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A Song of Summer

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma

2017

A Song of Summer

Release Date:  2017

By Pitchfork

Reviewed April 4, 2017

The lead single from On the Echoing Green

Before “A Song of Summer,” it would have been hard to imagine the noise musician Jefre Cantu- Ledesma ripping a face-melting guitar solo. Yet three minutes into the first single from his upcoming record, On the Echoing Green, he lets loose a rapturous guitar riff that’d make Kevin Shields proud. It’s the kind of bellowing shoegaze solo that you air-guitar along to, getting lost in the articulation of each pluck. But Cantu-Ledesma is still an experimental musician, so waves of feedback course off each note and there’s an undercurrent of drone, making for a dense, cloudy terrain of noise. However, the distortion and the static are never acrid; Cantu-Ledesma knows how to make even chaotic moments feel sweet and pillowy.

The other element of surprise on the track is the presence of an affable singer. On Cantu- Ledesma’s last two releases, vocals were more of a spectral presence, hiding in the background or absent entirely. Here, he’s recruited Sobrenadar (aka Paula Garcia) as a vocalist, and her velvety delivery adds an element of leisure to the song. Even though it’s impossible to make out a single word she’s saying, her delivery is magnetic. “A Song of Summer” is an unexpectedly devil-may-care turn for Cantu-Ledesma; who knew he’d make such a convincing rock star?

8:00 PM · Apr 4, 2017