We first wrote about Tan Cologne back in 2019, describing how debut album Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico saw Taos-based duo Lauren Green and Marissa Macias invoke their surroundings when creating their dream pop sound. “Orbiting around the the titular state, the record excavates the physical and metaphysical layers of the specific location,” as we put it, “digging through strata both natural and supernatural in attempt to represent New Mexico in all its strange, stark beauty.”
Tan Cologne’s subsequent output has worked to further this mission. 2022 saw the release of the sophomore Tan Cologne record, Earth Visions Of Water Spaces, another record preoccupied with the New Mexico desert and how it has changed over geological time. It was typically hypnotic, as encapsulated by lead single ‘Heretic Porcelain’, which turned its attention to the subterranean aspect of the landscape. It did so by “transcending the bodily mundane,” as we put it, “not through some alien rite or extraterrestrial technology but a reconnection to the ancient rhythms in the land and in ourselves.” While more recently, ‘Visitations’ switched its focus skyward, looking to communicate with some extraterrestrial or extradimensional forces in search of ancient truths.
Which is all to say that we’re pretty excited that Tan Cologne are back with another dispatch from the mystical margins of the American southwest. Again released via Labrador, latest single ‘Baja’ continues Tan Cologne’s fascination with the desert landscape, and widens the scope to new climes. Namely those of the title, seeing as the song was recorded in part during a music residency in Baja, Mexico at El Ganzo Records. Rodrigo Montes (bass) and Dylan Hughes (drums, percussion) join to flesh out the sound, with the languid rhythms retaining Tan Cologne’s signature blend of ethereal and tactile textures. It’s another elliptical exploration of two landscapes, focussing not just on the present but also the subliminal remnants of the past and the mysterious forces that bind it all together. With images of lights beneath the earth and the ground itself dissolving into dust, the lyrics could be read as apocalyptic or transcendent, though delivered amid the tranquil sound come to represent something different altogether. A slow sublime etched into the very land for anyone with the time or inclination to look.
Hillside, inside out
Landforms melt around
Sun bath in sun rays
Taken down to the waterway
Walk into the ground
Golden dome of light
In dust, dust
