Otracami: Runoff Album Review from Pitchfork

“Water flows through Camila Ortiz’s second record as Otracami. The Brooklyn-based songwriter compares someone—a lover, perhaps—to “standing water,” describes them as “clear as the water” that “runs down my throat.” Liquid shape-shifts in the environment around her: There’s a puddle on the floor, a plume of steam, a pile of snow that “breaks off like breadcrumbs.” Runoff is named for the currents that collect when precipitation or irrigation provide more water than the earth can absorb. Fittingly, Ortiz’s spectral yet sturdy songs inspect questions of excess and interiority, accumulating new ideas as they move forward with fluid grace.

“Ortiz has said many of Runoff’s songs describe a time in her life when she was “trying out leaving for the first time”—a process that sometimes felt liberating and other times forced a retreat. The narrators of these songs are often navigating the distance between uncertainty and assuredness—recounting ambiguous touches, half-remembered dreams, unasked questions. But a couple of Runoff’s standout tracks blend her personal experience with literary sources, and Ortiz has a knack for drawing these fantastical inspirations back down to earth.”

Read the full review at pitchfork.com.