For their second album, Mus' Fran Gayo and Mónica Vacas jettisoned all traces of their electronic music fixation, opting instead to refurbish their ambient hymnals with piano, acoustic guitar, organ, and generous swathes of reverb. Recorded at the duo's home and sung entirely in Vacas' native Asturias,
El Naval is an archetypal slowcore record ghosted with faint traces of traditional Western European music; imagine
Low or
Mazzy Star in the tailing wind of a tequila hangover, simmering under Spanish dusk. Opener "Al Debalu" struts on a gently plucked acoustic guitar line; moody instrumental centerpiece "Caseria" cajoles into a glassy slumber invoked solely for the caterwauling "Cuesta" to destroy; finally, closer "Encofraos" reinforces the album's wistful fog, drawing a curtain both weightless and wise on the proceedings. The end impression is of the auditory equivalent of a dream-spiked half-sleep incurred by too much wine and too little stress. ~ Mark Pytlik