Hermanos Gutiérrez Trade the Desert for the Andes on 'Los Ojos Del Cóndor'
Alejandro Gutiérrez told Easy Eye Sound what the title is doing: “The condor is the bird of the Andes. It’s like seeing something from that perspective and appreciating the beauty.” That altitude is the whole organizing idea, and the brothers built the record’s sound to match it.
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: There is barely a bass guitar in the conventional sense. The floor here is the nylon-string guitar — the one FLOOD notes was a gift from the brothers’ father — and the charango, an Andean lute, sitting above it. Dan Auerbach, producing at his own Easy Eye Sound in Nashville for the third time with them, adds organ rather than low-end, which keeps the bottom of these tracks acoustic and slightly unsteady in a way a bass amp would have flattened.
The Spatial Dynamics: No Depression’s Christopher Hislop described the two-guitar architecture better than a spec sheet could: “The tandem guitar work remains as intricately intertwined as ever: one guitar laying down a rhythmic, steady foundation like footfalls on a winding mountain path, while the other glides overhead like the condor itself.” Lap-steel handles the glide. FLOOD’s A.D. Amorosi heard “windy hints of Pat Metheny’s As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls and Bill Frisell’s Ghost Town” in the space around it all.
Standout Performance
The title track, where the pulse finally steps forward. Amorosi singled out “the dancing, daring pulses of the record’s title track” — it is the one place the brothers let rhythm rather than atmosphere lead, and it lands harder for being surrounded by restraint.
Why It’s Certified
Because everyone who has written about it heard the same thing. FLOOD: “their always-dusted, forlorn cinematic expanse is given greater breadth and interwoven liveliness on Los Ojos del Cóndor.” No Depression, on the pacing: “The album never rushes to show off or scale its heights; instead, it moves with an unyielding, deliberate rhythm that honors the sheer scale of the Andes.” Far Out, four stars: “The album becomes a real triumph of immersion, placing us alongside Alejandro and Estevan as we glide over the Andes.”
Start at “Canto Andino.” Stay for “Tren Macho.”