In 2020, the brilliant Melbourne / Naarm-based label, Efficient Space, reissued Spanish guitar outfit, Bélver Yin`s 1991 debut, Luz Bel. The imprint now returns to the band`s back catalogue with the previously unreleased, Para Mi Madre. 

I`m not sure when this set, basically a solo outing for founder Pedro Luis Ortega Sanchez, was recorded but, like its predecessor, its another real gift for any heads who feel starved of new Robin Guthrie / Cocteau Twins records. A collection of glacial, icy soundscapes, sculpted from layers of romantic 6-string arcs, the music within rings with reverb that rivals Robin`s productions, and playing that echoes both The Durutti Column`s Vini Reilly and The Cure`s Robert Smith. Specifically Vini`s heartfelt homages to his mentor, Factory Records` Tony Wilson, and Smith`s masterpiece, Disintegration. ¡Que sensación tan extraña!, for example, is a chlled-out, blissed-out, kissed-out love boat, a drift in a secluded shallow bay. A slow swooning waltz of tremolo vapour trails. The sound of `80s indie-rockers falling in love for the first time. The very stuff that serenaded Liz Fraser`s Lorem Ipsum lullabies. In my book, this isn’t shoegaze, it`s not noisy enough, but instead takes its cues from the sounds that spawned, inspired shoegaze. Full of real feeling, its high-ceilinged, cathedral sonics are soaked in nostalgia, a sad urgency, rather than feedback. The totally captivating ¿Quién te va a querer ahora? Is perhaps the album`s most melancholy moment. Fragile frequencies wrestled from the angst-ridden, wracked, thrash.

Drum machines double the drama in a couple of places. On Ayer como hoy they`re a score for a cinematic late night drive. On Una vida por delante (Candela´s song) they create a cathartic, crashing, tumbling, tide. Composed as a gift for Pedro`s late mother, melodies and themes evolve across the 10 tracks, and I don’t think your supposed to pick standouts. Instead the pieces spin in sequence, as a perfect, beautiful, parting suite.

Bélver Yin’s Para Mi Madre is out now on Efficient Space.