Niagara - Salmo / São a fonte da sua própria luz (2019)

Totally raw and hypnotic dub-noise brilliance plus bare-bones tresillo patterns from Portugal’s guess-again trio; Niagara

Leading on from a strong 2018 in which Alberto Arruda, António Arruda, and Sara Eckerson turned out a rugged debut LP for Príncipe and dropped two CDr’s on their Ascender label, they now home in on two contrasting sides of their aesthetic with grittily satisfying, Atlantic-psychedelic results.

The A-side’s 11 minute wide ‘Salmo’ is a new highpoint in their catalogue, seeing the trio dissolve ever-outward in a blissed, oceanic swell of unanchored dub chords and silty noise teeming with fibrous micro plastics. It’s quite possibly some of the strongest, murkiest dub noise we’ve heard since the original Pole albums or Huerco S at his gauziest and narcotically submerged.

In a sharp contrast the B-side appears to have come ashore and dried out in baking heat, resembling a 6 legged crustacean with spiny legs scuttling perpendicular in quick-slow tresillos, making you dance like a parched Zoidberg in search of fresh water.