Chilean Coldwave duo Ángel De La Guarda has been making waves since release last month of their icy debut single “Crimen”, a track that heralded the arrival of their newly released 7-song album Sentencia. Citing luminaries such as Suicide, The Velvet Underground, Joy Division, and The Jesus & Mary Chain their key influences., the band invoke a captivating and dancefloor friendly post-punk melancholia that highlights the margins between joy and sadness, and light and dark.
On Sentencia, multidisciplinary artists Santiago González and Pedro Roca use their earnest emotional intensity as the launching point into sounds that envelope with a world building melange of drum machines, synthesizers, and guitars that are introspective and intimate. This is a soundtrack to letting go and being swept away, where both González and Roca surrender to the dark romance of forces beyond their control.
“… we felt a state of nonconformity, of the moment, the forms, patterns. The album is just that, a response to “exist”.”
The album is an unrelenting euphoric dream from start to finish, beginning with captivating “Crimen”, which is followed by the mesmerizing “Imagen Transparente”, one of the record’s best songs, capturing a sound somewhere inbetween the shimmering sound of Drab Majesty, and shadowy rhthyms of She Past Away.
“Abismo” showcases the project’s dynamic range, sounding like a synthwave score with irrisecent post-punk guitars accenting the song’s narrative journey.
“Instinto Intacto” is a work of melodic genius with its simple, yet effective sombre hook. “Detrás De La Piedra” is a haunting yet minimal dirge of reverb drenched vocals and gentle guitar strumming.
“Vienen” is a pulsing darkwave phantasmagoria that leads into the album’s powerful closer “Nunca Más”.
Listen to Sentencia below:
Released by Jungla Music, Sentencia is a seven-track studio short produced by Access Device and Mastered by Jari Antti in Monoton Studio, Berlin.
