What does Juana Molina sound like?

Experimental folk full of looping audio and unusual song structures.

The review of ‘EXHALO’ by Juana Molina

Always pushing the boundaries of creative and experimental folk, Juana Molina opens up her demos library for ‘EXHALO’. This four track EP contains unfinished demos from Juana’s 2017 album ‘Halo’, alongside a bonus track from the Japanese release of ‘Halo’. The demos were recorded across 2015 and 2016 and returned back to this year to finish them up. As a result, they sound part of the ‘Halo’ world but also slightly rockier and grittier given Molina’s recent exploration of punk.

‘Astro de la luz segunda’ opens the EP as an expansive six-minute symphony. It plays with clicky-clacky percussion, groove-driven bassy guitar rhythms and meandering synths. The middle section shapeshifts from the groove into an ethereal synth and vocal drone prayer before kicking off with crazy, off-kilter synths, guitars and beats again. It personifies everything unique and unusual about how Juana Molina approaches music and is a great track. ‘Invierno’ takes a guitar – detunes it and adds a strange water gurgle instrument around it. The song sounds like we are sliding down a drain plug. First synths, then guitars and piano gurgle and bubble up and down the octaves. It is creepy and purposefully detuned in a melodic and playful way. The song refuses to raise its voice, and neither does Juana – keeping to a hushed tone throughout. It is another hidden gem.

‘vagos lagos’ was previously a bonus track on the Japanese edition of ‘Halo’ and sounds different from the rest of the tracks. It is a short acoustic guitar and vocal piece that gives a direct, round-the-fireplace folk piece. The track stands out as we rarely get a track that is so simple and untreated from Juana Molina. It shows that without all the experimental edges, she can still captivate the listener. Thankfully, bat shit crazy is the default setting and ‘Hope’ returns to that but from an ethereal folk direction. ‘Hope’ is a drifting hazy cloud of smudged vocal glossolalia mixed with nostalgic, wiry electric guitar noodling. It is an ethereal cloud of lightness that feels like a tone poem more than a verse-chorus-verse structured track. It is the least immediate of the EP and considering ‘Halo’ contained a few tracks where Juana sang without words, you can hear the ideas for that portion of the album forming here nicely.

It can be worrying when an artist who has never missed (in my personal opinion) opens the demo vault. Rest assured. These tracks are every bit as fabulous, intricate, intriguing and intoxicating as Juana Molina’s main releases. It offers more insight into the creative process, what clicked at the time and what didn’t. Let us hope this delve into the archives inspires some new material as the ‘Halo’ chapter closes.

Recommended track: Astro de la luz segunda

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