“Rasgos Particulares” is Javier Moraga’s debut release in Modismos catalogue. Its electronic influence can be traced back many years, through diverse publications inside specialized netlabels like EPA Sonidos and Pueblo Nuevo. He is part of the group Mr & Oso, while also working at Radio Valentin Letelier, the University of Valparaiso’s radio station. He produces the program “Sala de Maquinas,” as well as producing direct presentations and selects synthetic sounds for the station through it’s network, among other things. “Rasgos Particulares,” present delivery could be a sample about Moraga’s interests with contemporary electronic, where certain tone quality is acidic and minimal, as small condiments, they go extending upon alternating atmospheric layers, sustained on defragmented pulses, but traces of the music continue. These particular traits are expressed in the track “Tierno Salvaje” dedicated to the memory of Kurt, a figure that insufflated the spirit of the underground scene of Viña Del Mar and Valparaíso in the nineties, which opens the 52 minutes of music. The other tracks of the album spin perfectly, traveling through titles such as “Miaucheck,” “Arena Lunar (a lo salvaje)”, “Dame Cinco”, at certain moments there is something dark, with minor scales in the tones, a cinematic fiction of the digital reality that we consume daily, but allows us to unwind, yet expresses a world where the organic, virgin and primitive can coexist, as expressed in “Cayehuque (localidad)”. But the continuous progression in “Simulación Colectiva,” runs as a transit towards the final melody of “Rasgos Particulares,” from which a flash of faint light seems to emanate; it comes to a definitive closing with “Resolana.” Which offers a halo of light, in where the final harmony, reiterative and kaleidoscopic, solve all anguish, torment and conflict preceding, balancing the darkness.

René Cevasco Matthei,
Chile 2018.