Helado Negro

What happens when you record an electro-tropical album during the winter, alone in the Connecticut woods? The titular "Singing Owl" perhaps whispered the answer to Roberto Lange as he crafted this quietly blithe second album under his Helado Negro alias. Unlike his debut, Awe Owe, the rhythms borrow less from classic, Jobim-esque Tropicália and instead echo the serpentine bass and muted drum pulse of late, late night club grooves. The more brightly lit tunes that open the album ("Globitos" and "Regresa"), at times, scatter and refract their light(ness) into momentary rainbows of noise. Lange's vocals plug into the mood, flowing with equal measures of wistfulness and reserved sensuality. It's an album that finds a twitchy equilibrium between South American influence and urbane atmosphere. Lange possesses the lone voice in both wildernesses, generating twilight warmth amongst the leafless trees.