Much like the L.A.-based but Argentina-born
Languis,
One Second Bridge eventually found their own way well away from their places of birth in Mexico and Argentina, recording the sessions for their debut album in Barcelona. The self-titled collection finds Vicente Garcia Landa and Matias Bieniaszweski dedicated to the kind of beautiful guitar-based mood-outs that shows that atmospheric, shadowy post-punk never died, it just continued to transmogrify. Like many releases over the early 21st century -- and certainly Morr Music comparisons are near-inevitable -- the core roots are shoegaze and IDM. The billowing bursts of storm cloud feedback in the opening title track are chopped up and re-sorted into an inorganic collage that finds its own strange logic, while more prominent (relatively) beats on songs like "Everywhere" betray the skittering, frenetic inspiration of labels such as Warp. Other songs are more conventional dream pop retrospection, such as "No. 2" and "Keep on Falling," while others yet again are short experiments, such as "1000 Lights" and the shoes-on-crunching-gravel-in-the-rain found sound "Brücke." "The Ghost" might be the secret highlight of the release, with its dramatic, looming background, brisk upfront beats, and gently ascending core melody. The whispered singing on the chorus calls to mind the calmer moments of
Lovesliescrushing's brilliant
BlowEyeLashWish, but the extreme sonic violence of that record here is replaced by an unnerving restraint. A promising start rather than a definitely unique step forward, but
One Second Bridge could yet do more with what they've already handily got. ~ Ned Raggett