Showing posts with label barcelona. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barcelona. Show all posts
Da Souza - "Voltera"
Spain is already well-represented in many categories of breakout acts, but Da Souza’s youthful vigor has landed them a special place on our radar. The boys from Mallorca return with “Voltera,” an advance single from the forthcoming full-length Gran Salt Endavant. Picking up where last year’s Bossanova infinita EP left off, the song is an assured throwback of indie rock circa 2003 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. This time around Da Souza avoid wall-to-wall jagged guitars and opt for a more evenly-paced delivery with room for cowbells and straightforward jamming. Clear signs of a maturing band and a promising sample that certainly makes the album a must listen.
Gran Salt Endavant will be released February 23 via Famèlic Records.
Video: El Último Vecino – "Tu Casa Nueva"
“Tu Casa Nueva” was released last December as a Maxi-Single CANADA Editorial and rose at once to the top 25 of our Best songs of the year 2014. So it was about time for this stellar synthpop track to be given the video treatment, and for El Último Vecino’s hard-hitting irresistible melodies to resurface. Gerard Alegre Dòria’s decadent, symbolist lyrics (“Todas las espinas que yo tenía en la cabeza / me han sesgado.”), deep and sorrowful tone and pure and immediate rhythms carry a melancholic urgency that sets him apart from other revivalists acts of the moment. Three decades interact here: the coldness of the new wave-esque synths, some rock impulses and an ever oozing dance side. Directed by Gerson Aguerri (who has also worked with El Guincho and Los Massieras), the video merges scattered elements (a rising sun, what could be doric columns, occultism and plant close-ups) reflecting the dizzying eclecticism of EÚV and wittily grasping the links between subject and space, a theme that seems central to Dòria’s work.
Jessica & The Fletchers - "Air Balloon Road"
Jessica & The Fletchers is a noise pop project from (where else?) Barcelona who seem bent on recapturing the spirit of C86 revival through airy and catchy songs that also sound fleshed out quicker than a sugar rush will take to crash. New single "Air Balloon Road" builds on the endearing qualities of last year's split EP with The Prams, taking in a sing-along delivery and backed by distorted and fuzzy melodies. It's no surprise that among the obligatory labels mentioned (Creation, Sarah Records) they also cite Slumberland as part of their influences. This one has the feel of all the early Pains of Being Pure at Heart singles, which is more than enough to put them down as one of the must-see acts for this year's Primavera Sound.
Desert - Envalira EP
Envalira EP, DesertBuenritmo/Minty Fresh, Spain
Rating: 80
by Giovanni Guillén
Oftentimes at Club Fonograma we’ll let entire seasons pass between a record’s release and when we actually come to review it. The delayed writing process exposes the fickle nature of journalistic impressions, consequently turning the whole effort into a daunting task. Even if personal or professional obligations are behind the initial delay, we may still arrive at those frustrating cycles of love and hate, doubting ourselves (“was this actually good?”) to an unnecessary degree. Luckily, time has not weakened our admiration for Barcelona’s Desert, who originally released their debut EP all the way back in June. Envalira still holds up as an ambitious future pop, one that delivers on its etymological promise (the titular name is derived from verbs synonymous with “euphoric” and “spellbinding”) even in such a compact four-song format.
Desert first grabbed our attention in 2012 after the dissolution of Granit gave light to a new project and a hardened but beautiful single (“Camins”). Back then the duo exuded mystery as to their purpose, and it could only be solved with blogger speculations and obligatory comparisons with anything and everything. Cristina Checa and Eloi Caballé have since traded their internet/producer mystique for a more straightforward presentation of their music, embracing pop and electronic templates and revels in its limitless potential.
Side A channels a more kinetic vibe on its two tracks. Opener "Tu ets el so" aims for ascension with a bounce that recalls Grimes’ “Genesis,” only here singer Cristina Checa’s deeper register is the star. Her voice bellows as if encouraged by the claps and tumultuous charge. “Quars” flutters to a calmer place, opening with a hypnotic ring taken from weirdly color-graded 70’s films. As the song finds its footing the colors become more vivid, projecting and emoting with intricate and delicate progressions. Should there be a video in the future it will certainly demand some esoteric choreography, in this way the song is a clear ally to Caroline Polachek’s Ramona Lisa project.
Side B incites the more fragile side of Desert. On the title track and fitting closer, Checa’s voice lulls while transporting us back to 2006 when Javiera Mena’s “Perlas” brought us at the meeting points of precious ignorance and terrifying revelations. Yet the strongest moment on Envalira continues to be where there’s more at stake. I first described the majestic “Saps prou bé” in an earlier post as a “chariot ride through an arid landscape at night.” An image which I think still stands as appropriate but misses the true scale of the track. Most ballads rely on face to face contact to become effective torch songs, and yet “Saps prou bé” with its orbiting unceasing pace gives the impression that we never quite make that connection. In fact, the attempt is as futile as our hopes of reaching celestial bodies that have long-ago disappeared and whose light has barely reached us. Envalira, however, doesn’t mourn this loss. It celebrates that it existed in the first place.
Primavera Sound 2014: Univers, La Entrevista
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| Photo: Giorgia Riguetti |
by Pierre Lestruhaut
The first half of 2014 is almost over, and the debut album from Catalan sensation Univers, L’Estat Natural, still stands as our highest rated album of the year so far. Carlos Reyes declared that "the breaking and sheltering of up-tempo guitars rarely sounds this gorgeous" in his gleeful praising of the Barcelonan group debut. Univers were given the chance to do a small supporting tour for the album, with stops in SXSW and Mexico earlier this year, and more recently with a slot at the Pitchfork Stage at Primavera Sound in their hometown of Barcelona. I had the chance to catch their performance at Parc del Fòrum alongside fonograma colleague Glòria Guirao-Soro, which she wrote about in her recap of the festival. Although we didn’t manage to have a talk with them during the fest (mostly due to my own lack of internet access that coupled with disrupted sleeping patterns following an transatlantic flight), I finally sat down with singer/guitarist Yago Alcover and drummer Aitor Bigas at a café in downtown Barcelona a few days after the festival, where we discussed their debut LP, what playing these big festivals means, the perks of singing in Catalan, and the future of the Barcelonan underground music scene.
Listening to you guys play live for the first time at Primavera Sound, I was gladly surprised at how similar to the record you guys sound live. Did the recording process focus on trying to capture that roughness that’s typical of live shows?
Yago Alcover: Not really, in fact it’s very good you’re telling us this, because this really was a concert that felt like a litmus test to us. We actually didn’t even have a sound tech for Primavera, and these kinds of stages with so much power are always a bit scary. In fact, back when we were starting we always had issues in our live shows, since we always required so much echo effect and so much reverb, it made the sound bounce a lot. We had a sound that wasn’t very concrete and somewhat disperse, and in the end what you heard was percussion and a sort of noise bubble.
Aitor Bigas: It took us some time to discover our sound, especially live, where people were telling us that it still wasn’t all fitting in very well.
YA: When we recorded with Sergio [Pérez from SVPER] we were always facing sound as a challenge. We wanted for instance the guitars to sound somewhat sharp and that it hit you in your face, but of course with the echo it ended up being counter-productive. The album had a lot of work done mostly from the guitars’ point of view, when we finally started to seek a more concrete sound and dedicated a lot of time to finding it. It’s been a long process, so yeah, we’re really glad you’re telling us our live show sounded so faithful to the record, because it’s been really hard for us. It’s always difficult to get a proper handle on the effects, and we’re always struggling to find that balance between the music’s raw power and its more ethereal qualities.
What was it that made you want to record with Sergio Pérez?
AB: We first worked with him on La Pedregada, which was recorded in a single day, really fast, with just us on the studio. We really enjoyed working with him, and although we did consider other producers for the debut LP, we went with Sergio because we already knew him and we liked how he worked. We’ve been really happy with the sound he’s managed to take out of us, and how he’s managed to interpret our ideas as a band. I remember especially the issues with the guitars, which was really crazy but at the same time really fun. We found ourselves experimenting with a thousand different pedals and effects, so it was a really enjoyable process.
YA: Before recording our first EP we were thinking of who could manage to find us a peculiar sound. Of course Sergio had the [FKA] Pegasvs project, and their debut album was pretty much recorded at home. When I heard that record, I remember thinking “Wow! What a sound,” especially after hearing those amazing drums, we always thought that this was the guy who had to record us. He’s a guy who puts together the sound very well and who always surprises you. He’s not the kind of producer who always does things the same way. But it was really listening to Pegasvs that made us decide.
AB: In Pegasvs he recorded all the drums himself, and then played them through a pad with his fingers. He’s a genius. I remember a phrase Yves [Roussel], the guy who mastered the record, told us. That every album Sergio records is a different world of its own. He has a truly unique way of working. Yago, who’s worked with other producers, probably knows best.
YA: Yeah, Sergio has those strikes of genius that you just can’t understand or explain to someone else. And it’s always a plus if he can be an actual active musician.
I remember reading that the LP was written and recorded over a relative short period of time. Do you think that helped to give it that homogenous sound and feeling it has?
AB: Yeah, I think it was right around this time of year last year when we started recording, and focusing entirely on getting this record done, trying to figure out which songs should be included and which should be dumped. But in the end the unifying idea for the album, was that all the songs had to be liked by everyone in the band, and they all had to have a really powerful sound. So perhaps that’s why it feels somewhat homogenous.
YA: I remember that ever since we started playing I told them I was interested in the idea of writing an album in a short time, mostly because of my own previous experiences in other bands. I’ve done albums with songs that were written with a lot of time between them, and they ended up being too heterogeneous. So I wanted our first album to be very compact, one where all the songs came from a precise moment. It’s obviously not a concept album or anything like that, but I really did want our debut to be a sort of cover letter, and that it would stay within certain stylistic boundaries. And there’s of course the mastering and everything, where I think they managed to give all the songs a very similar finishing, so I think that really helped too.
"Paral-lel" was the first song you guys wrote. Why did you decide to have this song in particular included in L’Estat Natural?
AB: "Paral-lel" was the first song Edu [Bujalance] and I did together back when we were sharing a place. The project was only starting, and it was only MIDI drums, guitar lines, it was all very homemade. But despite being the first song, everyone seemed to really like it, even when it was only a demo. We really liked it as well, and felt that it fit in the new LP in both ideas and style. And of course there was the fact that it had been poorly recorded and we wanted to do it justice. It could have ended up not being in the record, and in fact we have a discard from L’Estat Natural that’s probably going to come out as a split 7” soon. There was some arguing around it as well, I used to say “I want this song in the album,” then Yago would say he didn’t want it, but we would always reach an agreement. In the end this is a family.
YA: The song deserved a proper version, and besides it was a very significant song for the band. It was the first song we ever played together.
AB: And it was originally in English.
Speaking of language, how do you guys come to decide what language to sing in? Not only in the case of Univers where you sing in Catalan, but of your other projects where there’s English and Spanish singing as well (Mujeres, Aliment, Piñata).
YA: I think it was all really simple. We were starting to play and just saying “Well we’re going with English right? Right.” And then we thought well what if we try something else? Spanish obviously not, because [the other members] are from the interior of Catalonia, and they’re never going to be in a band that sings in Spanish. But staying away from the territorial issues… we actually thought it could be fun singing in Catalan, but not because we wanted to do things differently. If you think of it, it’s hard to distinguish anything we’re saying regardless of the language we’re singing in anyway. But it’s really beautiful to be able to write in your own language, even more with it being a really small language.
AB: And I don’t think it was that we wanted to innovate or anything. But if you look at it now, a noise pop band doing this type of music in Catalan, that’s not something we’d seen before. And it gave the project some sort of originality even if we weren’t really looking for it initially. Perhaps from an outside perspective it’s a bit harder to understand, but seen from here, singing in Catalan is a really weird thing to do when you consider the kind of music that’s been made in that language. Though sometimes maybe singing in Catalan has closed us some doors.
YA: I don’t think so. In fact I’ve read articles from outside where they say that the whole shtick of the band is that they’re singing in an uncommon language.
I think for some people, it’s given the songs a sort of cryptic value to them. While facing non-Catalan crowds, for instance in SXSW and Mexico, what kind of feedback would you say you got?
YA: Honestly very good. I think people just speak the international language of music, and in the end what people go see is a musical proposal. With Aitor the other day we were listening to a band that sings in Japanese, and I have no idea what they’re saying but they’ve got a sound that I find compelling. Even though it does feel really satisfying to have a proposal that feels really ours because it’s in our language.
AB: And we really haven’t mentioned that the vocals, well, they’re just really another element in the mix, another instrument. They don’t have that much prominence and we use so much reverb that the words just end up being sort of drowned out. It might be different if we were doing more classic pop where you could hear the words a little more.
YA: Yeah, and well the name of the band is in Catalan, the name of the album is in Catalan, so the concept is pretty evident. But I never thought it could end up being seen as something cryptic like you said.
Now that you’ve played at both SXSW and Primavera Sound, do you feel playing these big festivals is a milestone in a band’s career?
YA: Yes of course. Also a challenge, as a band, since you’re facing a situation that’s very different from the ones you were facing back when you were starting -- the small concert rooms, the small local tours. Even though we did play pretty early in the afternoon at Primavera this year, there was still a big crowd for us there. And it’s always very challenging -- you've got a big crowd there, you’ve got the clock against you. I think Primavera has always been a stepping stone festival for many bands.
AB: Being from Barcelona, we’ve been attending the festival for many years, even playing sometimes here and there. Yago had played with Mujeres already. But the fact we played the Pitchfork stage, on a Saturday, in front of that big of a crowd, we really weren’t expecting it. We’re really happy that it happened, as we were to have played at SXSW. We’re very excited for what can come next.
Critics and journalists always like to show off their musical knowledge while describing bands, and I’ve always felt you guys as the midpoint between the distorted beauty of shoegaze and the more simplistic flair of C86. How would you guys describe Univers?
AB: Honestly we all listen to very different music. It’s evident that for this project we were focusing on bands from the C86 style, and some shoegaze bands mostly from Creation Records.
YA: Yeah and I think we’re going towards C86 every time more. That brand of naked pop, with very visible arrangements, melodies that are clearer. At the beginning it seemed like a noisier thing, but I’m getting the feeling the band is going that way right now. Perhaps even a more delicate approach than the one C86 bands had, capturing its more carefree side. I don’t see us becoming a lo-fi band, but something more finite. Maybe also with a tinge of New Wave, the record feels sort of 80's-style, kind of dark actually. We’re a very nostalgic and melancholic band.
AB: But I think the bands from C86 already had that dark side to them. I’ve been listening to Sarah Records a lot recently, and it’s like all the songs are about heartbreak. I can totally see that C86 was a starting point for us, but I think we still sort of managed to bring into our own field and darkened it all a bit more.
The visual aspect of the band (cover arts, videos) is quite remarkable as well; we can see you take care of this very seriously.
YA: Yes. We’ve been very lucky that the people in our entourage, and even ourselves, all come from a background of studying visual-related things. Aitor’s roommate is a photographer, and for instance we’ve got it clear that it’s them we want taking care of our photo shootings.
AB: Actually there’s a funny story about this. I think the first time we were featured in Club Fonograma it was because Giovanni [Guillén] was a fan of our friend Alba Yruela’s photos, and she’s the girl that appears in the cover of "Cavall Daurat". So I think he discovered the band through there, it’s a nice story. And I think in a way for us having a band isn’t really about only making music, it’s something bigger than that. Cover arts, pictures, videos, it ends up being a whole that converges into a music band.
I was reading an interview for Binaural where you were saying that "the crisis was opening a whole new panorama for the underground." What exactly did you mean by that?
YA: When we first touched on that subject, it was in relation to the fact that for some years this city lived a time of tremendous welfare. And I think that somehow affected the underground, because for many people, even from the minute you first showed up, it was pretty easy for you to get started. What that it did was just make us all more comfortable, and a lot of people stopped doing cool things because they had full-time jobs and stuff. But then all of this suddenly came to a halt, we had venues that started closing, bands that weren’t getting paid, people who stopped working, or couldn’t work anymore. So right now, you can really start feeling that people are tremendously pissed off in this city, and that they have a huge hunger for things to happen. I think this is going to be incredibly rewarding for our city for many years, because we had kind of lost that hunger precisely because of the state of well-being that we had.
It’s as is if the crisis environment is being a lot more conducive for people to be creative.
YA: That reflection originally came because we were asked if we felt there were a lot of similar bands coming up, making “noise music,” and I ended up referring to “noise” more in respect to that panorama where I could see a lot of people being pissed off and wanting to do things. I mean today with all the technology there is, you can record from your own bedroom; if you want to do a music project all you need is time or having the need to say something. So right now, I’m seeing a lot more discourse, a lot more ideas, people who are really polishing their craft. It’s become really hard to find a label that can release your stuff, and people have to find ways to self-release it. When you think of the word “underground” that’s exactly what you want. You don’t want people creating an anti-system just because; it requires a complete failure of the system, a system that doesn’t help you or supports you. That’s when people go on to create their own system.
DESERT - "Saps prou bé"
Since DESERT's captivating presentation at SXSW, we count the Barcelona duo's new material as among our most anticipated of the year. June 17th finally marks the release of their debut EP Envalira. New single "Saps prou bé" provides a slice of what we can expect from the four-song release. At a little over six minutes, the track is not exactly a flashy marker to signal their return, which as a result probably got passed over by more impatient listeners. Their loss. "Saps prou bé" is meditative, sure, but also all kinds of majestic. Like a chariot ride through an arid landscape at night. Bumps and clatters of percussion interlace as Cristina Checa's looped ah-oohs call out to the infinite. Who needs to be wowed? This already has us feeling some type of way. Pre-order the EP via Minty Fresh (US) and Buenritmo.
SVPER - "Nuevo Cisne de Piedra"
The band formerly known as Pegasvs is back with a bang. Two years after releasing their incredible debut album, the Barcelonan duo just dropped the first single under their new legally approved name SVPER. Upon first impression, “Nuevo Cisne de Piedra” is classic Pegasvs: there’s the loud chorus/soft verse structure of “El Final de la Noche,” the more supporting yet always soothing voice of Luciana, and there's the unmistakable urgency of their synth lines, progressions, and digressions. While urgency remains the common thread, this new single sees them aiming for previously unseen levels of rapture, even if SVPER had never stood for half measures in any aspect. Unlike every track on Pegasvs, it actually begins with the synth riff that serves as a hook, and the percussion feels more stilted than robotic. Instead of carrying on with their “mythological box of synth crescendos,” SVPER have aimed for an enticing balls-out synthpop epic. Its sonic palette is more reminiscent of campy 80’s-style fonts, yet it mostly welcomes the same nostalgic sparkle and teenage apprehension that’s present in M83’s most poignant synth sagas. Details of a new album haven't been mentioned yet, still “Nuevo Cisne de Piedra” is an impeccable appetizer that will certainly satiate our hunger for more SVPER songs.
Alizzz - Whoa! EP
Arkestra Discos, Spain
Rating: 79
by Pierre Lestruhaut
Of course 2013 was going to finally see the emergence of that one Spaniard contemporary R&B anthem. And of course it was going to be released on Arkestra Discos. Given that their roster has always expressed their admiration for contemporary R&B, it was a matter of time before someone in the label geared up for their own triumphant moment of post-Weeknd R&B (see also: PBR&B). In an era where Miguel asks if you like drugs, Jeremih has girls wanting to fuck him all the time, and The Weeknd really just wants to ride to the sound of snorting yayo, the collaborative effort between Barcelonian producer Alizzz and singer/rapper Kongo Lacosta, “Champagne”, is that one licentious piece of lascivious crooning and luxurious synths that the Galician label had to give out.
Originally set out to be an instrumental ballad, the addition of Kongo Lacosta’s vocals certainly must have added a whole new dimension to the track. Its appeal lies heavily on the “cuando nado entre tus piernas” romantic metaphorical hook, showing that Kongo Lacosta is poetic enough to reframe something that Danny Brown would refer to as “ate that bitch pussy ‘til she squirted like a dolphin.” But the song is called “Champagne,” and it’s ultimately about that one expensive alcoholic drink that's commonly used as a display of conspicuous consumption to attract the opposite sex (“Cuando yo traje champagne el sexo vino detrás”). By the end of the song, Kongo’s voice is melancholic enough to realize that when finally left to yourself with no champagne left to drink, no pussy left to eat, and still high on coke or whatever (“Don’t leave me alone, drogado y sin alcohol”), the only human contact that’s left is the smell of sexual fluids on your fingers.
Alizzz’s 2012 release Loud EP earned him a name as a promising name in the market of Rustie-like digital maximalism, and the laptop producer’s influence is still present on Whoa!. Eponymous track blatantly bluffs the listener with a laid-back synth intro that’s more suited for downtempo yacht rap, before revealing itself to be an epic build-up towards a maximalist drop that’s given a testosterone boost by adding a bro-ish “Whoa!” chant. But gladly enough, the EP’s biggest strength relies in managing to get rid of all the Rustie comparisons. “In Chains” (Alizz - “In Chains” get it?) weaves a polyrhythmic dancefloor banger around a rave synth sample and female R&B coos, while “Turquoise” is all about downtempo lush 80s synths beauty that can only make you wonder how awesome a collaboration between Alizzz and Madrid hip-hop crew Agorazein could end up being.
Although BFlecha just released what’s likely to be the seminal work among the Arkestra catalogue, Whoa! is the proof that the label’s output has not been devoid of minor gems this year. As a whole, Whoa! works so well because it stimulates so many musical g-spots in such a short of amount of time, making it clear that Alizzz is just the kind of producer that can easily have a solid output on the label by consistently putting out his own instrumentals. What we’re really hoping for though, especially after having listened to “Champagne,” is to see him getting more people to sing over his beats. There’s potential for some truly forward-thinking R&B en español here.
Video: Ocellot - “Lonely Friends”
“Lonely Friends” is the first single extracted from Ocellot’s first album Molsa Molsa, just released by catalan independent labels Famèlic and Discos La Gàbia. Ocellot is a four member band based in Barcelona, famous for their psychedelic and colorful live performances, sometimes accompanied by light and video artwork by Lluís Huedo, the director of this video. The clip translates the music into images almost literally, recreating the loneliness transmitted by the lyrics and turning the sound loops into a liquid ambience where the tribal, folk touch of the music is shaped as nudity.
MP3: Lucrecia Dalt - "Glosolalia"
As I told my Fonograma colleagues as soon as I came upon Lucrecia Dalt’s new song and lead track from her upcoming album, Syzygy, we’ve probably been ignoring her for far too long. The Colombian-born, Barcelona-based musician released her sophomore effort, Commotus, last year (and has had her name appear on the blog through collaborations with Los Macuanos and Los Amparito), an album with an apocalyptic cover whose eerie soundscapes and icy bass action earned her comparisons to Angelo Badalementi’s Twin Peaks soundtrack. If there’s one thing the emerging crop of Latin electronic troubadours have excelled at a lot better than Latin folk troubadours is at developing their own signature sonic environment. With her latest track, “Glosolalia,” she crafts yet another puzzling piece that focuses on mood rather than melody and this time feels like a perfect fit for the psychotic tension and uneasy anticipation of Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter. Just as I will be in a few months, Lucrecia Dalt is a civil engineer. And if there’s one thing about the discipline that seems to have overlapped with her music, it’s the understanding of your own environment’s unpredictability and constant evolution, how sometimes one can still be amazed despite years of study and experience. Grab the track on the Soundcloud player below. Syzygy is out on October 15 via Human Ear Music.
Hidrogenesse - "El artista"
Although united by the most elemental of cultural vehicles (language), transatlantic bridges between independent artists from Spain and Hispanic America have always been hard to find, yet seem to gradually flourish with the facilities of the digital world. The news of Barcelonian indie scene mavericks Hidrogenesse teaming up with Txema Novelo and Vale Vergas Discos for their latest video and upcoming single on the label’s always idiosyncratic body of work is certainly one to be causing a certain commotion among music fans of Old and New World alike. Matter of fact is, we didn’t really muster the courage to properly review Hidrogenesse’s 2012 techno pop, intellectually dense concept album, Un dígito binario dudoso: Recital para Alan Turing, despite continuous warnings from Spain’s most trusted tastemakers. “El artista,” though, sees the duo turning up their accessibility levels (without sacrificing their inherent quirkiness) in order to turn in a Glitter-influenced, hook-centric rendition of the independent artist's worst nightmare: fund seeking. Shot in Paris, Txema Novelo’s characteristically contemplative and vintage lens here delivers a rather shaky and claustrophobic rendition of the crowdfunding experience. As it later loses itself in opulent close-ups of various bills, it leaves you with the subtle conclusion that seeking funds is, in and of itself, an art.
Extraperlo - Delirio Específico
Delirio Específico, ExtraperloCanada, Spain
Rating: 84
by Pierre Lestruhaut
The main story arc surrounding Extraperlo’s new record is that after breakthrough album Desayuno Continental, as the band was put on halt while each member went its own separate way to work on different projects (Borja Rosal as guitar player for El Guincho, and Alba Blasi as half of Granit were quick to spring), it also gave them the opportunity to mature and evolve as musicians individually. Added to the fact they’ve now teamed up with Pablo Díaz-Reixa as producer for their latest record Delirio Específico, it seems to explain why the most ear-catching divergence from their previous release is just how much cleaner the whole thing sounds. By association, words like accessibility and polishedness start to pop out, meaning that the framework for Deliro Específico is inherently poppier, relatable, and communal. The equivalent of evolving from warm art house films into lush technicolor sagas.
Working with highly influential musician-turned-producer-du-jour El Guincho, and releasing the record through new home of the cool label Canada after abandoning previous home of the cool Mushroom Pillow, the changes in entourage feel as though they’re simultaneously trying to safely ride the trendiness train, while also aligning themselves with a certain scene and aesthetic that carries a whole ethos of its own. First single “Ardiente Figura” shines not only as one of the best pop songs to come out of Spain this year, but as a relentless fluttering of post-punk, tropicalia, dub, and afrobeat influences consolidated into a riff that shudders your every bone, a hook that pervades your brain, and a bridge that melts your heart. All of this done with admirable restraint, and an impressive congealing of their influences into convincingly original melodies and arrangements.
But for a band that shows such restraint in their performance, the themes throughout the album appear to be rampant with luxuriousness. One could quickly shelve their lyrics as straight-out pop idioms, yet with repeated listens they seem to offer some vivid imagery that’s possibly related to fiery sexuality (“Ardiente Figura” and “A Nivel Carnal”), and seaside rapture (“Las Corrientes del Golfo” and “Viaje a Brasil”). Borja Rosal has allegedly succeeded at his conscious attempt to sound a lot less like Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins, though when his roaring voice gets paired with new-wavey staccato riffage (such as in “Las Corrientes de Golfo”) the Soda Stereo extrapolation CF’s own Gio Guillén mentioned does start to feel a bit inevitable to point at. Alba Blasi’s occasional appearances though, show off a tonal counterpoint that adds considerable breadth to Extraperlo’s palette, a band that here pulls together such elegance and energy from the most disparate of sounds.
Leaving barely any silences between tracks does nothing but reinforce the contrast in cohesiveness between their debut and sophomore records, which points out to the fact that Delirio Específico can be misinterpreted as the effort of a band still working to find their ground and tailoring what’s coming closer to be their dreamed-about sound. But perhaps that’s the whole point of Extraperlo. In an interview for PlayGround, when asked about the possibility of dropping an eventual third record, Borja Rosal stated they would need to find ways to do things differently, in order to keep the creative spirit alive. It’s their own nonconformity that truly defines Extraperlo. And in Delirio Específico, as a band that’s still experimenting with expanding their own palette, they’ve succeeded at admirably looking for new ways to conjure leisure-evoking melodical opulence, afrobeat-inspired guitar licks, and 80’s pad beats into truly stuttering internet-era pop songs.
Piñata - "Llampec"
Ever since Barcelona 5-piece Piñata had a couple of tracks featured in the last editions of our Fonogramáticos series last year, we’ve been eager to see if they could translate their ability at crafting boisterous tropical punk anthems beyond the 3-minute mark. According to their Bandcamp page, the wait could be over as soon as early 2013, when Piñata will be dropping their double EP Amics/Enemics on Hao! Discos and Mama Vinylia. As a teaser from that forthcoming release, they’ve given us new track “Llampec” (Catalan for lightning if I trust my sources), another rollicking number that exceeds every other they have released, at least in terms of shouting, tempo shifting, and catchiness. No longer using the layers of lo-fi, feedback, and distortion as a hideaway for their knack at creating great melodies, “Llampec” sees Piñata take their game up a notch in terms of cleanness, despite the fact we can already envision ourselves singing many of their future tracks next to our favorite shirtless bearded, beer-drinking friends.
Video: Cut Your Hair - "Utah in Pictures"
Part of eclectic Fonogramáticos Vol. 13 last year, Cut Your Hair’s “Utah in Pictures” stood out as everything great recent indie pop had been: grandiose guitar riffs working as addictive hooks in simple song patterns. But, while the North American crop of indie-pop revivalists (Beach Fossils, Beach House, Surfer Blood) would set their collection of breezy tunes as the background for pleasant seaside lethargy, the Catalan trio were instead inspired by decaying images of Salt Lake City they found online. Directed by Barcelona-based photo studio EskenaziEncursiva (collaborative effort between Adriana Eskenazi and Laura Encursiva), the video captures the childlike essence behind the three young characters’ picturesque time together. Restrained in its storytelling, yet unobstructed in its visual expressiveness, the video intends to construct a storyline out of Canada’s trademark frame-to-frame aesthetic exercises. But as it refuses to reveal more about the nature of the intriguing relationship between the characters, it instead leaves us with a mixture of shots somewhere between eye-catching composition and suggestive sensuality. Released by Mushroom Pillow, home of some of the least Spaniard-sounding bands from Spain, “Utah in Pictures” is also the band’s debut single (which features a couple of catchy B-sides as well) and has all the potential to successfully launch Cut Your Hair into English-speaking audiences.
MP3: Esponja - "Fucking Pony"
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