Ernest Gonzales
Been Meaning To Tell You
Where’s Devyn? She better be smitten that her husband has concocted a multimedia and multi-layered Russian doll of a present for her–all for the sake of bettering inter-couple communication. Ernest Gonzales, the sentimental electronic beats producer from San Antonio, has dedicated this sophomore album to his better half, quoting: “These songs are all the things I’ve been meaning to tell you… all the words, thoughts, and emotions that are so hard for me to express.” So don’t be expecting any Texas harsh, desert-crusted psychedelia–this is more fields and forest music, lush electronica crafted with some awesome, mutant pop songwriting.
“Dancing In The Snow” opens the album with a sense of familiarity, a beautiful, icy ditty that evokes tracks of the past. Part Postal Service, actually more Dntel, with Gonzales’ immaculate composition providing a delicate, instrumental patchwork which is neither lightweight Owl City indie electronica nor too arty, but instead some real bass drops bullying the twee harmonies. His marriage of shattered guitars and low end are reminiscent of edIT’s pre-Glitch Mob classic “Crying Over Pros For No Reason,” and there’s a gifted craftsmanship, like “Of Snowdonia”-era Daedelus, commanding the ability to create perfectly twisted hooks and stuttering drums from a mass of disparate elements.
By the way, this procession of musical floats gone-by doesn’t showcase the record’s full scope. Ernest Gonzales’ emotional sincerity is also channeled through the epic, post-rock rattlings of “Opening a Lost Sacred Door” and even some dubby, harpsichord techno with “Psychedlic Bellhop.” And then he goes and invites all his friends.
“Been Meaning To Tell You” is paired with a banging remix album 16-tracks-deep of earnest covers from beat dudes like Take, Yppah, matthewdavid, CYNE, and Daedelus. Gonzales himself wrestles his masked, heavyweight electro alias Mexicans With Guns. And then there are the 14 visual artists, asked to create their interpretations inspired by musical sentiment and bound in a hard back book–from Martin Allais to Alexis Ziritt and Archan Nair from New Delhi, India on the cover art. Gets you thinking, what have you done for your girl lately?
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