Imagine if you will, if one day you heard that Tina Fey had left SNL and created a moody experimental pop album? Would you be surprised? This is essentially what happened with Juana Molina, the one-time star of hit Argentinean sketch comedy show Juana y Sus Hermanas (Hilarious if you understand Spanish). And for the past twelve years Molina has given up comedy to pursue her musical career. Though in her native country she still might be better known for Juana, here is the U.S. she is rapidly becoming known as a premiere musician and songwriter.

Molina’s fifth studio album Un Dia is the most recent progression in the continual perfection of her sound: a sort of fusion of folk, electronic, and classical music. The title track is a fantastic introduction to the style: a repetitive beat that Molina uses as a base to build layer upon layer of vocals, instrumentation, and ambient sound. The stratum (all recorded and layered using a loop pedal by Molina herself) twist around each other like a candy cane’s stripes, building into a series of foothills topped with some minimalist saxophone that plunges the listener out of the melee before drawing them back into another slow climb.

The rest of Un Dia doesn’t deviate too far from the established format, but Molina varies the compositions enough to keep them interesting throughout. “Los Hongos De Marosa” has some of the sweetest vocals on the album, showcasing Molina’s unique lispy Castellano lyrics over simple conga beats, dexterous acoustic guitar rambling, and another slow building climax of sound. “¿Quien? (Suite)” follows the same blueprint but manages to come off sounding entirely different if you are listening closely enough.

The only detraction from Un Dia is that it requires a close listen in order to fully appreciate it. While the music could make great background for a relaxing afternoon of cleaning the house, if you don’t pay attention to the various complexities and nuances in the songs’ structures, it may come off as sounding all the same. Whether this is really a critique or not depends on the listener – folks who prefer big hooks and singalong choruses probably won’t find much to their liking here. However, if you are a fan of complex, intelligent music from the likes of Björk, Olga Bell, or Psapp, then Molina may be right up your alley.

Juana Molina “Un día” (mp3)

(Official) (MySpace) (Wikipedia)

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 11:00 am and is filed under Audio, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Subscribe to Culture Bully's RSS Feed Here | You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.