Utterly wtf and equally captivating, the new album from Delia Beatriz Martínez aka Debit landed on Modern Love today, and it's a wild trip. I'm gonna quote the label on the concept behind this, because it is quite amazing and should be digested as a whole: “The Long Count” is rooted in research Beatriz made into Mayan wind instruments – whistles, ocarinas, flutes and trumpets – using the archive of the Mayan Studies Institute at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, the oldest and largest collection of its kind. Developing a set of digital instruments that could be played using different types of temperaments and scales, Delia processed these sounds using machine learning techniques to shuttle the distant past into our extant artistic universe, peering into Mexico’s pre-colonial history and weaving those ideas into complex tonalities gleaned from musique concrète and contemporary electro-acoustic music. It's hard to describe those sounds, but if there was a record store in Twin Peaks with a crate located between (ehh) World Music and Experimental, well "The Long Count" would sit there. Challenging and mind-bending album. Wow.
Order clear vinyl from Boomkat here. Digital also available there (unfortunately no Bandcamp).