#chilean alternative

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - #7

Psychotrovas and Mantis, Chosen by Experts and the International Association of Drug Addicts - Headed

Main genres: Instrumental Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop, Sampledelia

A decent sampling of: Trip Hop, Sound Collage, Ambient, Jazz Hop

Gray skies. Paranoid premonitions of an alien invasion. Waking up in your darkened apartment and not being able to tell the time of day, or what day of the week it is. Sadness in the form of hallucinations. A dark and isolating psychosis.

These are the ways I would describe the listening experience that is my #1 most unknown, completely esoteric choice album for 2023 - Psychotrovas and Mantis, Chosen by Experts and the International Association of Drug Addicts.

Full disclosure - I actually knew so little about the actual artist's origins and identifying information, and what I know now that I've done a bit of research still isn't all that much.

In fact, I don't even remember how I came across this record (perhaps bandcamp, or more likely by sorting by 'esoteric' on the RYM charts), but I remember that I saw the cover art and was immediately intrigued.

Anyhow, here's what I did manage to gather for information, at least according to the sparse sources online that I can go off of:

Headed is one of a few projects "headed" (hahahaha why yes I am funny thank you) by Chilean multi-genre musician Camilo Gonzáles, who runs his own independent label called Turnout Music.

According to its official bandcamp page, this record "is a concept album about a boy who takes drugs to stay happy after a separation with his girlfriend and thus not be constantly sad, but after several months he can't take it anymore and ends the addiction, ending in a mental chaos represented in the second half of the album." And true to it's premise, this record is a seemingly endless abyss of trippy, glum atmosphere.

The record is also split into two distinct parts proper.

Psychotrovas, which takes up the better chunk of the record, is a tad more upbeat, marked by winding, introspective corridors of instrumental hip hop and sampledelia. Tracks are often two or even three parters, sometimes alternating between radically distinct movements.

On the latter end, there's the much shorter Mantis, which is mostly a collection of one or two minute surreal, "gloombient" music pieces of the Yume Nikki-esque variety.

Also, can I just gush that I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I actually recognized a few of the samples on this record from albums I already really love, which honestly thank fuck because I doubt there's any information on the internet that could tell me where any of the other samples come from, seeing as how the guy is basically uber-underground.

But I digress. On with the track-by-track highlights.

"Sun Audio" gets right into the pleasure centres of my neural network. A brilliantly choppy sample of the already stellar drumline from Stereolab's "Diagonals" is boosted and overlaid with some moody sci-fi flying-saucer-type synths to create a perfect equilibrium between soft glowy tingling sensations and the eerie atmosphere of deep space isolation. Honestly I could really enjoy just listening to a 30 minute loop of this segment alone, but then the track switches to some very phaser-heavy (whole lotta phaser on this record) piano jazz beats with some nicely done unresolved chord progressions to ease me into the uneasiness that is to follow on later tracks.

My personal favourite cut is "Syria", sampling old melancholic Hispanic folk music over some very Dilla type beats that place me right in the middle of a windswept plateau wasteland with nothing but the clothes on my back and the bitter taste of yearning in my mouth. This segues into another piano piece, this time equal parts sinister and truly heartbroken. Seriously, I frigging love this track but I would not recommend listening to the second half if you're already at your rock bottom.

"Tomorrow... Yeah Tomorrow" carries some very surrendering, indulgent energy, like my muscles are loosening and my mind is slowly melting into escapism, albeit maybe not the healthiest kind. This kinda just feels like being shlonked which has thankfully only really happened to me once or twice. It feels like you could get lost in this track, especially with that distant spoken word piece which feels like it should only be physically happening a few feet away from you, but you're experiencing it as though the dude is murmuring in the other room.

"City Soundtrack / Protocolo Jaco / Sorry" is perhaps where the atmsophere of the Psychotrovas side really sets in at its most intense. This track alone is thirteen minutes and manages to feel ages longer, yet somehow like almost no time has passed at all by the end of it. There's ghosts of the past all around you as you're walking alone at 2:00 am, but you're kind of just content with them lingering there since they all just kind of bleed into the background.

Mantis begins with "Sun Age", an ambient track that blends the phosphenes and eigengrau of when you close your eyes into a single sonic colour, then stretching it to a distorted wavelength that drones with a yawning weariness. Tired eyes as expressed through song.

I also really like "The Coldest Season", which rings with that distinct coldness when you live in a port city and you're down at the waterfront by yourself on a winter night.....other people can relate to this behaviour, rite? But yeah, this one is probably the loneliest and yet possibly coziest track on the LP.

I really gotta give it to this record's ability to effectively communicate its conceptual story with changes and progressions in its mood, and basically no lyrics apart from a few short interluding skits with a fictional radio show host. It's honestly quite stunning. This is some A+ showing (sounding?) instead of telling within the music album format.

That said, I could see how this might be too long for some. I could possibly have even seen myself considering bumping this to a 10 if Psychotrovas had been edited down about two tracks and Mantis having been a little more fleshed out, maybe with one good 5+ minute ambient piece.

But beyond my nitpicking, this is probably the most impressive atmosphere on any album I've heard this year. Psychotrovas and Mantis (etc.) is a great example of one of those brilliantly conceived and executed records that slips through the cracks all the time due to the sheer saturation of music in the streaming age.

If you do check this one out and enjoy it as much as I did, please support the artist on Bandcamp. Idk who this Headed guy really is or what he looks like, but the dude's got mad talent.

9/10

Highlights: "Syria", "Sun Audio", "City Soundtrack / Protocolo Jaco / Sorry", "The Coldest Season", "Sun Age", "Tomorrow... Yeah Tomorrow", "Kaleidoscope", "Mellow Nights (Tape)", "Nunca Ouvi Algo Assim", "I'll Remember April", "Masterful Space Project", "Untitled......."

[eg-at-setersdole-gar]

Luna no me abandones más .

[magic-space]

pistola dog<3

casi nos matas en el cerro, pero aún así tkm

canon eos rebel t100

[pauslttw]

Mon Laferte

[gothmusiclatinamerica]

"En la Eternidad" by Chilean darkwave and post-punk duo Diavol Strâin off of their 2024 album Vipera Mortis

[ratguy-nico]

La Sociedad de la Nieve

Guys this is totally out of my usual content but i have to say I just saw "La Sociedad de la Nieve" a netflix film about the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster, an historical event that happened here in my own country, Chile,.

I’m very tempted to write this in spanish just because of how proud I'm from this film, which is huge because this film is not from my countries Chile or Peru, is a co-production between Uruguay and Spain with actors from Uruguay and Argentina and it feel so wrong to talk about something so close to my home in a so foreign language. But I want you to see it. I really want you to see it cause este es un peliculón. Is one of the greatest film I have seen in a long time (2023 was truly a very good year for the cine)

The film goes about a rugby team from Uruguay who mean to travel to Chile but crash with la Cordillera de los Andes (Andes Mountains) and are left to their fate, having to depend only on each other.

Now I have some Trigger Warnings.

-the film is wonderful for its rawness and can be too much for some. I was literally trembling and mostly in shock while watching it.

-is based in a true story and is not a happy story.

-and the most important warning and a major spoiler if you don’t know nothing about it. The film talk a lot about cannibalism, is very explicit but not in a gore way, but in a how far one must go to survive way.

So yeah this film hit hard, but believe me it worth it. The cinematic, the performances, the sound, the script, the timing, everything is literally perfect, but what I love most about this movie is how it make the survivors and the victims of this horrible tragedy real people, most movies like this make them heroes or martyrs, but no. This movie is about a bunch of young men, about kids that went trough the impossible, trough unfair and pointless situation and how they support and save each other, because everyone was important, the ones that didn’t make it and the ones who survived.

[catacatiuss]

Cámara estenopeica, Pichilemu, 2023

[imvenin]

Azul, como tristeza.

Pero hoy feliz.

[slutpoppers]

Celestial

Artist: @IanPatrick_ on Instagram, reposted with permission.

[fetichesonoro]

Fetiche Sonoro: Jab

This month’s compilation by Fetiche Sonoro is called Jab, fresh music just for you & your friends:

Manto - Technicolor Fabrics/Hello Seahorse! - 03:48 Patadas de Ahogado (Latin Mafia/Humbe, Rework) - Huguel - 03:06 Qué belleza - Kadir - 04:57 Ojalá Te Vaya Mal - Renee - 03:00 Nada Es Suficiente - Santos Woge - 02:33 Pum Pum! - Gloory Hole - 02:38 Quiero - Valentina Moretti - 03:33 Balón De Oro - Méne - 04:18 Wey - Luisa Almaguer - 03:45 INRI - Judeline - 02:25 En El Mismo Lugar - Bilbao - 02:47 Si t vieras < 3 - Lua Lacruz - 01:39 Lejos - D'Avila/Chell/La Radio Bembé Orquesta/RI0 - 4:12 Al Cielo No Se Va Llorando - Irepelusa - 03:02 YMW - Motherflowers/Ceaese - 02:57 Para Siempre(｡>﹏<) - Akriila - 02:30 Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido - Karol G - 03:15 Insomnio - xHEIDIx - 02:42 Niña Soñando - Verde Prato - 05:05 Fresco y Desubicado - Ases Falsos - 03:38 Días - Ino Guridi - 03:34 Long Rock - Jimena Amarillo - 01:52 La Culpa - Adiós Amores - 03:11 Antropoceno - Supersilverhaze - 04:21 Origami - Jotdog - 02:32

[magic-space]

noche en el valle

canon eos rebel t100

[pauslttw]

Mon Laferte

[gothmusiclatinamerica]

"Fubuki" by Santiago, Chile-based post-punk act Nostalgia Eléctrica off of their 2020 EP Compilado Maldito, featuring live performances

[siendoinfiernos]

Hoy te Vi... Estás distinta pero tan linda como cuando partiste

[cavedwellermusic]

Kiltro - Underbelly (2023)

Naz recommends listening to this album as a whole, preferably on a chilly summer evening. The musical complexity and different genres blending together, along with the gentle songwriting means that Underbelly is an album you shouldn’t be missing no matter what your go to genre is.

[firecomingoutthemonkeyhead]

First time DJ