Mexico City's
Los Blenders lashed down a firm spot in the garage rock underground with their early noise-damaged singles and gradually more mature albums. 2017's Ha Sido showed the group starting to give their raucously bouncy sound some depth by slowing down the tempos and recording everything with some clarity. 2020's
Mazunte 2016 furthers the maturation process, taking the band another step or two away from the garage by upping the production values, experimenting with sound, and writing some seriously hooky pop songs. That being said, there are the usual raft of bopping rockers that sound sweaty and fun, most of the album in fact. The difference this time is that you can hear the care being put into the guitar sound or the backing vocals or the overall dynamics.
Los Blenders aren't bashing them out one after the other like before. Now they are carefully crafting things, and the work pays off. Songs like "Depresión Tropical" or the title track have all the energy and verve of past records and also extra bits of goodness like the pounding surf break of the latter. "Ponte Punk" is tightly wound and sharper than a switchblade, "Eres un Malviaje" sounds like a fist fight in a tornado, and "Perdidos en Pantitlan" slashes determinedly like the best post-punk should. An album of songs this ridiculously catchy, not to mention well-played and produced, would have been something special. That's not all the band did though. There are songs that add exciting new elements to their sound. The opening "No Se Surfear" is a slow and melancholy surf ballad that's so lachrymose that singer Alejandro Archundia sounds like he's delivering the words from under his pillow. "Super Amor" might be the poppiest song they've done and "Me Derrites" might be the gentlest; they both sound like a girl group classic slowed to half-speed and dipped in sugar. "No Molestes" is doom surf covered in waves of echoing reverb big enough to rival those found in the Banzai Pipeline. These songs are the work of a band who have mastered their core sound and then succeeded mightily by expanding it in ways that only serve to strengthen it.
Mazunte 2016 is modern garage rock at its best, and
Los Blenders have firmly established themselves as leaders of the pack.