Atletas - Reflexão Meteórica

 Released: August 21

Throughout its entire runtime, Reflexão Meterórica has a very unique kind of warmth to it. It almost feels like the audio equivalent of laying in a sunbeam coming through a window in a mildly temperate house, complete with the strange feeling of time warping as you nap quietly in the warmth (no, this was not written by a cat, leave me alone). Along with this warmth, there is also the unshakable nostalgic feeling to it that materializes in the low fidelity recording techniques and persistent hum that accompanies the music. 

Comprised of primarily guitar and vocal, you may not quite expect such experimental textures from this album, but it does a fantastic job of riding the line between acoustic indie rock and experimental ambient textural sound art, giving us subtle riffs and strummed out harmonies with softly intimate vocal that is placed in unusual environments which feel like fuzzy representations of wood paneled mobile homes and dusty baseball practice fields. And this is the element of the album that sticks with me so profoundly. It feels like memorabilia, like artifacts of the past, like something tangible and intangible at the same time. 

Between the two sides of this tape, I found the first half to be a bit darker. “Febrão súbito em conceição” is  emblematic of this darker tone with highly abstract synths and something sounds like an organ playing slightly sour chords that are oscillated to an almost absurd degree as an acoustic guitar is strummed in a rather upbeat manner in the background. “Muito bem” has a similar theme with its acoustic guitar usage but it is contextualize in a warmer environment that sounds like the end of a summer evening as the sun starts setting. It’s just amazing how these wonderfully washed out scenes are composed in the context of these tracks and I highly recommend giving it a listen for yourself.