Máscaras' New EP Is Prog Rock for Punk Attention Spans

Like its 2015 full-length, "El Móran" captures the immediacy of three good homies jamming together in a room, without having to sit through the actual jamming.

Máscras, El Móran (Party Damage)

[PSYCH ON THE RUN] Instrumental trio Máscaras likes to describe its sound as "maximalist indigenous psych," but "prog rock for punk attention spans" works, too. While it draws from genres that generally take the long road toward expressing an idea—acid-rock, psych-rock, Latin dance music—the band prefers to cut straight to the chase, locking into a groove with little buildup, quickly sketching out some melodies, then moving on before the listener's mind has any time to wander. Like its 2015 full-length, Máscaras' new EP, El Móran, captures the immediacy of three good homies jamming together in a room, without having to sit through the actual jamming. At just under five minutes, the opening title track is the epic of the band's discography so far, guitarist Carlos Segovia's needlepoint riffing lighting a fuse that detonates an avalanche of wah pedal before trailing out on a sizzling fusion coda. "Kiksadi" rides Theo Craig's circular fuzz-bass pattern, hot organ stabs and drummer Papi Fimbres' fevered polyrhythmic stuttering, while the final three tracks blitz by in increasingly frantic succession. Not every song distinguishes itself, but taken as a piece, it's a dizzying thrill. 

SEE IT: Máscaras plays The Know, 3728 NE Sandy Blvd., with Jo Passed, Laser Background and Bitch'n, on Thursday, May 25. 8 pm. $9. 21+.

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