Erra Fagus is another Miguel A. García project, this time a duo with the accomplished guitarist Javier Pedreira, and their Atrikulunka (TRIPLE BATH TRB 042) was received in August 2014. It’s a good meeting that’s been documented on these 2013 studio dates; the two of them seem to melt their respective sounds together like buckets of nuclear waste in slow fusion, one sound constantly merging into the other. Pedreira is another new name in these quarters, but I’m slowly coming to appreciate the way he rattles and shakes his guitar around to produce odd clonks, underwater floinks, and semi-mechanical glunges. He seems to be approaching the instrument as though it’s the most grotesque invention realised by man. He’s pretending to be an alien who doesn’t recognise its purpose, and thinks it might be some form of kitchen implement, farm tool, or even an item of apparel. All the same, Pedreira remains restrained in tumbling his unusual remarks out of the bread-bin, and his perplexing non-statements are delivered abstemiously. As to García, his customary dead-eye stare is most appropriate in the situation, allowing him to seethe patiently with grumbling electronic scowls as he eyes his companion with a degree of suspicion. The cover painting by Elena Aitzoka may suggest a meeting of minds, even an erotic embrace between the pair, but don’t you believe it – they’re at the point of fisticuffs for the duration of this tense encounter, anger bubbling up from the lower depths.
