Jorge Velez has quietly been posting up both new music and (in the case of the MMT8 releases) archival music through a label he runs called TEMPLO over on bandcamp. With so much reissuing going on these days, reissues that are often quite expensive, it’s a refreshing change of pace to see someone tapping the past to share work that hasn’t seen the light of day publicly up to this point. The most recent of these digital releases to be posted is the MMT8 Archives 2. It’s a six-song release of music recorded between 1996 and 2000.
Things start off with the dreamy and hazy lead off track Jenese, an aesthetic of blissed out melodies carried over into the tape hiss saturated Primavera. Velez cleans things up for Soundcrown, and this ten minute beauty is a real standout. A blend of plucked harp and electronic pulses, Soundcrown is underpinned with strong percussion that patiently evolves over the course of the track. It’s a serious beauty.
It’s super refreshing to see someone putting out work in this way from their archives. It would be great to see other artists and labels following suit rather than choosing to go the reissue route. I want to hear something new, something that maybe slipped through the cracks at the time of production, something that people aren’t already coveting. I’ve spent 2015 firmly sticking to the rule that I will not buy represses, I slipped up a couple of times, Candido will do that to you. It’s a decision that’s forced me to look elsewhere for music that hasn’t been hyped endlessly or grown stale and frankly, it’s a decision I’m really glad I made. It’s gotten me to explore and dig like I hadn’t in awhile and because of that, I’ve found my own gems, one being this release.
As an aside, you should definitely follow his Instagram account. His sketches and studies are really wonderful.