Video Of The Day The Crystal Tears
Formed in the Summer of 2023 by YAY! Records‘ dormant or vanished alumni from groups such as Maria or The Avocados, Oxnard, California-based ‘Chicano Gothic Soul Groove’ band The Crystal Tears, made of Cheyne Castroni (Bass), Héctor Soto (Guitar), Hekar Rivera (Cello, Keyboard), Bello (Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Drum Programming, Organ, Bass), and, for the occasion, the guest vocals of Boy/Girl‘s Maxine Lemuz, have dropped an Official Video by Alex Auclair and Lennin Bernal for the debut Dark Wave-tinged single “Solo Yo”, via the recently re-launched Oxnard label, established in 2006, YAY! Records.
“Solo Yo” builds a haunting gothic ethereality grounded by urgent unremitting organic throbs from a snakily sonorous bassline and steady skittish drum patterns, whilst a vibrant mercurial expansion of obsessive reflective sparkling guitar tones, droning echoes, and reed organ melodies rain from above. At 2:33, the song breaks into an emotional interlude of evocative string layers and shimmery strums to immerse the listener in a warm, soul-stirring transformation. Woven throughout is an intricate interplay of swaying bilingual male-female vocalizations led by a dramatic, expressive narrator, evoking feelings of both distress and comfort.
The Official Video, directed by Alex Auclair and Lennin Bernal, is a breathtaking cinematic clip with a surreal perception and heady twist ending. Old vintage style reader cards are inserted into the mix to keep the viewer informed. It stars Lennin Bernal as a troubled loner who wakes from a sleep in a beautiful grassy field. He wanders to the seashore where a mysterious black hooded mystic played by Naomi Fuentes gives him insight and a dire warning. Time and space shift into a psychologist’s office and, rather than accept help, the tragic hero remembers the omen and flees. As if running for his life, he returns to the beach and stumbles into a coffin where the soothsayer, knowing how it would end, blows out a candle.
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