Stream Terror/Cactus’s “Impulsos”

With the focus on end-of-year lists, holidays, etc it can be easy for late-year releases to slip under the radar. One of my favorite releases of 2018 I only have just heard about recently – Terror/Cactus’s Impulsos, which dropped back in December.

The first time I heard Impulsos was on the radio on a pre-dawn drive. I heard “La Quebrada” playing at low volume and initially thought I was hearing desert blues, perhaps a new Tinariwen release. However once the distinctly Latin sounds of the keyboards ramped up it became quickly evident that not only was this something different, it was something pretty awesome.

It turns out that Terror/Cactus is a “psychedelic electro cumbia” project/band, the driving force behind which is Seattle’s Martín Selasco. While the aforementioned single from his latest released does contain elements of desert blues, Impulsos as a whole dips into a number of other genres, with Cumbia being the theme that links it all together. There are elements of dub, indigenous music, psychedelic rock, and electronica to name a few. Selasco also includes field recordings in his songs which gives them a very terrestrial vibe. While some psychedelic music shoots for the stars, Terror/Cactus’s feels very grounded in the terra firma.

You can stream all of Impulsos at Terror/Cactus’s bandcamp page or stream below.

— Jon