Where have you been Juana? Five years after an outstanding contribution to the Rudo y Cursi soundtrack and the otherworldly album Un Día (the title track of which still knocks our socks off for its sheer alien id), the Argentine ex-comedienne (there's a comic book villain for you) has dropped the first single from upcoming album, Wed 21. "Eras" doesn't sound immediately too distant from Molina's last offerings, but it's tighter, not only in time but in its ideas. While the tracks on Un Día were allowed to unwind (sometimes to the point of languishing), "Eras" doesn't linger (though it's no less complex).
Hollow beats introduce drones, high hat, and what sounds like a mouth harp made of rubber bands, building layers of lace. Molina creates holes: spaces of sound that make each new listen reveal something new about the shape of the track. As soon as you think you're listening to electronic, there's a bass moving the track through jazz via blues, but always skewed by Molina's intense, yet oddly laconic, vocals and pulsating (kinda manic) rhythm. By the three minute mark, you feel like you've heard three songs. Those holes are rabbit-like; it's easy to slip down one and lose concentration, like Alice hypnotized by the golden afternoon. And at 3:20 you drift off counting sheep/bars, before being woken by a deep exhale. It's like the physical manifestation of letting five years of bottled up creativity out. Ahhh...there you are, Juana.