Pablo’s Eye: Spring Break Vinyl LP Pablo’s Eye

Essential mood music from criminally underrated Belgian experimental outfit Pablo’s Eye compiled by archival music lovers STROOM. A sure shot for anyone who’s into that chorus guitar and drum machine ethno-pop sound of the 80s (curiously though, all of these tracks are from the 90s) – Antena, Durutti Column, and especially the Uneven Paths collection on Music From Memory. Spring Break tumbles further into the vivid world teased to us on that comp’s first track, for which Axel Libeert, Marie Mandi and guitarist Thierry Royo are responsible as Nightfall In Camp, a short-lived project that predates Pablo’s Eye. Spring Break cherrypicks the best moments from five Pablo CDs released between 1991 and 1999, weaving them together like a lost underground classic that lilts weightlessly between sleepy guitar reverberations and atmospheric synth / sampler passages, weeping strings, tribal drums and sax, with Mandi’s alluring monólogas españolas lending an inimitable human allure to the outfit’s kaleidoscopic studio freneticism. Libeert and Mandi are a mixed couple, but that’s not them on the album cover: while preparing for this release, STROOM art director Nana Esi accidentally transposed two separate photos of her parents – also a mixed couple – on top of one another and with the band’s blessing, this became the cover for the record. This marks the first time any of these tracks have been available on vinyl; housed in full color pic sleeve with detailed liner notes on the back, recommended.

• black vinyl pressing
• 8 previously CD-only tracks on vinyl for the first time
• music label: STROOM 2018

reviewed by Chinese Food Lover 10/2019