Dark Chisme
self-titled
self-released
After seeing Seattle’s Dark Chisme perform this summer at Terminus Festival, two sentiments were repeated in every conversation we had about the band; firstly that they were excellent live, and secondly that it was shocking how good they are considering how long the band has existed. At the time of this writing the duo of Christine Gutierrez and E have been making music as Dark Chisme for about a year, but you’d honestly never know it listening to their self-titled debut. Fusing modern electro-darkwave sounds with latin and techno influences, the group’s music has confidence and poise that would be notable in an established act, much less one this fresh.
Much like their energizing live show, much of the music on the record is truly set off by Gutierrez’s big personality. A standout cut like “Fangs” is solid on its own, the speedy pace and snappy bass and drum programming accented with some touches of latin percussion and organ that give it a genuinely unique flavour. That said, what puts it over the top is Gutierrez’s capacity to sound both disaffected and dramatic through its repeated chorus of “Vampiro /Vampiro”. Similarly, the way she leans in on the chorus of “Yo Puedo Vivir Sin Ti” makes the song’s relatively minimal arrangement over into a anthem, the occasional yelp or shouted “Hey!” injecting some punky charm. She does both foreboding (“Beautiful Obsession Killer”) and strident (“Complicate”) equally well, finding the right mode to make each song feel different and fresh.
To that point, the band’s debut does have some issues with variety in terms of the instrumental side of things. While there are several cuts that use some unconventional ideas and sounds to good effect (“Sombras” has some touches of NRG in its octave-driven bounce, while “La Musica Oscura” goes for driving techno with its synth stabs and wails), there are a few numbers that feel a touch thin in their composition. The duo favour minimalism, letting drums and bass do a lot of heavy lifting and Gutierrez’s voice do a lot of the work when it comes to hooks, an approach which works, but leaves cuts like “Vete De Acqui” and “Cold” feeling paint-by-numbers in terms of their programming. Weirdly the album starts with one of its least impressive songs in “Move”, which would be a passable bit of atonal DJ fodder coming from most dancefloor-leaning darkwave acts, but feels subpar when compared to what you hear Dark Chisme do elsewhere on the record. None of those songs are bad per se, and Gutierrez is just as much of a force on them as she is on any other song, they’re just lesser, which sticks out when the highs here are so very high.
Still, a few exciting cuts aside, there’s something truly, immediately great about Dark Chisme, and it captures a goodly amount of the lightning in a bottle charisma that the band have on stage. No doubt some of the songs have already caught on with DJs in your town or DJ stream of choice, and listening to the record it’s easy to get excited about the project’s prospects; as a debut it sounds like a band who aren’t just ready to go to the next level, but arrived and made it their home before most of us had ever heard of them. If this was year one, can you even imagine what year two might bring? Recommended.
