GutterPutter

Congelador isn’t exactly one of Chile’s biggest upcomers in rock music but they are seasoned veterans in the alternative scene. For a start, they have been around since 1996 when high school students Rodrigo Santis and Walter Roblero, respectively the frontman/guitarist and bassist, worked together to run a short-lived fanzine named Neutral which forms a lifelong friendship. Their bond led Rodrigo’s brother Jorge to soon join the two as the drummer to found the band and they have released 6 previous studio albums since then with the later addition of Estefanía Romero-Cors as the keyboardist. Fans who live in the same country as them will likely respect them for the switches between dissonant post-rock soundscapes and cooler noise pop formulas. They did not enjoy a massive explosion in popularity over the turn of the century with the rise of online forums like RateYourMusic even as other non-Western names such as Fishmans or Milton Nascimento saw newfound acclaim for their peculiarities.

Distancia is their seventh studio album – and their first in a decade since Persona. Over their last few projects, Congelador had opted to embrace the more subdued side of the indie rock spectrum to the point where their style even gets compared to ambient pop. While there’s certainly a clear structure to be found within the music, it all serves to form the foundation of the atmospheric impression to be had. Distancia doubles down on that prospect through the overt experimentations that give it a distinctly surreal feeling. Outside of the more jagged end of post-punk as its key drive, the album also takes inspiration from or is comparable to krautrock, trip-hop, and the Chicago School musical movement from the 1990s. There’s a certain kind of jazziness in the instrumentation that gives it its own peculiar textures.

The record consists only of 7 tracks with 1 lasting just under 30 seconds while another is just over 1 and a half minutes. ‘Pier Paolo’ and ‘Jazmín’, respective to their runtime, highlights the industrial-like viscousness that defined Congelador’s original style which comes and goes like sudden snapshots of a nightmare. It doesn’t offer much else in all due honesty yet its presence has an indescribable feeling that demands your attention. Even in its irrelevance relative to other songs in the album does it carry a dream-like presence that catches you off-guard before it segues into the next track after.

With the 2 shortest songs out of the way, the intro in ‘Blanco’ stands like a thesis statement even if it doesn’t have the same potency in foreshadowing as with YEONSOO’s ‘After The Love Has Gone’. The bassline is metallic, the drumming reminiscent of the motorik beat, the synth itself sounds like an unstable transmission, and the vocals come off as soulless. It is a beginning that marks among the most intense which makes for an abrupt contrast with ‘La Meridional’ when the style abruptly changes to being more in line with Stereolab. That is at first before it flips into a shaky concoction of drill-and-bass, bebop, Future Garage, and synth pop. This very maximalist aspect would have come off as being overdone – and it does feel too excessive for its own good – if not for its ending which contains a climactic chant that is out of a Big Music band’s cut. The ambitions that Congelador had shown in the first 2 tracks would haunt the rest of the album.

‘Suncosta’ is more of an atmospheric trip-hop deep cut which sought to add depth to its stuttering beats through the samples of the “ahs”, more enveloping reverbs, and a more mechanised use of autotune for the female vocals by Lorena “a.k.a Lore” Pulgar. There is only the chorus that is sung over and over again while another sample of a person commenting is played. Between my lack of knowledge on the Spanish language and the lack of lyrics sheet to translate what is exactly being said, I wouldn’t deduct points off of the track for that although the rest of the music itself doesn’t do much else with its hypnotic qualities. ‘Soltanto’ carries on the exotica-like stylistic that’s comparable to Stereolab as noted previously on ‘La Meridional’ although this time it sticks well with it. Between the faded synths and the hollowed percussion, there’s a certain funereal sense that feels eerily nostalgic of a past that feels more distant. 

The final track is ‘Discosta’ which stands more as a futuristic staple in Congelador’s direction throughout Distancia. It starts as a hodgepodge of synthetic vibrato and discordant trumpets that soon leads to a.k.a Lore’s singing. The easeness of it stands contrapuntally to the growing layers of synths in different pitches which soon paves the way towards a more house-like drum machine rhythm with its sharp hi-hats. Then it stacks up in its instrumentation and influencing styles as it heads toward a crescendo. Here comes the overt post-punk that many would remember the band for from the bassline, the synth melody that’s more akin to a modernised disco track, the futuristic electronic notes, and then here comes the nothingness. That’s when the ambient pop aspect comes in full force as the electronic notes and the singing gradually fade into nothing as the subtle drone closes the record like a curtain. It’s not a “perfect” song in the way that I’m more than willing to give it applause. However, it is a perfect ending to the album in that it encapsulates very well the eclectic maximalism that the band is aiming for.

If I were to personally rank where Distancia is worth fitting in with other Chilean records that I am able to listen to, it’ll just about teeter towards the positive side. Compared to the younger names in Hesse Kassel for one example, the album feels like its ambitions is too full of itself. It doesn’t help as well that given that I’m not adept in Spanish myself that I can’t say for sure what the lyrical content is. All I can engender is on whether the music itself works as well as Congelador would have wanted and I would say yes given the amount of effort that’s been put into it. That being said, it is a record that is so caught up in its vision that it risks collapsing on itself should it fail to keep the listener’s attention on consecutive listens and it’s an experience that I feel that I’m lapsing too hard into. 

The conclusion therefore is that Distancia is a record that I would best recommend anyone to listen for themselves to decide on whether or not it’s worth their time. Given the album title and its more eerie cover, there’s a chance that the record at least thematically is more in line with Radiohead’s cautious takes on technology gradually weakening our human connections. Albeit, the execution is more mileage-varied between those who are curious about it. It’s one that isn’t for everyone; I’m aware of the fact that this is an album where the creative forces had put their whole heart into and it’s a major part of why I would recommend that you give the album a try. Just keep in mind that it might not be for everyone.

3.1/5