The Intimacy Factor

As a setting for writer Marcelo Cohen's meta-texts, the music on Factor Burzaco's II is filled with unease, derived in part from the dark and dissonant electro-acoustic drones cropping up here and there, but also from the music's volatility, how it erupts in sudden bursts of noise and rhythm, even flirting with punky rock without ever quite breaking into a sweat. This Argentinian project is the brainchild of composer/orchestrator/producer Abel Gilbert, who plays no musical instrument here but employs 16 musicians to realize his musical vision, which occasionally (particularly late in the program on a track like "Straviko") seems like a 21st century update of Henry Cow circa Unrest. That touchstone of '70s art rock was essentially an instrumental endeavor, however, and here the dominant voice is in fact a voice – that of vocalist Carolina Restuccia, who provides much of the album's appeal and even accessibility.