With their debut album in 2018, Mode, Puerto Rico's Epilogio carved out a thoroughly contemporary place within a lineage of Latin psych rock and disco. Formed a few years back, the quartet operated from smaller venues on tours of Mexico at a time when rock was being overshadowed by Latin trap, distinguishing themselves in their Geordi La Forge-esque. masks and all-white tracksuits. Tracks like “Sonido Infinito”, “Submarina Club” and “Otro Nivel” channeled inspiration from 70s Argentinian rockers Almendra and Pescado Rabioso along with dream pop and acid jazz into a sleek, subdued funk.
Five years later, the team is applying its retro obsessions to more ambitious goals Chrome Rx, a concept album about a special pill that lulls those who take it into a deep sleep full of fantastical dreams. They lean into the setup with indulgence, using it to alchemize sounds and genres: bolero interludes between surf-rock riffs. glam-metal guitar hooks and echoes of 80s new wave morphing into gloomy emo.
In continuation of the exhibition “La Pastilla de Tus Sueños, Pt. 1” (“The Pill of Your Dreams, Pt. 1”), the horn fanfare of “Pirámide” kicks off the night with a fusion of indie rock and electric sitar, courtesy of Peré Oudav. Peppered with references to heat, hallucinations and the pyramids, the song evokes an unusual desert landscape, an idea underlined by René Laloux's visuals. his music video. From this backdrop they shift to the pastoral '60s harmonies of “Hangar,” whose folky stings make it easy to picture Epilogio playing from a quaint fairground gazebo. “12AM,” by contrast, harnesses the arena-rock energy with crunchy drums and bluesy guitars, before morphing into a slick Tame Impala-esque shuffle accented by guitarist Marco Torres' cool croon.
Epilogio has released most of it Chrome RxHis tracks as singles for a year, and rightly so, the album feels like a collection of A-sides. “Circuito por Milan” and “Platicar” are tailor-made to slay live, so much so that they re-recorded the latter to include an extended jam they had done at the end of the gig. The ethereal “Molecular” marries funky wah-wah with chillout, while the solemn “Los Cuervos” – featuring guest vocals from Chango Menas of the now-disbanded band Índigo – pulls back the sheet and confirms what's really gnawing at its melancholy Epilogio: heartbreak of course, as always. It's all fun and games until you remember what you're trying to get away from. Beneath fantastical lyrics that outline the album's dream world—filled with explorers, racecar drivers, secret agents, and spacemen—lies a lurking angst: These are adventures meant for two.
