Tonatiuh

Mindtwisting macabre ambient and electronic music here. Very nuanced, intense, spacey, and mesmerizing if you are in a dark room. It evokes the feeling of travelling through a “cenote”—an underwater cave in the Yucatan peninsula used for underwater Mayan cave burial sites. The myriad of sounds conjures some morbid, intangible narratives and sonic portraits in the mind of the listener. A subtle—a bit redundant at this point, as everything is subtle on this album—tribal influence permeates throughout, though blending perfectly with the glossy, synthesized modernity. The tribal influence appears to be conceptual, as the cover artwork and song titles all refer to the Aztec pantheon of Gods. (Yes, the music reminded me of Mayan archeology, but oh well.) At turns reminds me of either Lustmord or Aphex Twin, with gradual vacillation between the two styles.

1. Evolves slowly from spacey sounds to a pummeling, beat-driven track.
2. Similarly a general upward crescendo, but becoming much more intense at the end.
3. Starts with eerie ambience and natural jungle sounds. Oddly enough not the most morbid track here, even though it is named after the Aztec God of death.
4. Soft, lush sounds including distorted chanting.
5. Dark, clanging, pulsating beats (are those bongos near the end?) and eerie whispering.
6. Crescendos creepily into a tribal drum-circle kind of thing, if the Aztecs also had synthesizers. Sounds like they’re preparing to sacrifice you to the gods.
7. Grim, floating soundscapes at first, then almost (but not quite) happy/trippy beats and synths.