Antiguo

Heartbreaking, eerie, minimal folk from Spain. Valser’s not messing around when she calls this record “Antiguo.” This music sounds truly old, from the classical guitar playing to the slight tonal flatness of Valser’s vocal styling, which reminds me of old Sephardic music or field recordings of traditional Spanish songs. The music is steeped in blues and country, too, and features a fair amount of slide guitar and pedal steel. This is a phenomenal, spine-chilling singer-songwriter record. Favorites: 1, 4, 8, 9. No FCCs detected.

1. *(3:03)—Starts with a wordless lament. Flows with no fixed tempo. Splashes of banjo.
2. (3:00)—Slow, with peals of lap steel. Valser sings in a high register.
3. (3:40)—Semi-slow, bluesy slide guitar. “And so I ask the mountain, but the mountain says nothing.”
4. *(4:03)—Slow, with a long acoustic intro. Devastating lap steel (or is it bowed guitar?).
5. (2:44)—Very slow, almost gothic. Picks up and becomes almost bouncy.
6. (4:33)—Starts with sawing, droning acoustic guitar. Then slows to ultra-minimal strummed guitar and wavering sorprano.
7. (3:29)—Droning electric and acoustic guitar. Plodding, minimal beat.
8. *(4:05)—Waltz-time. In a major key, but still melancholy. Wistful, hair-raisingly beautiful. High, lonesome pedal steel.
9. *(7:14)—Starts with very slow, bluesy guitar and subtle drone. Goes full western drone for the final three mintues. Wow. “Everyone has a bad history, a history that does not die.”