Helado Negro
PHASOR
4AD
In quick succession since the release of 2009’s Awe Owe, Ecuadorian-American producer and vocalist Roberto Carlos Lange and his Helado Negro alter ego created tapestries of sound touching on folksy ambient-inspired pop and poetry dedicated to his Floridan youth that eventually morphed into recordings touched by Latin-continuum identity (2016's Private Energy and tracks like “Young, Latin and Proud” and “It’s My Brown Skin”) and immigrant heritage (2019’s This Is How You Smile). By the time Helado reached the highly underrated Far In of 2021—and, now, PHASOR—his work has reached deeper within the self (his self?) with stories of individualism and once-hidden powers revealed, and an even greater tie to electronic music and how it can be best manipulated to suit one’s emotional lyrical output.
In cheery dedication to Lupe Lopez (a Mexican-American genius amplifier builder who worked with Fender) and electronic minimalist composer Pauline Oliveros, PHASOR tracks such as “LFO Lupe Finds Oliveros)” focus fantastically on the concept of focus with the type of loving detail model-makers and miniature train set builders achieve. The bubbling, homey “I Just Want to Wake Up with You” was developed with the quarked-out Sal-Mar Construction generative synthesizer developed by composer Salvatore Martirano, and contains the gentle feeling you had hanging with your dad at Radio Shack.
The simple joy and wonder of childhood that filled Helado’s earlier albums grow up and grow more complex on the whimsical closer “Es Una Fantasia”—a sensation you can understand whether you know the Portuguese language or not. The easy, breezing harmonics of “Best for You and Me” and “Wake Up with You” portray two opposing yet close-knit sides of intimacy—the forlorn and lost, then the playfully accepting—within a rainbow’s end of cooly, kinky rhythms and jumpy soundscapes. By tying everything together in neat bows without eschewing his usual brand of musical and lyrical experimentation, Helado Negro has made the most interactive project of his career so far.
