Dot Tape Dot: Tomavistas: (Selected Rarities 2002-2007)
Other Electricities

Too poor to purchase equipment, Dani Romero put insolvency to his advantage by recording toy instruments and field recordings in lo-fi manner and, in so doing, inaugurated his dot tape dot project. Dating back to 2002, Tomavistas: (Selected Rarities 2002-2007) collects unreleased and material originally scattered across net-labels, vinyl releases, and private compilations into a nearly fifty-minute package. The material's largely “folktronic” in nature and should appeal to those searching for a complement to Greg Davis's Arbor (“Come to Me,” “Ventano,” “Making Waves,” and “Rounded Tree” could easily elbow their way onto Arbor with nary an eyebrow raised). Romero moves away from the template in “Mircolo a Milano,” which is dominated by glistening music box sounds, and in “Pal Talk 2 (Morning)” and the regrettably-named “Rosa Luxemburger,” which resemble non-abrasive Oval tracks. More often than not, toy accordion, glockenspiels, and acoustic and toy Spanish guitars billow into sparkling clusters in tracks of fragile and tranquil character. Though Tomavistas isn't terribly original or innovative, it's still a more than credible tour of folktronic terrain.

February 2008