Helado Negro - PHASOR (2024) CD-Rip

Even though Helado Negro's music is always unmistakable, Roberto Carlos Lange has never repeated himself. On PHASOR, his ability to change, grow, and roll with life's highs and lows is at a peak. Lange recorded the album after trading Brooklyn's bustle for the considerably more easygoing creative mecca of Asheville, North Carolina, and the feeling of a fresh start is evident following the lockdown outpourings of 2021's acclaimed Far In. In the best possible way, PHASOR doesn't seem like as much of an effort as its predecessor. Everything on Helado Negro's eighth album feels serendipitous, from its sunny electronics to its mingling of psych-rock, jazz, and kosmische to the understated yet undeniable grooves that give Lange's musings a flowing foundation. All of these elements fall together gracefully on the loose, swinging, Latin jazz reverberations of "Echo Tricks Me" and "Out There," a lush balance of distance and closeness. PHASOR's focused spontaneity provides the perfect setting for the way Lange captures the little moments and details that might drift by others. Backed by a vibrant, chugging motorik, he sings the praises of paying attention on "LFO," an homage to minimalist composer and deep listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros and Lupe Lopez, a Mexican-American Fender Guitar employee who took such care building her amplifiers that they were sought after more than half a century later. The percolating electronics that embellish "I Just Want to Wake Up with You" come courtesy of the Sal-Mar machine, a generative synthesizer with infinite melodic possibilities that feel like a sweet extension of the song's cozy domesticity. Though the album concentrates on the pop side of Helado Negro's music, it's far from simplistic. Moods shift like the tides on "Colores del Mar," while "Es Una Fantasia" muses on wonder as Lange tunes into the world around him and what it makes him feel inside. Floating between the interior world and the external one with ephemeral ease, PHASOR is a pleasure to experience -- and another fine example of Lange's receptive, responsive artistry.