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about this album
After heading Philadelphia’s psychedelic-shoegaze band Stellarscope through a barrage of tasty noise-rock releases, Tommy Lugo has decided it was time to make music as a solo artist. That is not to say that Stellarscope has been pushed to the side for Lugo. Rather, the band remains his main focus, and together Stellarscope continues to create wild and borderline abstract music. Nevertheless, with his own record label and studio at his disposal, Lugo found himself with the means to explore diverging aspects of his craft that Stellarscope has only hinted to in their output. On Alumbra, under the name of Panophonic, Lugo veers off to even more otherworldly territory than Stellarscope. Singing entirely in Spanish (Lugo is of Puerto Rican descent), Lugo utilizes more electronics, drones and atmospherics on Alumbra, creating a haunting, mesmorizing, and at times mournful mood. As on every Stellarscope release, Lugo makes good use of his passionate voice, a tool shoegazers are rarely known for. Right off the bat, on the opening track “Desde El Baranco”, Lugo’s voice slithers in amidst the electronic down-tempo beats and hazy sounds. Throughout Alumbra, Lugo’s Spanish emotion-filled vocals give the CD an exotic feel, and provide a clear melodic continuity and structure to the songs. But don’t be mistaken: Alumbra is all about Lugo’s expert manipulation of sounds into human moods. Listen to the dreamy post-lude of “Veo a La Dejadez”, and the glacial intro to “Enfermedad”. Both songs
