Todosantos: Aeropuerto
La Super Agencia

On its Aeropuerto debut, the Venezuelan band Todosantos demonstrates a thorough command of various genres, from glitch to electro-pop and everything in between. Imagine a jam between New Order and The Notwist with a Spanish vocalist thrown into the mix and you'll have some idea of Todosantos's indietronica sound. Self-produced by the band (Alberto Stangarone, Ernesto Pantin, Luis Montenegro Lafont, and Francisco Mejia) with some help from laptop maniacs Cardopusher, Jimmy Flamante, and Helios 7.0, Aeropuerto was recorded at Todosantos's home studio and a local studio in Caracas.

Though digital trickery's afoot in a number of tracks, with chopped voices woven in amongst the switchblade guitar fuzz of “1999” (not a Prince cover) and a voice alluringly sliced into funky stutters on “Estúpido,” the sound is more often live, raw, and guitar-oriented. Razor-blade fretwork chimes and wails throughout the pop hooks of “A veces” and, while feathery vocals in “Diciembre” suggest some kinship with Sigur Rós, the song focuses as much on its guitar groove as its winsome melodies. Similarly, though “Providencia” opens with mellow melodic electronica, Todosantos quickly dumps scarred six-string feedback all over it. While songs like “Bahia” ably showcase the group's melodic talents, it can be difficult to pin down a singular Todosantos sound with the band veering in so many directions at once (could the group responsible for the jagged punk of the (presumed) homage “Ian Curtis” or the exuberant electro-pop of “Atrapada en los 80” be the same one dropping hip-hop grooves and anthemic guitars in “Antes era major”?). My guess is that the epic, dreamy glitch-pop heard in “Año Nuevo” and “Panda Sonora” comes closest to a signature group sound, especially when the instrumentals “Panám” and “Épica” likewise build from electronics-heavy intros into guitar epics. No matter: album number two will likely find the band solidifying a clearer personality. For now, ample pleasures await in the fifteen songs of this solidly-crafted, 50-minute debut.

November 2005