Long-in-the-works second album from Or Sobre Blau, the previously cross-European, now both London dwelling duo of guitarists Andreu G. Serra and Kiran Leonard. Their debut, The Piri Piri Samplers, a set of improvisations made whilst living together in Lisbon, slipped out mostly unnoticed in 2019 but then picked up some wider attention in 2024 when Stroom offered to reissue. It's under the encouragement of that same label that the pair have reunited over half a decade on from those somewhat spontaneous original recordings, and the passage of time has inevitably adjusted their shared focus. Though not entirely leaving behind the avant-/trad-folk impulses of their debut - the nature of their guitar playing seems to lead in such directions - they do nonetheless widen their interests into some unexpected terrain, referencing the intricate technicalities of the Kinsella brothers and Dave Pajo's post-Slint work as Aerial M. Before pressing play, I'd honestly not expected to be hearing such recalibrations of midwest emo and esoteric post-rock, but it does make sense within the context of their experiments with structure and phrasing. Such music is obviously undergoing a bit of a renaissance of late (listen to any given NTS show; peruse the Numero release schedule), as is the 90s as a whole, though what Serra and Leonard do together feels a good deal removed from homage or revivalism - there's a strangeness to their interconnections, evidence of instincts a touch more outre than the standard, switching easily between starry-eyed confessionals ala Tacoma Radar or Crescent, to something looser in form and harder to classify, like 8-minute long centrepiece 'Top of Duboce / Tyne Bridge Crossing' (feat. Enablers' Pete Simonelli). It's in that sense that Making Friends best carries a torch for the true anti-formalist spirit of post-rock.
FFO: Owls, Aerial M, Tacoma Radar, Crescent
