José Luis Aguado and Frank Rudow (both also in Manta Ray) are back after four years with 2, a sober and mysterious album influenced by blues, post-rock and the borderline dissecting of the mysteries within the human heart and brain. Bitter and nihilistic lyrics with touches of fragility, emotional comma or dying feelings; a musical concept that is based on apparent sobriety, that remains firm without tensing the strings too much; introspective and mathematical inspiration and mysterious ambiguity (we can never decide whether it is a disappointed, tragic or comical point of view), are the personal traits of Viva las Vegas, the project of Jose Luis Aguado, Frank Rudow and Ismael Maimuny, which positions itself opposite Manta Ray, the members other band. Weve said mathematical, because a constant feature of this new album of the Gijón-based band is its constant search for captivating the listeners senses. The whole record is constructed on repetitive musical landscapes in which we find almost subliminal reverbs. But despite the references to an exact science, the feeling remains that we are faced with a piece of work comparable to those robots that suffer because they arent human, and whose ignorance of this wish together with the suffering it produces is what brings them close to flesh and bone beings. In fact, after listening to the ten tracks of 2, one is left with a sense of tension, of bubbling neurones, of scattered feeling, like playing chess after a game of snakes and ladders. This album progresses in circles, pensive rhythms, disturbing breaks (some songs seem like theyre electrified, suspended, like a capital letter in brackets), and a borderline atmosphere throughout the album. This record includes lullabies, instrumental songs, gospel music, lyrics in English and Spanish, aborted crescendos and original soundtracks that dont need a film to come into existence. Someone said that Blues is about not trusting someone who put his hands on his heart when he assures you he´s telling the truth about something, and thats why Viva las Vegas, who whatever way you look at it play blues, or post-blues, or something like positioning themselves halfway between tradition and the desire to experiment, dont go along signposted roads looking out on suburban landscape divided by fences. They dont go for the fast track and they prefer to take shortcuts in which they find other shortcuts that lead to unknown pathways. Does this mean that 2 is a conceptual record? Of course not, given that all its pores are open and it evolves like a living organism. Ive come to claim the right / to use cynicism as a tool / to carry on carrying on, sings Josele in one of the albums best songs. Its the logical consequence to the lead theme of the record: the permanent clash of innocence and evil both in their wide-raging scales-, cleanliness and dirt, truth and lies. In the end, we can only take decisions from a certain perspective. To capture our disillusion and put it in a record that pays homage to individualism, life in the trenches and scepticism. Yes, all in one.
