Video: Hidrogenesse - "Hidroboy"

Hidrogenesse’s newest video commemorates the 15th anniversary of "Hidroboy," first recorded in 1997 and released on the Lujo y Miseria compilation by label Acuarela in 1998. To commemorate, the infamous duo (just announced as part of this year's Festival NRMAL) recorded a new version of the song this year to be released by Austrohúngaro, the label managed by the members of Hidrogenesse themselves. This rework of the track is being published on a limited edition 7” blue flexi disc as part of the label's singles collection series, Golden Greats. “Hidroboy” tells the story of a swimmer who spends a great amount of time in the swimming pool - a devoted athlete with swimsuit who's also worth looking at. Hidrogenesse approaches the song as usual, with loopy and funny lyrics that celebrate the pure electro song, this time, attaching a lot more sound effects to the classic and making it as robust as it has ever been.

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.

Video: Hidrogenesse - "He Falls to Me"

Spain’s most original and bizarre duo is back with a new 5-track EP titled Hidrogenesse versus The Hidden Cameras. You might remember them for their exciting wardrobe, their heels or for that wonderful fluorescent video for “Disfraz de Tigre.” This EP follows their critically acclaimed records Animalitos and Bestiola. Hidrogenesse recently toured around the U.S. and Mexico and announced this homage to Canadian band The Hidden Cameras. Hidrogenesse picked up five tracks from their album Origin:Orphan and reconstructed them. The album will be out next week through Austrohungaro.

Video: La Bien Querida - "9.6"

I must admit that listening to “9.6” for the first time threw me off guard; it was way too far from what La Bien Querida had done with her demos and it sounded weird. Romancero is not only growing on people’s minds, it’s actually transcending as one of the year’s best pop albums and I should say “9.6” is one of its best tracks along with “Bendita”, “Corpus Christi” and “Ya No.” This video is directed by Luis Cervero who at this point, should be handed some kind of award for his awesome videos. This hot new single has also been remixed by Guille Milkyway (La Casa Azul) and Hidrogenesse, can’t wait to hear both, too bad the guys from Elefant Records are so 90ish they only stream songs through Real Player. And oh yes, that's Joe Crepusculo (looking hot) in the video.

Club Fonograma Features: Hidrogenesse

There are certain artists that inspire this blog in one way or another, Spanish favorites Carlos & Genis have played a big part on how we envision music and its much needed balance with visuals at the time of presenting it to others. Hidrogenesse covers Remedios Amaya, with a song that participated in the Eurovision contest more almost 30 years ago. “Quien maneja mi barca” is like that beautiful song I once heard at church as a child, and it got stocked in my head regardless of how my beliefs have matured. This is part of project Rewind 2, a fun place where bands around the world pay tribute to an important song from the past, “a flight to the sounds of yesterday.”

From the release:

Por qué habéis escojido este viaje en particular?

Es una canción que siempre nos ha gustado sin enterder por qué nos gustaba. Pensamos que haciendo una versión la entenderiamos mejor.

Nostalgia o tributo?
Tributo a una canción moderna, preciosa y de mensaje enigmático.

Club Fonograma Features: 
HIDROGENESSE. 
Track: "Quien maneja mi barca" 
Album: None / Project Rewind 2
Country: Spain
Label: Austrohungaro
>>> MP3
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Some of our favorites tell us their favorites... best of 2008

Don’t get tired of Best of the Year lists so soon (there’s much to come), as promised, we asked our favorite artists of the year to tell us their favorites. A big bunch of artists didn’t respond and so we don’t like them anymore, just kidding, we know how busy people are. But very special thanks to those that did help us out. We asked for a Top 3 or a Top 5, limited to albums made in Iberoamerica. Notice the presence of Hello Seahorse!, a band I absolutely love and was part of my Top 10 of 2007, but I realize the album got a commercial release just this year and so most people would consider it a 2008 production.

AUSTIN TV. One of our favorite bands and Mexico’s most important band today. Fontana Bella is a spellbinding absolute masterpiece that will for sure provide us with some singles for our year’s best songs of the year. We can’t wait for their next one, quality assured.

• ·         Mexico, 1982. – Hummersqueal
  
• ·         La Cura- Raton Perez
  
• ·         Vicente Gayo
  
• ·         Hoy a las Ocho EP – Hello Seahorse!
  
• ·         Well, Well, Mr. Whale – Suave as Hell 

HIDROGENESSE. They were my musical radicals last year, a spot now replaced by their fellow Joe Crepusculo, which happens to be one of their favorites this year. Their last album Animalitos is great and had very little attention in the Americas, hopefully it won’t happen with Bestiola, which made my list this year too.

• ·         En la isla de las bufandas - Lidia Damunt
  
• ·         Escuela de Zebras / Supercrepus - Joe Crepusculo
  
• ·         Pianistico – Single

JOVENES Y SEXYS. They made my 4^th favorite album of the year, and shockingly all of their choices ended up in my list, wonderful taste chicos! (note that they sent their list way before my post). They are currently busy playing in Mexico, for those lucky ones living there enjoy their sexy melodic pop.

• ·         Alegranza! – El Guincho
  
• ·         Un Dia – Juana Molina
  
• ·         Presente – Ulises Hadjis
  
• ·         Fledermaus – Domingo en Llamas
  
• ·         Bam Bam – Bam Bam 

JUAN MANUEL TORREBLANCA. He was featured as Artist of the Week back in May, we are very happy to know that he is finally recording an EP which should be out next year. He’s a great singer-songwriter that happens to enjoy great music too.

• ·         Quieres Estar Solo – Pol
  
• ·         MTV Unplugged – Julieta Venegas
  
• ·         Mediocre – Ximena Sarinana

LOS FANCY FREE. This is Jean’s favorite Mexican band along with Austin TV, I love them too. I was a bit confused on the dates of the two volumes of Never Greens and so I excluded them from my list, but they were on Jean’s top 10 list. This is one of the most exciting and energetic acts to see in concert.

• ·         De Repente – Monna Bell (re-edicion)
  
• ·         Heartbeats – Los Guanabana
  
• ·         Rocanrolandia – Los Margaritos
  
• ·         Percusiones – Gustavo Pimentel
  
• ·         Down! – Mockinpoint
  
• ·         Taras Bulba – Jessy Bulbo
  
• ·         Homanaje – Brownout

MARCELO CUNNING. His selection of music always intrigues me, same would go to his partner Amylu from Nacotheque, New York's hottest party hosts. 

• ·         Bestiola – Hidrogenesse
  
• ·         Taras Bulba – Jessy Bulbo
  
• ·         Manuel del Perfecto Cardiaco – Virus
  
• ·         La Reina del Palenke – Afrodita
  
• ·         Debut – Davila 666
  

QUIERO CLUB. Their sophomore album Nueva America is truly dynamic and Luis Ezquivel was nice enough to represent his band and send us his also dynamic list.

• ·         MTV Unplugged – Julieta Venegas
  
• ·         Contrabanda – Pato Machete
  
• ·         Hoy alas Ocho EP – Hello Seahorse!
  
• ·         EP – Los Butcherettes

TWEETY GONZALEZ. Nowdays a top producer, Sonic 360 released a Greatest Hits album for his now dissolved electropop act Acida. Honestly, we didn’t know about Acida until this record, and the album is impressive to say the least. Tweety tells us that while he was listing he couldn’t be too objective.

• ·         Mediocre – Ximena Sarinana
  
• ·         Los Senderos Amarillos – Loli Molina
  
• ·         Un Manana – Luis Alberto Spinetta
  
• ·         Barracuda – Kinky
  
• ·         Pon en practica tu ley – Lucas Marti

ULISES HADJIS. He quickly became a favorite, and is still one of those I’m digesting. Presente made my list at #26 and his single “Lunes” is getting lots of hits at our Rocola. He is currently playing along Jovenes y Sexys in Mexico and includes Lisandro Aristimuno in his selections, another one from my 2007 list.

• ·         39 – Lisandro Aristimuno
  
• ·         Sou – Marcelo Camelo
  
• ·         Bruno EP – Jovenes y Sexys
  
• ·         Avion – No Lo Soporto
  
• ·         Papa – Varias Artistas 
  

MONARETA. Another one that made my list, they are part of an electro-tropical hybrid that bring much of Colombia's powerhouse. They gave us a list of international artists that included Vampire Weekend, Ratatat, Be Your Own Pet, Dub Specialist, The Bug, Roland Alphonso and Menahan Street Band. monamo

• ·         Tijuana Sound Machine – Nortec Presents Bostich + Fussible
  

Bestiola, Hidrogenesse

BESTIOLA, HIDROGENESSE
Austrohungaro, Spain ****
Rating: 83
By Carlos Reyes

Hidrogenesse is yet another great band from Spain’s current indie scene. Their music might be too hipster for many, they are known for alienating the purists and putting a big smile on the experimental followers. They sing in Spanish and Catalan (Spain’s second language) and sometimes they just let the music communicate their thoughts. They were virtually unknown until their last album Animalitos (2007), which I found unusual, bizarre and simply uplifting. Bestiola is a continuation of Animalitos and way more experimental than any of their previous works. The album itself presents very little new material but does a solid job making a cohesive album full of color and roundness. The kind of album that works perfectly when playing it on Windows Media Player and its chromatic visualizations. Genis Segarra and Carlos Ballesteros are simply unique, sometimes they seem to have child-like personalities, and other times they’re simply weird. First single “Schloss” is full of lasers and groundbreaking clashes of bytes. The song reminds me of their anthem hit “Vuelve Conmigo a Italia” (also included here), songs designed to be perceived as audiovisual pieces. My favorite track in the album is “Fuig Llop Fuig Llop Fuig”, a playful song that brought the best and the worst of my childhood. Hidrogenesse really doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before, perhaps because their biggest influences come from Euro countries such as Germany and Hungary. In their last album they wrote about many animals, including ponis and tigers, the title of Bestiola refers to “the little beasts”, to the disfigurations they have made out of their previous versions. They make fantastic videos too; I’m still magnetized to their colorful Disfraz de Tigre video. Don’t make Bestiola your first experience with Hidrogenesse; I suggest you first digest Animalitos and have Bestiola as a dessert.

Buy it @ amazon.com

♫♫♫ "Schloss"
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