Music Box | Tristeza

Mike Newmark Assistant Arts Editor

Tristeza
A Colores
[Better Looking]
2.5 stars

The San Diego/Mexico-based post-rock group Tristeza needed to jump over a few hurdles with the release of A Colores in November 2005. First, they had to prove to whomever still cared that they could get along without their guitarist and co-founder Jimmy LaValle, who ditched Tristeza in 2003 to focus on his solo project, the Album Leaf. Next, they needed to remain relevant enough in the post-rock genre, which has been dying a slow, lumbering death since the turn of the century. Finally, they had to address the critics who derided their last squeaky-clean LP, Dream Signals in Full Circles, for bordering on fluff and hokey new-age.

Taken together, this is quite a daunting task, especially since Tristeza works within the stagnating framework of Tortoise-inspired post-rock. Heck, even Tortoise couldn’t get it right when they released the hackneyed, disappointing It’s All Around You in 2004.

But while Tristeza sounds ready to take on the challenge, the results on A Colores rarely come up aces. The band tries hard, but A Colores is too overwrought for its own good, with supposedly “pretty” elements weaving through each other to create a feeling of numbness.
The album’s press release boasts that A Colores is “a colorful journey beyond instrumental post-rock, delving into the darker realms of modern psychedelia.” I wouldn’t go that far; truth be told, A Colores is about as sinister as a partially cloudy day. Major keys have been swapped for minor ones, and that’s about it. There are a great many guitar figures, keyboard lines, and drum patterns running through the album, but none of them are particularly colorful, dark or psychedelic, as the press release would have you believe.

Another sinker for A Colores is the absence of LaValle—something that the new Tristeza probably hoped nobody would notice. It wouldn’t seem too difficult to fill LaValle’s shoes; after all, Jimmy LaValle was no Jimi Hendrix. New guitarist Alison Ables is fine, but listening to her play makes me think that LaValle had a kind of je ne sais quoi charisma that he took with him to the Album Leaf.

Granted, Tristeza sounds more like a full band now, one in which nearly equal weight is given to each instrument (keyboards come out on top). But it quickly becomes clear that LaValle was Tristeza’s driving force, and without him, the band is left to flounder.

Only “Bromas,” their first single, hints at the band’s full potential. The song is built around a tense, repeated guitar pluck as bass, overdubbed, squalled-out guitar, electronic vibraphones and (comparatively) busy drums wrap around the original figure. Never mind that Do Make Say Think could do a finer job of it; “Bromas” creates suspense rarely heard on a Tristeza album and keeps the listener attuned to its wonderfully small developments.

Sadly, “Bromas” is the first song on the disc, and the following hour pales in comparison. These songs were written in Mexico and San Diego, but they sound like the usual been-there-done-that Chicago swill, thanks to the band’s over-reliance on post-rock clichés and their ignorance of the idea that more is, in fact, less. A Colores is not so much bad as it is horribly inoffensive, so for those who like that sort of thing, hop on board. Just remember to bring some extra Skittles with you—it’s going to be a long and colorless ride.