{"id":98004,"date":"2025-01-24T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=98004"},"modified":"2025-02-06T08:31:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T16:31:13","slug":"track-by-track-with-del-toros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/track-by-track-with-del-toros\/","title":{"rendered":"Track by Track with Del-Toros"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monochrome Breakdown: Track by Track w\/del-Toros b<\/strong>y Matt Hutchison<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years of covering del-Toros, the notion I’ve repeated without any hyperbole behind the statement is that these guys don’t create the same record twice. Five records comprising five unique worlds upon first listen. That’s a hard fact. With the ideas these guys put into their songwriting and how their results are booming polyphonies of reverb over kaleidoscopic chord structures, it’s unjust and plain wrong to pigeonhole this band. You can’t hard label them as a surf, post, space, or stoner rock band. They’re an amalgamation of all four, a pariah of sorts in the world of instrumental rock music. And hey, that doesn’t faze them, for they’ve created something truly their own. One of my favorite aspects of these guys is that I can’t name a single band to give a comparison to. Each record is a body constructed via instrumentation: pulsating basslines controlling the musical blood flow, acidic guitarwork driving its consciousness and imagination, and the drum work acting as the supporting spinal column of the overall being, maintaining the nervous system with its cadence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their new album,\u00a0Stainless,\u00a0<\/em>comes out today. With this release, the Dutch trio evolves into a quartet with the addition of keys to broaden and brighten their sound. Continuing to write and perform in their instrumental vein, founders Sicco Roukema and Guido Bruin broke down the mechanics of the new record\u2019s seven tracks to show us how these four are musically tic.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cInto Diola\u201d <\/strong>– Every del-Toros rehearsal starts with a warm-up jam. Dylan [Does], the \u2018new guy,\u2019 records everything, and usually, we\u2019re pretty surprised about what happens at the moment. The first track combines two jams: something Indian and another that could have been a Tool bassline, hence the anagram title: India Tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLowriders\u201d <\/strong>– This track has the warm Californian lowrider vibe, but this high joyride ends up in a car chase and ignoring stop signs. The surf influences are present but in a form that we never heard before. Call it prog-surf or post-stoner, or just sit back and enjoy the ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGroinswab\u201d <\/strong>– It\u2019s a pretty dirty song in more than one way. The video pretty much represents our thoughts about the story, but you\u2019re more than welcome to come up with your own interpretation.  Our producer, Sebastiaan van Bijlevelt really pushed the dynamics to the max. Enjoy, but beware, this weird death waltz could be your last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEast Jesus\u201d <\/strong>– This was the first song we started working on after returning from the United States.  Of course, we were influenced in more ways during our tour through California. This is the low desert at its best: wide, weird, and desolate. The title refers to East Jesus, an artistic desert community around the Salton Sea. We read that East Jesus was also a slang term for someone who\u2019s gotten off the beaten path. That sounded a bit like the idea we had with this new album. We had to do something different again than what we did on our previous records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBrainmelt\u201d <\/strong>– No comparison to the desert, but even in the Netherlands, it gets hot in our rehearsal studios; sometimes it feels like your brain melts. The dynamics in this song are wild again, but everything is recorded live in the studio with no overdubs. The work of Duane Denison of The Jesus Lizard and Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless influences guitar parts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMezcal Spider\u201d<\/strong> – The working title of this track was \u201cSauza\u2019s Revenge,\u201d dedicated to the god of hangovers. But during the recording, we were drinking Mezcal from coffee cups, and a spider landed in Dylan\u2019s cup. That’s a true story! We rescued him and put him outside of the window, leaving him for dead, but the next morning, the spider was gone, probably with the worst of all hangovers. In the interlude, Dylan plays a de-prepared piano. Yes, the opposite of the famous John Cage version. Instruments were harmed during these recordings!  We think this song is the link with Ten Stories High<\/em>, our previous album. The guitar parts slightly have that surf feeling we used to have but with a different sound. The bass sounds more like eighties new wave with a chorus pedal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo Birds One Stone\u201d<\/strong> – We released this one as the second single. We think it\u2019s the catchiest song on the album by our standards. The song title is because, again, this is a combination of two jams, just like \u201cInto Diola.\u201d The basslines are again influenced by the eighties new wave with lots of chorus and delay. It was very much inspired by the late David Lynch and his universe. So don\u2019t try to over-analyze; just enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stainless<\/em> is out digitally and on vinyl through Down At The Nightclub Records, with orders running through Clear Spot<\/a>. Follow the band online through their website<\/a> and on Instagram<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the del-Toros video for the “Groin Swab”<\/a> single<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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