Article Contributed by Calabro Music Media
Published on 2026-07-25
Riviera Gaz :: Photography by Lucca Miranda
Riviera Gaz share “Must Be,” the second single from Catacroma, out August 21 via Vampire Blues, with an accompanying music video.
Riviera Gaz, the multinational trio featuring guitarist/vocalist Gustavo Riviera, multi-instrumentalist Paulo Kishimoto, and drummer Steve Shelley, have shared “Must Be,” the second single and accompanying video from their forthcoming studio album, Catacroma, due August 21 via Shelley’s Vampire Blues imprint.
Riviera is the leader of the long-running Brazilian rock outfit Forgotten Boys, while Kishimoto has performed with Pitty and Forgotten Boys. Shelley is best known as the drummer for Sonic Youth.
“The song was inspired by a stay at The Splendor in Montevideo, Uruguay, which was formerly called Hotel Cervantes. I stayed in room 205, which at the time I didn’t know was the setting for Julio Cortázar’s short story ‘The Condemned Door,’ where the character Petrone hears a child moaning from behind a door inside the room,” says Riviera. “The music was originally composed as an acoustic folk song, but it evolved into a high-energy, suspenseful film score.”
Riviera’s surreal lyrics encapsulate the abstract menace of the song: “It must be room 205, la puerta sigue cerrada, over and over,” while a hypnotic forward momentum is conjured by Kishimoto and Shelley’s ironclad groove.
“Must Be” is a standout among the 11 tracks on Catacroma, which weave together a psychedelic collective consciousness where fuzzy riffs, glam-rock energy, fearless studio experimentation, and Can-inspired grooves melt together to form new, mercurial elements. Throughout the record, Riviera Gaz conjures an elevated expression of sound, stretching straight-ahead rock songs into strange and sprawling cosmic experiences.
Riviera Gaz’s sophomore effort, Catacroma, is an aesthetic world of its own design. Its 11 tracks are a hall of funhouse mirrors where killer songs break apart and come back together organically, never taking expected turns and always ending up somewhere even more interesting than where they began.
Catacroma is now available to pre-order on vinyl and digitally.
