Moments of heartbreak, the slow-burning return of memories and evenings spent all night wired seem to all appear and flow through Fax’ latest release Yo Recuerdo. Moving away ever so slightly from his earlier, darker recordings, Ruben Tamayo, who is Fax, reduces the beat ratio in favour warmly treated guitars and synth haze. Closely related to Fourtet’s “Rounds†of a few years back this album appears slow and sweet whilst washing in wonderful swathes of rounded, reverberating sound.
As mentioned above, the tracks feel like the hours just prior to and surrounding sunrise. The beats are soft and warm, like knocking blocks of wood together while the bass travels long and low beside. The album picks up the pace about half-way through on “Rota’, a thudding heart-beat around which a simple guitar line is allowed to flutter and slide. Its so rare to hear an electronica artist utilise this many guitars in their recordings and it seems that wherever they can be drawn out by the ear they shimmer and move lightly through and occasionally appearing at the fore as major motifs. The two vocal tracks “Yo Recuerdo’ and “Tormenta De Arena’ feature Uriel Villalobos of Mexican rock group Perdutto, and the Argentinean singer Florencia Ruiz respectively. Both tracks are given to the singers as dreamscapes almost, their voices being allowed to move through the songs in a similarly sleepy wandering way. Which is not to say they sound tired or pedestrian, its more like they’re running through their nostalgias in the hours before sleep, allowing Fax to create the mood and setting.
For all its night-time visions and breathy remembering the Yo Recuerdo is wonderfully bright as a release. Its soft and warm and light and airy and makes you want to quickly opt out of this interminable winter in search of some Mexican wonderland of warm, eternal dawn.
Joel Hedrick
