Video: Papa Topo - "La Chica Vampira"

Adria & Paulita, the wonder kids from Papa Topo, redeem themselves single after single, while they're at it, they try redefine their music approach. Their well renowned hit "La Chica Vampira" has been given the Single-Release treatment by Elefant Records. This is the second 7'' release from one of Spain's most infectious newcomers. The clip directed by Luis Prieto starts with a glossy B&W cemetery landscape, mourning the death of their 'hate-it-or-love-it' hit "Oso Panda." We've heard a couple of versions of "La Chica Vampira" by now; initially a sort of raw and noise-distorted punk jam, the final cut is polished and more in line with their past hits. While it doesn't offer the eclecticism of the original, it's great to see the young duo reinforcing their sound shell. Last time, they tortured a panda bear, but apparently that wasn't punk enough (the panda comes back for revenge); this time, the band wonderfully exploits images of teenage dilemma, pale faces, dark hair, taxidermia and vampires.

Video: Papa Topo - "Lo Que Me Gusta del Verano"

While some of us were taking a break, Papa Topo released their second video for their best and most defining song, “Lo que me gusta del verano.” This peculiar boy-meets-girl chant really was one of 2010’s summer songs. As we mentioned before, we got tired of “Oso Panda” within a few months, but this one, it’s the real deal. Director Lluis Prieto scopes the song’s bipolar take on those sunny days that bring joy, sweat and that “ice-cream flavor quandary.” The video is a total animated blast, from the coloring to the wardrobe, and the commercial-ready choreography towards the end. If you feel too old watching this, or feel there's too much sugar in it, at least appreciate Adria & Paulita's exuberance. Papa Topo will be releasing an extended 7-track album on Elefant Records later on this year.

Oso Panda, Papa Topo

Oso Panda, Papa Topo
Elefant Records, Spain
Rating: 78
By Carlos Reyes

The latest protégées of renowned Spanish indie label Elefant Records prove to be way more than just a twee, oversweet formula, or just another band from the so-called ‘tontipop.’ These kids are making great pop music, and they’re not afraid of sounding lame, in fact, they are so comfortable with their resources that they could genuinely personify what ‘happy music’ is or how its sounds like. We’ve been following the band since we knew about it through Adria Arbona, the leader of the band who had been doing a tremendous job rescuing great pop pastries on his blog Tweeranosaurus. Oso Panda is a 7’’ containing two tracks (+2 remixes).

Papa Topo’s demos were witty and charmingly naïf, they worked as novelties and left-side music but the band went through a major transformation once Adria Arbona decided to recruit Paulita Demaiz as the other half of the pie. Their hit “Oso Panda” was insanely popular last year; so much many people claim it ended up hurting them. The song is as incredibly catchy as it can be annoying, in a way, close to what bands like Black Kids and Los Campesinos! have had to overcome to move away from the feared tag of singles-artist.

Luckily, the band has a fixation for simplicity, washing away much of the obtrusive over-sugared content with the help of Guille Milkyway, the mind behind La Casa Azul. Milkyway does a top-notch production work, capturing the band’s glockenspiel personality through a very glossy and well-polished oomph. He also provides a their hit a remix, it’s well orchestrated and it sounds like a futuristic Western. But “Oso Panda” isn’t convincing enough of the band’s potential, just like their label, the one song that made us total fans is the sunny and delightful “Lo que me gusta del verano.” The duo makes a treasure out of a warm summer, that exchange of ice-cream flavor quandary and relief is priceless. The whole thing is enchanting, too bad it is so short, the band has announced a full-length release by the end of the year, needless to say we’ll be impatiently waiting for it.

Video: Papa Topo - "Oso Panda"

Spain’s Elephant Records are easy to understand, they love the pop, and the pop loves them. Or at least, they understand each other. Others might not though, if you hate pastel colors and want to strangle a care bear, stay away from their latest single release “Oso Panda” by Papa Topo. If you’ve been following us, you’ve heard the song, perhaps you hate it already (or all along), we got a bit tired of it by the end of the year but it was still close to earning a spot on our year’s countdown. But these kids are fun and charming, this first video shows them beating a panda, they will burn in hell... happily.

Papa Topo

Papa Topo is clearly one of the big standouts from our fourth compilation, not to mention that their incredibly catchy song “Oso Panda” gives our Fonogramaticos Vol.4 its theme: “Un paseo por la Selva Tropical.” The buzz is starting to rise like no other act from Spain this year; my encounter with their music is both odd and charmingly coincidental. A couple of months ago I was looking for a song by Joan Miquel Oliver (who by the way has a new album out), so I stumbled upon a called Tweeranosaurus, quickly noticing it was the most adolescent indiepop blog ever, but I never put much attention to it blog because of its lack of content, but I placed it on bookmark just in case.

Two weeks ago having a couple of open spots on our compilation I went through my bookmarks and found this stunning song, the blog’s author said that it was the first studio-recorded song from his band and that made it even more special to hear. Now the band will be releasing material through Elefant Records, Spain’s most predominant and colorful label, whose catalog includes La Casa Azul and La Bien Querida. “Oso Panda” is great, but make sure to check out “La Chica Vampira” as well, it will most likely be polished with a better studio production, but just like the guy on the song I love it just the way it is. Don’t worry, it’s nothing like Twilight, it’s the perfect soundtrack to Lat Den Ratte Komma In (Let the right one in), which by the way was one of my favorite movies of 2009 .

♫♫♫ "Oso Panda"

♫♫♫ "La Chica Vampira"

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