by Louis Pelingen (@Ruke256)
Within the first few moments that start off Misterio Lounge 3000, Tia Rosa is enticing their listener to enter a different dimension where figments unknown and known merge together, introducing themselves with a gleeful dance. Consisting of Sam Ortiz, JJ, and Gabriel Gutierrez, they have been going around as Tia Rosa since 2021, putting most of their focus on dishing out live performances and self-released cassettes around Mexico, before they eventually took their time to record their debut album last year. Finally showcasing their project across the world, Tia Rosa immerses its listeners in their animated walls of sound.
Glancing through their Bandcamp page shows various tags and descriptors generally revolving around ‘frog pop,’ a description that may be a peculiar phrase towards Tia Rosa’s soundscape, yet is a fitting descriptor towards what this group is aiming for once the project is given a proper listen. There is a joyous characteristic that comes from the band’s general sonic display - hopping towards slinky Latin grooves and spacey electronica, hypnotic blends of analog and organic textures, and buoyant vocal deliveries in both English and Spanish that allow for a lot of these songs to wash over the listener and make them come back into this thrilling astral lounge. The rumbling bass passage of ‘Kelly’ acts like a guiding rod, driving the song into a composed state as the gleaming synths and bubbly percussion follow along with their own melodic quirks. After the song stops, ‘Elevador Siquico’ and ‘La Luz’ soon follow, opening up the road of the blissful ride that the album embraces throughout. The former song dips its shuffling melody into a hip-swaying lounge tune where JJ’s vocals and shy synth pads carry a cheery disposition all throughout, before fluidly transitioning to the nimble but otherwise chirpy samba of the latter song with its cheeky effects, funky bass licks, and frosty vocal touch-ups.
Amidst that jolly characteristic, the album plunges its captivating oddities within a languid space, with the last three songs taking all of its abstract elements and experimenting even further as the melodies stretch out and float across the spacious flickers of psychedelia that come off restrained but soon loosen up to breathe in more movement within its confinement. ‘Glass Frog’ opens up with croaking frog noises just before the restrained grooves and vocals come through for a slow, yet otherwise relaxing dance jam. Following it up with ‘Laberinto,’ a slow-building track that comes through with two minutes of fleeting chimes and hazy synth waves, just before the carefree melodies sway from one step to another, ending things off with a trumpet giving a breezy texture to the song. Eventually the band transitions into the closer ‘Floating Hour,’ acting as a send-off to the smattering of intriguing melodic and textural eccentricities that Tia Rosa provides. Drifting the listener away from this dimension as JJ, Gabriel, and Sam deliver a dense soundscape to close off the album - full of soft vocal cooing, shuffling guitar grooves, hailing synth effects, and a tenor sax that glides the listener away from this oddly delightful dimension.
Tightly sequenced, varied, and enticing all at the same time, Tia Rosa delivers an amusing debut album that brings in more jovial charm into its abstract and odd space. Completely showcasing how they manage to bring in various ideas and influences then synthesize them all together into their own, frog-like quirk. Leaping all across the astral plane, Misterio Lounge 3000 lands with wonderment. Certainly a dimension worth visiting.