Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Ciudad de Tar — Liminal
(Bandcamp Pueblo Nuevo PN243, 2025, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-08-19

Liminal Cover art

Ciudad de Tar is a duo from Santiago, Chile that creates music blending electronic rock and post-rock in a very appealing way. Coming into Liminal without any expectations, the listener hears synthesizers and electronic percussion, and it would make sense to expect things to carry on in a similar vein, with sequences, rhythms, and melodies that take after Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre. But as the music progresses, it becomes clear that Marco Avilez and José Tomás Molina have more in mind than just that, as the music builds up with dramatic percussion and increasing density in the arrangements. The flow of the music is very much in the realm of groups like Mono and Sigur Rós, taking their instrumental music in a very cinematic direction and augmenting the synths and drum machines with guitar, bass, and clarinet. The eight tracks on the album are all under six minutes in length, with the exception of “Glaciares,” which is a hair over ten, and I find these lengths just right — no musical idea ever overstays its welcome. Probably my favorite track is “Tronadura,” which has one of the densest arrangements. Guitar patterns and synth sequences mesh into a thick bubbling cauldron of rhythms, with distorted bass, noisy drum samples, and overdriven guitar melodies. There’s a balance between the dramatic dynamics of post-rock and the complexities of progressive rock, all rendered in a context of electronics. It’s worth investigating for a wide range of listeners.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Ciudad de Tar

More info
http://ciudaddetar.bandcamp.com/album/liminal-2025

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.