This story was originally published in The Stranger’s July 2026 Issue.
Terror/Cactus
Colapso
(Share It Music)
Terror/Cactus’s Impulsos was one of the most interesting PNW albums of 2018, a spicy fusion of cumbia, wonky electronic music, and surf rock. And while I’ve caught a few amazing Terror/Cactus performances since, I’d not realized that the project’s catalyst, Argentina-born multi-instrumentalist Martín Selasco, has been so prolific.
T/C’s latest full-length, Colapso, might be their best yet, with many esteemed guests filling out the sound with rich and unusual timbres. Selasco filters Argentine folk, Peruvian chicha, and Colombian cumbia through his postmodern, psychedelic sensibilities, creating vivid hybrids that get you moving and feeling deeply. The press release notes “the record treats collapse not as an endpoint, but as a generative force—an opening through which new forms of expression can emerge.” The nine songs here embody that transformative ethos.
Boosted by Mike Gebhart’s robust drumming, “Ritmo Subversivo” peddles one helluva slinky Latin funk groove, augmented by Selasco’s elastic synth ripples and sinuous guitar riffs that sound Saharan in their nasality. Kate Olson’s woozily wistful sax solo animates the beautifully morose “Calles Vacías,” while her flute breezes through “Discoteca Fugitiva,” a snappy electro-Latino update of spaghetti Western tropes. The fascinating mutations pile up on Colapso, revealing new sonic dialects that sound as natural as primal screams.
Ten percent of Colapso’s proceeds will go to Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
Walkingstick
One
(Kelp Roots)
Local label Kelp Roots snagged my ear in 2024 with tondiue’s Word to the Centipede, a chakra-massaging take on organic electronic music for the mind and body. It was one of the best regional releases of that year, and I vowed to keep a close watch on the imprint’s activities. So when the debut album by Walkingstick arrived, expectations were high. It does not disappoint.
The handiwork of Seattle producer Ruben Griggs, who also plays in the unconventional dub group Travel Agent with Kelp Roots boss Cameron Kelley (aka tondiue), One is the culmination of a decade of rigorous sonic research. How refreshing it is to feel instantly disoriented upon clicking PLAY. You don’t quite know what’s happening or how it’s happening, but you experience the thrill of the unknown. The sound design is evocative of unfathomable ecosystems.
On “2B,” harsh percussion noises and what sounds like someone rhythmically sanding a table could be a microscopic detail from an Autechre track magnified into an electroacoustic diorama. “2H” sounds like an electro-funk joint from the Schematic label trying to escape from a concatenation of woodblock slaps and a hurly-burly of squeaks, rolling ball-bearings, and ghostly murmurs. A somewhat recognizable, even head-nodding beat forms in “2G” amid an array of Doppler effected metallic scrapes, clicks, and watery sighs. Best is “2D,” a swirling miasma of five-dimensional dub that’ll have your ears doing somersaults. Griggs has taken the lessons of Seefeel and Basic Channel and abstracted them into 4k seascapes in which to pleasurably drown.
Neither ambient nor for the club, One is electronic music tailored to stimulate and confound your brain. It’s an eyes-closed, mind-opened séance for adventurous listeners.
See Terror/Cactus at Timber! Outdoor Music Festival in Carnation, WA on July 23.
Seattle-area musicians can send music to [email protected] for possible coverage.
