“Mark Matos re-invents Western Exotica… highly recommended.”
–LA Weekly
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“This is country music, of a sort, but what country is up for debate, perhaps it’s a land that only Van Santos and his listeners inhabit, full of crows on fence posts, wide-eyed in the sun, looking for carrion. Imagine being in the film Paris, Texas hanging out with Harry Dean Stanton… nibbling on peyote chips and squinting in the moonlight. The somber “The Flight” owes much to the Giant Sand universe, just with mariachi-nylon guitars and a theremin. “Agua Fria” begins with some Dean Wareham/Luna guitar, and moves in its own slow but relentless pace, taking you a little further down the road.
By the time “Homecoming King” ends this all-too brief journey, with its plaintive chords, far-away harmonica and organ, you definitely know you have experienced something new, something unexpected.”
-Ink 19
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“Suggests an alternative future for Beck, sometime after 1997’s Mutations… well done.”
-All Music Guide
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“Trans Van Santos is Bill Callahan filtered through the Meat Puppets during their early phase when ingesting LSD while in the studio was a regular occurrence… While there are no shortage of folk acts in the present, Matos finds a way to infuse the psychedlic into it in a way that not many have pulled off successfully.”
-Surviving The Golden Age
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“quieted folk ballads offering solemn emotions and intricate notes placed here and there. It’s a place of respite for those looking to escape the buzzing noise of all that surrounds them, requiring a careful listener to fully submerge themselves in the listening experience. ”
Autonomous Music Preservation Society 