Making Friends by Or Sobre Blau

For fans of Caroline, Duster, the later work of Lou Reed, krautrock, and that one friend you only see once every couple years but you still think of as one of the most important people in your life, Making Friends by Or Sobre Blau tackles the complicated beauty of adult long-distance friendship using an electronically-augmented, Iberian-influenced version of the London post rock style. Guitar leads linger in emotional ambiguity, tucking their suspended arpeggios under a cool blanket of chorus effects as various sampled flourishes and auxiliary instruments add to this comforting yet somewhat uneasy environment. Through the course of lives spent apart, the two friends in this story share a bit of awkwardness as they come back into contact, an uncomfortable friction which both understand as entirely necessary to re-join into a rich in-person connection. Even within the darkest, most precarious moments of this record, the genuine love between friends radiates out with intense clarity, melting our hearts and reminding us to call that one person we all really should talk to a bit more often.