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Viva
las Vegas is the new band formed by José Luis Aguado and Frank Rudow,
singer and percussionist - respectively - of Manta Ray. On this project
they benefit from the possibilities of sonic experimentation, blending together
mathematical distance and deep emotion. They create songs that immediately
could be placed among the same musical boundaries inhabited by bands like
Royal Trux, Come, Libraness or Modest Mouse. Yet there's an unmistakably
European twist to their music, bringing to mind that created by Dominique
A, Yann Tiersen or Experience's more introspective moments. During their
short existence -barely a year- they have developed a simple and yet complex
style, based on an idea used by other musicians they admire: building instrumental
layers over a central structure that varies only slightly. In spite of the
concept-driven start point, the results reach the heart before the brain,
creating moments of hypnotic arrest not apt for patients with heart trouble.
The songs on the eponymous "Viva las Vegas" are a mosaic of poetry,
chanson and film-like atmospheres. |
Soundtracks
to impossible and possible films spread in mid-tempo that, just when they
seem about to take off, leave the listener face to face with total silence.
Jose Luis and Frank offer a series of sonic turning points, their main
characteristic being moderation; nothing screeches, nothing feels out
of place, the vocals hardly ever rise above the music.
Concealed and at the same time decisive, classical but equally groundbreaking,
the twelve pieces on "Viva las Vegas" sound like something different.
It's like when we promise to never fall in love again and then love appears
once more, as something alive and new.
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