In Between Thoughts...A New World

Album review

Guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela return with their first album since 2019's Grammy-winning Mettavolution. In 2021, they issued an arrangement of Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G Minor K.183 and received another Grammy nod for a cover of Metallica's "The Struggle Within." In Between Thoughts...A New World was written, recorded, and produced in their Ixtapa, Mexico studio. It showcases a significant expansion of their core sound, adding orchestral and electronic textures. The music was inspired by spiritual reflection and the Hindu text the Advaita Vedanta. Rooted in the concept of non-dualism, it depicts a single, infinite, indivisible reality of pure consciousness. All objects and "selves" derive their identifiable -- not independent -- existence from this interconnected reality. Opener "True Nature" employs slight digital delay, reverb, and funky polyrhythms in a complex melody framed by Gabriela Quintero's frenetic, furious strumming. String sounds embellish the bridge before a funky Niles Rodgers-esque vamp frames Rodrigo Sanchez's blazing fingerstyle surf leads. "The Eye That Catches the Dream" whispers in with gorgeous, lyric guitar interplay, and a synth bubbles, sounding alternately like a jaw's harp and a Brazilian cuica. In the bridge, the percussive, Rodgers'-inspired vamping shifts toward rock & roll as orchestral strings, a high-pitched synth, and Quintero's unshakeable polyrhythmic attack ground it. Single "Egoland" bridges wah-wah funk, spiky rock, surf, and an arid, dramatic orchestral drama that channels Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western cues before becoming its own soaring overture. The trippy third single, "Descending to Nowhere," was inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky's iconic surreal film La Montaña Sagrada (The Holy Mountain). From its funky rhumba rhythms, sweeping ambient textures, and orchestral drones, it moves across two different lyric guitar patterns, profoundly altering rhythm, harmony, and dynamic. "The Ride of the Mind" is all drama. Percussion, sonics, and orchestral effects frame the guitar's intricate interplay head-to-head as powerful cascading strings add ballast to the tension. "Broken Rage" offers rockist aggression as Rodrigo lays down distorted leads atop Gabriela's buoyant vamp and the strings react in harmonic counterpoint, swelling in grooves before breaking glass signifies its nadir. "Finding Myself Leads Me to You" is the set's most intense track. A warbling synth bubbles in the foreground and is met by Quintero drumming on the guitar's body. When Sanchez enters, their interplay intersects in differing chord patterns, prodded and underscored by strings. The closing title number begins as a charging rocker with distorted orchestral effects and triple-timed strumming from Quintero as Sanchez lays down aggressive, shard-like leads. It gallops frantically as the guitars layer in funk and blues overtones before finding the seam to reveal a swelling, transformative anthem. The creative vision behind In Between Thoughts...A New World is at once ambitious and mercurial. This album moves further afield musically and sonically than Mettavolution. The duo embrace complex Latin and Afro-Cuban rhythms and sophisticated harmonic ideas from jazz and classical music while integrating the additional resources with imagination, taste, and powerful articulation.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo