Son (Juana Molina's new album)

Juana Molina

I received an advance copy of Juana Molina's album Son last week and it's been in heavy, heavy rotation ever since.

Juana Moilina's father was a tango musician who taught her, at the age of five, to play guitar. She became a comedian and starred in a TV show that was a huge success in her native Argentina (and other Latin and South American countries). But she came back to music. After releasing an album in Argentina in 1996, Juana left her acting career and Buenos Aires behind and moved to Los Angeles.

Her next two albums, Segundo and Tres Cosas, found Juana experimenting with a warm palette of electronics, graceful melodies, and restrained beats augmented by off-beat (as in unconventional, and occasionally as in almost out-of-sync) percussion. Both albums received a great deal of critical acclaim (the New York Times' Jon Pareless named Tres Cosas one of his top 10 albums of 2004).

Molina's new album Son -- due out in the U.S. on May 23rd -- creates an intriguing universe of folktronica grounded in quirky electronics that sometimes gurgle and chirp, sometimes moan and buzz. You hear shades of Another Green World Eno, late '70s Frippertronics, and early Stereolab. Molina's airy, not quite fragile voice floats above it all. Throw in the afore mentioned off-beat percussion (banged-out to particularly great effect on "Micael," one of the album's many stand-out tracks), acoustic guitar, and Juana's lilting folk melodies, and you've got one mesmerizing album.

And not one without humor. “Un Beso Llega” gradually bends a series of buzzing and whining electronic notes into a cacophony of meowing kittens. “Hay Que Ver Si Voy” sounds like what Amorphous Body Study Center and Dots and Loops era Stereolab might have turned out had Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane downed a couple quaaludes and spent the day listening to Boards of Canada and Calexico. And even in its most unsettling moment, you have to crack a smile when the mini-soundscape in the album's title track is punctuated by out-of-tune whistling.

La Verdad -- Son

Rio Seco -- " . . . " (2006)

Her press kit notes that Molina constructed Son entirely on her own in her home studio. And check Juana's description of her use of melody:

verses [in several songs] are alike, but never the same, other times I choose to sing a repetitive melody. What changes here and moves randomly is, for example, a keyboard. It is like overlapping two different loops, with no synchronicity at all. One very rhythmic and the other one more loose. When you play both, at the same time, the loose loop will provoke a changing harmony, because their beats will never be in the same place.

Fellow Domino Records label mate (and los amigos favorite) Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) is a big fan and put out a remix single of Juana's "Salvase Quien Pueda" from Tres Cosas.

And here's some good news. Juana will be touring with José González and Psapp. They come to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts summer courtyard concert series on June 28th. Expect a Bostonist review of that show, and more, later.

BONUS track from Juana Molina's website:

Tres Cosas -- Tres Cosas (2004)

Purchase Juana Molina CDs.

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