City of Mirrors

Dos Santos are based in Chicago, but as the five-piece's surnames/nicknames – Chavez, Villarreal, ‘Maestro’ Vale, Garza, Karagianis – indicate, this is a Latinx project. If the relevant border is physically remote, it's always there, ghosting through the songs. Opener ‘A Shot in the Dark’ is an almost ambient chant with a lead vocal that's Mexican in sonorities, Inca-Peruvian in intentionality. ‘Alma Cósmica’ is a Calexico-ish desert rock-pop song, with requisite tremolo and sliding twang. A shimmying riff and vintage sound effects on ‘A Tu Lado’ reminded me of Manu Chao, Lila Downs, perhaps Ojos de Brujo. Ten more tracks try out different fusions and rhythms, modes and moods.

What holds the 13-song sequence together is a stripped-back treatment, a downbeat, minor key inflection, and superb production. Bandleader Alex Chavez has called the album ‘an assemblage… glimpses of tradition… reflections on our collective present.’ This prismatic quality is a weakness as well as a strength. Dos Santos have some great ideas but they don't really peak all that often; ‘Ghost. Me.’, which splices Radiohead maudlin on to Gustavo Cerati grandiose is the best song. An intriguing, occasionally intense reflection of the reality of many Latin Americans in the US in 2021, City of Mirrors is wilfully hard to place. Have a listen. Originality isn't actually that common.