Not new to these pages, Tristán B. is the one-man synth project of Mexico City-based artist Antonio Rodríguez (also known as Teatro Marfil and Tonio Kröger).
Following last Summer’s “Porcelain” EP released on tape, actually sold-out, via Russian independent imprint Other Voices Records, the Mexican musician returns into the new year with the first single, entitled “Timeless”, from the upcoming new 5-track EP “Shanzhai” due out May 15, 2020.
Tristán B.‘s minimal, shady and melodic analog synthetic sound, joins the dots between synth-wave, synthpop and minimal synth, with gloomy post-punk leanings underneath, often enriched with thoughtful literary and philosophical lyrics, delves deeper into twisting and mesmerizing introspective and achingly emotional moody synth-laden sonic realms engulfed in dense hazy shades of gray, as grainy and faded old photographs, steeped in a sombre aura of endless melancholy and timeless heartbreaking memories.
Unremitting deeply oscillating chugging bassline, punctuated by repetitive beats and sparse muffled thuds, sheds steady pulses of anguish and desolation into the bleak void of all-encompassing darkness left by deceptive emotions, dramatically enlightened by obsessively resonant flashing reverberations, that shroud sad, dreamily detached male vocals echoing soul-stirring pain, while lost in hypnotic blinding synth melodies, bursting in maddening nostalgia. The subdued seething flow of the music suddenly stops, switches off and resumes unmarred soon after his last words, as a man succumbs to the inescapable grief and affliction left by “the hole in my heart.”
A moving foray into the depth of woefulness and weariness of a human soul.
