Titanic/I la Catolica/Mabe Fratti – Vidrio

When you listen to Titanic, you feel light-years away from your idea of Mexican music. This is experimental, avant-garde pop from Mexico City’s trendy neighbourhoods. Like electronic music, experimental rock is abundant in the Mexican megalopolis.

Vidrio brings together Mabe Fratti, a Guatemalan singer and cellist based in Mexico City, and multi-instrumentalist Hector Tosta, and immerses us in chamber pop/jazz sung in Spanish.

At times, one imagines oneself in an ecclesiastical celebration with echoing saxophones, at others, in a very obscure jazz club, from which emanates an energy set with disquiet, even anguish. As a counterpoint, there are also moments of gentleness and hope.

In addition to Mabe Fratti’s vocals and cello, there’s Hector Tosta (aka I la Catolica) on guitar, piano and keyboards, Jarrett Gilgore on saxophones and Gibran Andrade on drums. This fairly simple quartet manages to create a very, very special atmosphere.

This album is musically nested, but curiously, it’s probably the most accessible where Mabe Fratti can be heard. The Guatemalan-Mexican composer’s two solo opuses, otherwise very interesting in my humble opinion, are subdued with squealing cellos, dissonance and experimentation of all kinds.

Titanic is the ideal gateway to the highly original space of Mabe Fratti and her two records: Pies sobre la Tierra (2021) and Se Ve Desde Aqui (2022).

The young lady also collaborates with Amor Muere, another techno UFO from Mexico City.

We haven’t heard the last of Mabe Fratti and Vidrio.