“A solid album of ethnic dance EM on stunning work of percussions”
1 La iniciación 4:20
2 Mi alma, su alma 5:22
3 Ofrenda 4:08
4 Lacandona I 4:06
5 Cenote 4:33
6 Kimil 4:37
7 Lacandona II 5:54
(DDL 33:00) (V.F.)
(Ethnic EDM)
The Lacandons are an Amerindian ethnic group, with a Macro-Maya language and culture, living in the Selva Lacandona in the heart of the rainforest of the Mexican state of Chiapas, near the southern border with Guatemala. It's from this place dreamed by many of us that Lucas Tripaldi decided to concoct a superb 33-minute album-download, LACONDA, of tribal rhythms that feeds on influences from Berlin School and its derivatives. There are 5 electronic dance structures in this mini-album that are built on an ingenious work of percussions, sequences and keyboard riffs. The Argentinean synthesist also multiplies the echo effects in sound panoramas that take us to the paths of clan dance of South America. A very good album which turns in loops since I put it in my network player at the beginning of the week... And oxygenate your feet well because they will never have been so incited to move on phases of EDM (electronic dance music) that here!
It's by winds propelled by the hummings of spectres voices that La iniciación takes us out of our seats to dance a kind of moringa woven in rock. The combination of acoustic percussions as well as guitar and keyboard riffs with a jerky echo effect form the framework of a rhythm that literally explodes around the 80-second mark in a tremendous tribal momentum that is akin to a majestic Haitian Voodoo party in New Orleans. At first electric, La iniciación takes a more electronic phase after a short transitional phase. It reminds me a lot of Jean-Michel Jarre from the time of Revolutions. Divided between an opening and a long atmospheric phase towards its end, Mi alma, su alma (My soul, your soul) begins with heavy humming of flying saucers where scattered percussions are fluttering, and grave chords get nestling. The ambiences take on a finely stroboscopic circular form above a fascinating dialogue between wood and metal percussions. The long whirrs of the keyboard cast an aura of suspense over a less accentuated rhythm structure that emerges after the first minute. There is a taste of industrial tribal rhythm behind this track which is teeming with a great percussive flora and some troubling sound effects. Ofrenda offers a similar rhythm structure but more rubbery. The structure hosts its plethora of synth loops that are the basis of its harmony. The track borrows a rhythm that is more in line with the energetic La iniciación following its entry into the atmospheric zone. Organic bumblebees as mechanical! They fly in Lacandona I which proposes a more ambient vision of this mini-album of Lucas Tripaldi, while the batrachians of Cenote stir up a structure of tribal rhythm very ignited. Kimil breathes a new tangent into this surprising album of tribal rhythms from Mesopotamia with a sequencer in Tangerine Dream mode. Following the ambient journey of his older brother, Lacandona II ends on a meditative note a mini album teeming with rhythms that mix the acoustic and electronic of reinvented percussions in a vision of electronic tribal music also reinvented.
Sylvain Lupari (March 24th, 2022) ****¼*
Available at Cyclical Dreams Bandcamp