Time and Energy are led by Brennan Roach and Jorge Rios, two Orange County pals who recorded their loop-based album Open Channels in the Santa Ana, CA, Ad Arts Building. That title isn’t just a touch of cheekiness, either; Rios recently told OC Weekly that their music is shaped by “jiu-jitsu, yoga, meditating, and practicing trumpet.”
That latter component doesn’t necessarily appear on “Ajai Alai,” the Open Channels cut we’re proud to be premiering today, but the duo’s sonic flexibility is on full display. The dots of warm keyboard and skittering, jazz-inflected drumming recalls Tortoise circa TNT, while Rios and Roach’s vocals trace absent-minded melodies over back-masked noise and atonal guitar. Still, “Ajai Alai” is hardly a mess; as with any expert collage, its disparate pulses unite cleanly into a single signal.
Open Channels dropped last October on a cassette-only release accompanied by an art book designed by Michael Ziobrowski, featuring photography by Freddy Medina. It will be re-released to major streaming services on April 8.
