Balún | Something Comes Our Way

Recently, it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day to give a lot of the music I buy/download my full attention. Working, organizing shows, going to shows, searching out music, playing DJ, moving, sleeping, and writing for this damn blog doesn’t leave me enough time to spend with a record as I’d like. It’s like I’m going through albums like one suffering from diarrhea goes through toilet paper.

Take Balún for example, who I eventually get into writing about below. I fell in love with An EP Collection last summer and had good intentions of listening to Something Comes Our Way soon after, but didn’t get around to it until the end of the year. Many albums and many months later, I found myself standing in Chicago’s Reckless Records, and for some reason finally remembered that I wanted to pick up Balún’s debut (they didn’t have it), so I made a mental note and finally downloaded it via iTunes.

Balún is a self-described “electro-acoustic pop outfit” comprised of three classically trained musicians; Angelica Negron, Jose Olivares , and Andres Fontanez. The San Juan, Puerto Rico trio delicately balances the lines between ambient techno, electronica, shoegaze, and pop.

“Inventive electronic” is a phrase I’ve been hearing applied to more and more new music these days. When I hear the term “inventive electronic” I typically think of bands that shaped an entire genre of music, band’s like the Kraftwerk’s, Aphex Twin’s, Squarepusher’s, etc. etc. I wouldn’t label Something Comes Our Way as “inventive” because a lot of the territory the band covers on these 12-tracks has been explored by the likes of Múm, Boards Of Canada, Björk, and Slowdive to name a few. However, Balún has this unique knack for taking what’s been done before and making it sound unique and fresh. The trio is most moving when they allow their music to float around in ambient washes and dreamy atmospherics, which envelop glitchy beats and twinkling delicate melodies. The results are both enlightening and breathtaking.

The band marries an assortment of instruments and sounds on Something Comes Our Way, everything from with lo-fi electronics, found sound, blissed-out synths, toy piano’s, harps, violins, glockenspiel’s, accordians, melodica’s, guitars, drums, and bass. Most of the tracks on the album are instrumental, but Negron lends her innocent vocals to a couple of the songs giving them a childlike playfulness. Along with contributing vocals, Negron also adds violin and melancholy, yet beautiful accordion arrangements to fully flesh out the band’s elaborate sound. Something Comes Our Way is much more than your typical run of the mill bedroom pop, it’s brilliantly crafted, intricate, twinkling, and certainly raises the bar for future indie electronic music.

One-half of Balún has recently relocated to New York City and the band will be making their New York City and East Coast debut on April 5th for FRICTION at the Mercury Lounge. Something Comes Our Way is available from Chicago’s Brilliante Records, both in CD and vinyl formats, and iTunes for the click happy. Check out one of my favorite tracks from the album (“Snol”) below.

Balún  ”Snol” (via Sonorama)

Above image by Valerie Caro (Vcamdesign)