Bear Bones, Lay Low - El Telonero (CD, Vinyl LP)

Ooh there’s always something exciting about picking something up to review that you’ve never heard of before. It could be amazing or it could be utter gash. You could loosely term it gambling and being that I’ve given up fruit machines this is as gambley as I get these days. Anyway Ernesto Gonzales aka Bear Bones, Lay Low is here with his 2nd album and I’m 2 tracks in and loving it already!

Immediately I thought Ghost Box with it’s vintage nostalgic sounds but that could be cos the music is constructed with analog synths and old drum machines. It’s playful, dark and most improtantly a bit bonkers. There’s some amazing sounds on here and I can’t but help think of some of Bruce Haack’s earlier work. ‘Persona’ has a tropical vibe with wonky phased guitars that make me think of a more rhythmical Sun Araw. It’s part cosmic, part nostalgic, part psychedelic and a bit nuts. The combination of guitars and vintage electronics works brilliantly and I really can’t recommend this enough!