Staff Reviews

Tera Melos - Patagonian Rats

Review by Kyle Ellison

Technicality and pop music don’t really mix, but this record remains a charming and at times convincing attempt to fuse the two. »

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tera melos' first proper full-length, patagonian rats is packed with melodic hooks and jabs that on paper might seem to defy the band's experimental edge. there's even clear and distinct vocals throughout -- a first for the band, where vocals, if any, were previously awash with distortion and layered in the mix. but, particulars aside, patagonian rats is the type of album that sticks with you. long-running sacramento genre-benders tera melos have released the first of several videos created to accompany the trio's forthcoming full-length, patagonian rats. the video for the song "the skin surf" -- directed by behn fannin (the melvins, nurses) -- shows the band at its quirky, clever finest. the wily melodies and scurrying rhythms of patagonian rats will be released this fall. have tera melos gone pop? well, no....but yes. much like the band's intricate and complex song structures, it's not quite that simple. tera melos' songs have traditionally been densely packed with so many wild shifts of time signature and chord structures that guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist nick reinhart jokes they were sounds that, 'only wizards could decipher.' patagonian rats is packed with melodic hooks and jabs that on paper might seem to defy the band's experimental edge. there's even clear and distinct vocals throughout -- a first for the band, where vocals, if any, were previously awash with distortion and layered in the mix. but, particulars aside, patagonian rats is the type of album that sticks with you. occasionally, 'pop' music has really meant daring music. like the beach boys in the late 60s, the clash in the 70s, devo in the 80s, flaming lips in the 90s -- the greatest artists have dared to make music that is hooky while also being groundbreaking. patagonian rats evokes images of bizarre and fantastic alternate realities. think about the first time you heard 'good vibrations' by the beach boys; jarring collisions of a cappella harmonies, tremolo-washed bass and chirping theremin. the key is not to understand it, but to let the music transform everyday reality into something new.
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