Juana Molina

Son  | Domino
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  June 20, 2006
3.0 3.0 Stars


NO SINGER-SONGWRITER MELANCHOLY : from Juana Molina, and that’s more than a little refreshing.
This Argentine electro-folk singer used to be a TV comedy actor in her native South America, but you wouldn’t know it from the delicate, cerebral tone poetry on the third album she’s released in the US since 2003. Molina makes her home at the juicy intersection where acoustic instruments meet computerized texture; she’ll begin with an intricate guitar figure, then decorate the riff with whispery synth squiggles and sampled nature sounds before layering her understated vocals on top. The approach seems more methodical than instinctive: Son exudes the studied calm of a laboratory technician engaged in heavy-duty experimentation. Which doesn’t mean there’s no emotion — a few of her melodies here are gut-punchingly gorgeous. But she’s not selling the typical singer-songwriter’s first-person melancholy, and right now that’s more than a little refreshing.

On the Web
Juana Molina: http://www.juanamolina.com/

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