After establishing themselves on their early albums as one of the more intriguing neo-psychedelic bands playing that ever-popular style, made a bit of a left turn on their 2019 album . The group stripped back some of the opulently hazy guitars, added synths, and fluctuated between their harshest, most experimental work and their most straight-ahead, poppy music. By the time they began work on 2023's , they had settled on the former approach as they cast aside almost all the sweeping guitars and languid tempos in favor of darkly jarring avant-pop that basically turns their sound inside out and rebuilds it under the influence of musical styles that hadn't been a factor before. The songs are adorned with shards of industrial noise from analog synths, thundering drums that break through to take center stage, treated vocals, spiky guitars, and a heavy dub influence. Not that there is any reggae to be found, it's more that the bass carries the melody on many of the tracks as the rest of the instruments fight it out to see who can be more uncompromising. It makes for a bracing, almost bewildering sea change that's almost too much to absorb in a single listen. With time, it begins to make more sense, sink in deeper, and spread like an oozing blood stain. This happens because the band are still very good at creating moods and constructing songs that are hard to turn away from, even when the feelings they dredge up are less than comforting. Tracks like "Dinamo" and "Golpe Blanco" have nagging hooks that push against one's sensibility like a sharp knife against skin, threatening to break it, but pulling back at the last second. Half the album has this same kind of evil intensity, which makes it almost heavenly when a melody or uplifting chord sequence or synth swell takes over. The dreamily melancholic ballad "Invisible" is a good example of how the band balance the sweet with the sick as they interlock sweeping synth strings and sharp jabs of fuzz guitar at its dramatic conclusion. Still, even when they deign to deliver something resembling a straight pop song, they manage to slide in a nasty treat bound to jangle nerves. Case in point, the fractured, seemingly never-ending vocal loop that invades the almost peppy post-punk "Ave En Reversa." It all makes for a daring feat of subversion, one that could have fallen flat if weren't so skilled and dedicated to making as much of a statement of dark and slightly dangerous art. It may be a million miles away from the waking dreams of their early work, but as far as nightmares go, it's never less than fascinating. ~ Tim Sendra