explorations of sound that hover around the ten-minute mark. "Unificado" is a desert-baked psych ballad that turns into a fuzzfest halfway through, with Obsolete wringing all sorts of nasty noise out of his guitar with the rest of the band locking into a sturdy late-'60s groove, "La Maga" takes a different tack and drifts peacefully out into the sun on layered wings of oscillating synths and tremolo-bent guitar chords. They do both the short songs and the longer jams equally well, displaying all the talent that has shone so brightly on past records, but giving everything a slight twist here. It wasn't something they had to do -- they could have made Balance II and nobody would have complained -- but one can't argue with the results. De Facto is the work of musicians seeking something sonically and emotionally better and getting very close to the burning, white-hot center of it all. It's a challenging listen at times, but's there's never a moment where the effort doesn't feel worth it and the rewards of digging deep into the sounds and songs are many.