Tristeza - A Colores (Expanded Edition) (2009)

Today's new music review is a re-release of one of my favorite post rock albums. Tristeza is a band from California playing some wonderful guitar and keyboard based music. This album was originally recorded in 2005 just after the loss of founding member Jimmy LaValle in Tijuana, but instead of simply giving up, the remaining members added a new keyboardist and continued in a similar direction as previous releases. In my opinion, this is the shining gem of their discography. Tristeza keeps it rock on A Colors, not adding much in the way of electronic elements like a lot of post rock bands in the second half of the decade. The tracks are marvellous, starting off simple but building to an explosion of mellow, laid back, meandering instrumental beauty. They simply wander along, travelling from melody to melody, (usually) quickly enough to not get boring but slowly enough that you can fully explore all of the sounds in each well developed riff. The band also makes the most of having a keyboard and guitar; often having the lead part switch off between the two, or using the keyboard to give the album more of an ethereal feel while still staying very true to post rock. It's a great album in that it has a nice chill sound to be on when you're just reading, or working, or something like that where it takes a background spot but has plenty going on to deem a full listen when you just want to listen to some great, relaxing music. As for what you get with the expanded edition: Three new tracks are added, along with two remixes of probably my two favorite songs from the whole album - the intro track Bromas and Abrazo Distante. Bromas (extended mix) is pretty much just a longer version of the original, which is great seeing as how it was one of my favorite songs - and the extra minute and a half adds in some interesting little bits of noise elements and some other subtle changes while staying true to the original melody of the song (pretty important when dealing with post rock). Enveloped is a bit of drone/post rock song with a static drone going in the background so if you can deal with that for three minutes, you might like it... it was my least favorite of the entire album, actually. Pingle Language is a bit of a slow song as well, but it grows decently and was a nice addition. And March of the Lies is... wait! Vocals??? Yep, it's the only vocals you'll hear anywhere on the album. Lastly Abrazo Distante (Nobody Remix) remixes Abrazo Distante, which is really cool. Because while I like the band shying away from electronic elements in their songs, I have no problem with the aforementioned effects being dominant in a remix. So personally, I really liked the extra songs; I enjoyed hearing some vocals, and the extended mix and remix were great, only Enveloped wasn't very good. While it may not have done anything particularly unique in terms of sound compared to other post rock bands, it does have something else going for it - it does it better than most others. The one flaw - the name of the band means sadness in Spanish and Portuguese, and the music is never sad, or haunting, or anything like that at all... Overall, though, a great album that holds my interest more than most of its kind (though it should be noted if you're reading; take this with a tiny grain of salt as I'm not a big fan of post rock).