Argentina

Thela were a relatively short-lived trio from Auckland who cottoned on to the pleasure of guitar strings vibrating in intimate consort. Argentina, their second album, was recorded in New York in 1996, with drummer and percussionist Tom Surgal as co-producer. His influence seemed to be one of streamlining the explorations of guitarists Dean Roberts and Dion Workman, and drummer Paul Douglas (aka Rosy Parlane), such that the five pieces on this album are remarkably focused; see the chiming, lulling guitar of the second track, or the great arcs of drone that slide across the fourth track, with Douglas’s drums marking out rhythms that circle around and comment on the humming, huffing masses of tone that the guitarists send into the air. It’s a little like a slow motion This Heat, if they’d collaborated with minimal pioneers Remko Scha and Arnold Dreyblatt.