Javier Reyes’ Mestis: Another New Song Clip Posted

T.R.A.M.’s debut album Lingua Franca, a sonic ear-pussy massage of jazz, fusion and metal, came out this year. It seems like forever ago already because it dropped so early in 2012 and so much has happened since, but ’tis true. It’s definitely gonna place on this writer’s year-end list, I can tell you that!

T.R.A.M. / Animals as Leaders guitarist Javier Reyes is a busy man, then: he will release a solo album called Basal Ganglia (calling himself Mestis) on November 27th. In early October we heard about two minutes of a song from the record, and today we get to hear a short clip of another. It isn’t much, but between this and the previously released clip, the picture of what this whole album is going to sound like starts to come into clearer focus:

AAL co-guitarist Tosin Abasi and Morgen Ågren guest on the EP. Matt Garstka (Animals As Leaders’ new drummer) handles drum programming (presumably on the tracks Ågren doesn’t play on), Hector Barez (Calle 13, Bio Ritmo) is the percussionist and David Stout (Marvin Gaye, Juan Gabriel, Smokey Robinson) plays the trombone. Here’s what Reyes has to say about the effort:

Basal Ganglia is an EP that come from several places, and by places, I mean influences. I’ve always wanted to create a style of music that focused on being emotionally exploitive and technically sound, yet simple enough for the average music listener to appreciate. Another influence was using the eight string guitar in a form that is unconventional to the ‘trends’ or independent of characteristics that are found in music styles/genres that have popularized it. Another and important reason was to create a true form of my own independent voice as an artist. To create music that expressed my personality, upbringing, emotions and musical taste.

Pre-order Basal Ganglia here before its release next week.