Robert Gomez - 'Brand New Towns' (Bella Union) Released 22/01/07

Robert Gomez is the latest addition to Bella Union's ever-growing repertoire of talent from Denton, Texas, and if he isn't quite up to the stupendous standards of the label's previous Denton discoveries (such as the celestial space-rockers Lift to Experience and the autumnal sultans of soft-rock Midlake), his debut Bella Union release provides further backing for the tiny university town's status as an unlikely musical hot spot. Not that it's the easiest of platters to get to grips with.

 

The tunes dodge the most commonplace routes from verse to chorus so doggedly that on initial encounters the whole package can come across as a bit plodding, crawling from one aimless chord change to the next without much sense of purpose, almost as if the lavish instrumentation and imaginatively textured arrangements the album's graced with have been recruited solely to patch gaping holes in the memorable melodies department. It's an ailment not improved much by Gomez' insistence on rocking the mic with all the vigorous energy of an incurable narcolepsy patient and dropping in deliberately jarring production touches - the bristly buzzsaw guitars and claustrophobic, clattering beats of opener 'Closer Still', for example - that appear conflicted with the songs' serene default settings. Give it a chance to reveal its charms, though, and an atmospheric alt. rock gem guaranteed to delight anyone still reeling from the demise of Grandaddy or fed up with the less than industrious work rate of Sparklehorse emerges from the elusive fug.

 

Lyrically, the album persists with longing and heartache, its sense of romantic drawbacks and the subsequent deep-blue torpor intensified by Gomez' barely-there whisper, but that's about the only thing 'Brand New Towns' shares with an average woe-is-me harvest of singer-songwriter heartbreak. Equipped with a most unusual musical education, complete with stints at the circus, in-depth studies of Cuban and Middle Eastern music and membership of salsa-jazz combo Latin Pimps, Gomez is a keen proponent of multi-instrumentalism, and it shows. Tubas honk, woodwind trills, accordions swirl, strings swoon and an assortment of analogue keyboards bleep, hiss, burp and clatter, crafting a unique, experimental sonic world inhabited by Gomez alone.

 

When the songs hit the spot, and you can't go wrong with the yearning delicacy of 'Mistress', the breathtaking beauty of which inspires Gomez to break out of his mumbling comfort zone, the insistent 'If I Could Have You Back', the mournful 'Perfect' or the hypnotic title track, a must-hear for fans of Gravenhurst's folk-drone opus 'Black Holes In The Sand', the results are a singular treat, simultaneously mysterious, murky, complex, heartfelt, accessible and never less than startlingly original. As even the more meandering bits pack enough captivating detail to pay plentiful dividends for many listens to come, it's clear that these '...Towns' are a compulsory addition to any adventurous music fan's travel plans.