Emerging from the same tight-knit Mexico City scene that gave us Mabe Fratti, Titanic, and Amor Muere, Phét Phét Phét is led by Jarrett Gilgore, who played saxophone on Fratti’s album Se Ve Desde Aquí, and features guitarist I. la Católica and drummer Gibrán Andrade, who round out her studio and live ensembles. Their debut album, Shimmer, naturally shares certain similarities with other records from the same crew—sumptuous electro-acoustic textures, soaring harmonies, and an unpretentious grace— while also drawing from classical minimalism and spiritual jazz. On the album’s slow and stately title track, Gilgore’s layered woodwinds swirl into billowing, richly colored chords; I. la Católica alternates between blushing sunrise tones and flickering acoustic Brazilian accents. (Andrade, as always, is the secret bedrock, unflashy yet irreplaceable.) Fratti turns up in the song’s second half intoning a quiet spoken-word verse, something we’ve never heard from her before. “In the absence of conflicts,” she murmurs, “A world appears and develops.” It’s a hopeful song: a scale model of concord rendered in neatly interlocking parts.
