Really very lovely second long player from Mexico City’s Tia Rosa, who you might recall from their debut on the much missed Inscrutable imprint back in 2024. That first record was a good one, but Thirteen Automatic Dreams is an undoubted step up. No bells or whistles or superior budget or production values. Just the sound of a group confidently taking to their sound, which, for the record, is the kind of synth-led minimalist pop that for some reason most now seem to clumsily get wrong. Not this lot, who keep it sharp and to the point with the right combination of semi-disaffected vocals (take note: an absolute must for the genre) and perfectly rendered drum machine clatter and rudimentary synth buzz and whirr. The synthpop binary goes as such - if it’s not ebullient then it must be dystopian. Well, Tia Rosa are its third, and probably best, invention: the romantic dreamer, easily at home amongst the likes of Anna Domino, Carol and Carla Dal Forno. "The frogs went to sleep this afternoon; they started dreaming" goes the first line of the press release. Tia Roso know the frogs are on to something.
FFO: Carla Dal Forno, Young Marble Giants, Anna Domino, Carol
