The Best Of 2019. TOP50. 01-10

I’m curious what people may think about being included into my annual poll. The people, you know, who are in the list and who have no idea, basically, why. It goes like this: one day Facebook informs them of a post that mentions their album as a national TOP50 entry, and they guess, what does it mean? So, how should we react to this? Is it good or is it kind of freaky? Who’s that guy? Is he credible? Let’s see, who he is. He is from where? Russia? The guy from Russia has an opinion on what’s going on here in Spain – sounds kinda strange, doesn’t it? What’s the matter?

Or it goes like: ‘Okaaaaay, guys. We’re in somebody’s annual poll now, and this is great by default!’ 

I’m just curious, really.

So, here you are. The best albums of the year. The most delicious part of the TOP50. The Big Ten.

Merry Christmas!

10. Atencion Tsunami «Vltra»

(p)Records del Mundo

BNDCMP

The sounds of the alternative dance halls of the 22nd century. The danceable rock music with no dance invented for it as of now.

9. Exfan «Exfan»

(p)Gatuela

SPTF

All of Patricia Escoin's ongoing projects (Los Amantes, Lula and Exfan) deserve nationwide praise, I swear.

8. Furious Monkey House «Love, Scum & Dust»

(p)Esmerarte/ Atresmusica/ Universal Music Spain

SPTF

Somewhere in the middle of the first track of "Love, Scum & Dust" I was like: 'Holy fuck, how come I have never heard of them before? They’re so cool!'

7. Yo, Estratosferico «Limbo»

(p)self-released

BNDCMP

The struggling band that deserves more attention than it's got now. The creators of the last decade's most underrated great song ("?motin?") have got another bunch of great songs to be proud of.

6. Capsula «Bestiarium»

(p)Gaztelupeko Hotsak/ Vicious Circle/ Dynamo Tapes

BNDCMP

Their strongest release since "Solar Secrets", as simple as it gets.

5. Sunday German Flowers «2019»

(p)Discos Delejos

BNDCMP

Put your headphones on and float away from your daily grind with this beautiful and stylistically undefinable record.

4. Chavalan «Un Aire Visible»

(p)Mascarpone Discos

BNDCMP

The great successor of now-defunct Betunizer. From my point of view it's even better than "Gran Veta', the generally recognized apex of Betunizer’s career.

3. Los Punsetes «Aniquilacion»

(p)Mushroom Pillow

SPTF

Without a doubt the most cohesive album of the renowned band. It seemed to me like something was always missing on their previous releases. They were always quite good with the emphasis on ‘quite’. Now all the parts of the puzzle are on their right places finally.

2. Holywater «Arboreal»

(p)Ernie

BNDCMP

Take any cool southern rock-meets-grunge record (Dead Confederate's "Sugar" first came to my mind), replace the electric guitars with the acoustic ones and then clean the sound off to kill that druggy fog - and you'll get the idea of what "Arboreal" sounds like.

1. Yawners «Just Calm Down»

(p)La Castanya

BNDCMP

For the most part of the year it was all pretty clear about the number one. Not only the best album but also the best song ("La Escalera").

11 – 20

21 – 30

31 – 40

41 – 50

HONORABLE MENTION

TOP10 EPs

Best of 2016. Albums 1-10

Today I've tried to count up the money I spent on purchasing the new music this year but quickly understood it was an impossible task. And what is more important - it was totally senseless. No matter how many Euros it took - it was the best investment ever. However many hours I spent listening - it was the best thing I could do. 

Previous entries:

Top50. Albums 11-20
Top50. Albums 21-30
Top50. Albums 31-40
Top50. Albums 41-50
Top10 - EPs and mini albums
Honorable mention #1
Honorable mention #2

10. Joan Colomo "Sistema" (p)BCore Disc

BANDCAMP

...Joan sounds absolutely organic and natural in every direction and every land he steps on...

Read more

09. Poomse "This Is How We Fail" (p)Espora

BANDCAMP

'Less dramatic, more Centro-matic' I wrote on "This Is How We Fail" 3 months ago, and I wrote it for the following reasons: 1) the new album doesn't contain such tragedy-filled tracks as "Daily Bread", and 2) the sound of the album is so perfectly shaped that you almost can imagine the room where it was recorded - the same thing as for Denton, TX uncrowned lo-fi kings' records (though Poomse are quite far from lo-fi now). I'd consider this album less obscure in comparison with "Poomse vs. the Kingdom of Death" and in many aspects more refined, so to speak.

08. Atencion Tsunami "Silencio En La Retaguardia" (p)Records Del Mundo

BANDCAMP

These men are the chameleons. If you ain't familiar with Records del Mundo family, I'm going to tell you they are same people who created the astonishing "Sillas Voladoras" under the name Incendios and "Pensamiento de Paz Durante Un Ataque Aereo" under the name Paracaidas last year. These projects differ considerably one from another in everything but the team. Different names, different genres - the band is the same. "Silencio En La Retaguardia" is the most unpredictable work of the troupe. Visually both legs in contemporary danceable indie rock, Atencion Tsunami manage to jump 3 miles higher what you may think about while seeing 'contemporary danceable indie rock' tag.

07. Lost Tapes. "Let's Get Lost" (p)Mushroom Pillow

SPOTIFY

I thought it could be just some good companion to La Habitacion Roja's "Sagrado Corazon" LP when I ordered the latter from the Mushroom Pillow online shop. I had a fear that the single LP might be damaged while travelling 4000 km alone and felt like I needed to choose something more to add some durability to the mail package. So I've chosen the debut album by LHR guitar player Pau Roca's side project LostTapes. All hail the small momentary decisions! This record doesn't even try to hide its influences but wears them proudly instead. Post-shoegaze Cool Britannia's (The Boo Radleys, Wedding Present), the 2000's indie pop (The Radio Dept.) along with the evergreen classics (New Order and Tears for Fears) are mixed in this palette to produce the colours of unique brightness and rare authenticity.

06. Sr. Chinarro "El Progreso" (p)El Segell De Primavera

SPOTIFY

...the melodic intuition of Antonio is flawless, and we can only pray for this perfection to be prolonged on the subsequent Sr. Chinarro releases...

Read more

05. Sorry Kate "Haven Hood" (p)Foehn

BANDCAMP

...during the first couple of tracks you have to adjust your mind and auditory nerve fibers to embrace the sound, and then sound embraces you...

Read more

04. Trinidad "Karma" (p)El Hombre Bala

BANDCAMP

...lo-fi? No, mostly it's no-fi. Fuck Wavves, fuck Hinds. It's the real spontaniety and the real sincerety transmitted to this world through the mind and soul of the real riot grrrl...

Read more

03. Berlina "Desertico" (p)Grabaciones A Montones

BANDCAMP

"Desertico" made me to dive into the dreampop whirlpoop this year. It may remind you of Catherine Wheel, it may remind you of Rufus T. Firefly, it may remind you of Havalina (it's no surprise it is co-produced by Manuel Cabezali) - with all components in right proportions and right places. "Desertico" is about the textures and thin atmospheres, about slow moves and 'where would they cruise at within the next seconds?' wonderings. "Desertico" is like the puzzle. Just try to solve it.

02. Linda Guilala "Psiconautica" (p)Elefant

BANDCAMP

With the shiny melodies and a lot of segues that interconnect these shiny melodies into one solid blast of noise pop/shoegaze majesty, with the stunning hooks you will be humming for months, with the wall of sound and the intricate guitar work the Galician band took a giant leap ahead on the new release. It's a conceptual album, and its name probably relates to drug consumption (I don't really know, but for me the word 'psychonaut' is a romantisized synonym for 'junkie'). Initially I wasn't up to listen to it because I thought it might be some kind of psychedelic indie pop. But then I decided to listen to literally EVERYTHING, and it turned out to be really great with all these aforementioned shiny melodies, stunning hooks and the wall of sound that could make Kevin Shields proud.

01. Viva Suecia "La Fuerza Mayor" (p)Subterfuge

SPOTIFY

The last night of Sonorama'2016 I placed my feet at the first line before the Carson Сamping stage, and from my left side there were three cheeks who looked like, you know, classic teenage Love Of Lesbian fans. For my eyes and ears Viva Suecia were far from overwhelming popularity due to the fact the music of Murcia-based quartet is introspective and slow-burning and visually has no connections with the pop side of the world. And it was kinda real surprise for me to see these gurls beside me knew all the verses and all the names of bandmembers. And they were not alone! It was a real surprise to see this band ready for crowds as I thought Viva Suecia could be just the subject of a small cult following. Now the band is seemingly one step before the indie sub-world stardom, and I hope they'll take this step without making concessions and the major pitch, roll and yaw corrections.

Presentando las Bandas de... Records del Mundo label

Last Thursday night was a busy time for me because I was contacted by three labels in a row. I will tell about the latest releases of El Genio Equivocado and El Hombre Bala a bit later (maybe tomorrow), and now I'm going to make a short review of the tiny Madrid-based indie label Records del Mundo.

This label was created by a group of like-minded persons as a music-producing vehicle for three bands only. If you look at the lineup of these bands you'll find the common names - and these names are the core of the label. The key band of RDM is Atencion Tsunami. Frankly speaking, the label is built up around this band. The band formerly appeared on the Spanish indie scene as Healthcontrol in the beginning of 2000's and released its first longplay as Atencion Tsunami ("El Lejano Oyente") in 2009 under Estoescasa! imprint. Stylistically Atencion Tsunami made a junction of such the different music genres as post-'new rock revolution' indie rock and post rock. But time went on, the visions and horizons of the band members widened - so, the other two bands Incendios and Paracaidas have appeared.
Despite the similarities in lineups the music the bands are making is different enough. While Atencion Tsunami stays mostly on the 'space rock arrangements over the indie rock rhythmical textures' railway, Incendios make even more post rock-inclined music, and Paracaidas with their lush yet tight slowcore is the most quiet band of the three.
There are some points I should emphasize. The first is the genrebending music of all three bands is equally intelligent and innovative. The second is Records Del Mundo are the soul brothers of Barcelonian prominent indie label Foehn Records whose bands explore mostly the same moods and touch mostly the same strings of the soul (it's absolutely no surprise that Miguel Bellas, the spokesperson of the label as well as the member of all three bands, is also the participant in last year's fantastic Karen Koltrane EP).

Paracaidas "Pensamiento De Paz Durante Un Ataque Aereo" (p)2015
The freshest one of the three. It presents the sadcore/slowcore basis surrounded with the elegant electronica and weightless guitar arpeggios. The album consists of five songs and one minute-long excerpt from the emotional speech of somebody called Neil. Sometimes the music goes into the habitual territories of guitar-drenched post rock world like in "Pegamento" or in the final part of "Rompehielos" but mostly it is very quiet and intimate music. Very beautiful album with "Pegamento" and "Sans Soleil" as the standout tracks.

Atencion Tsunami "Que Le Corten La Cabeza" (p)2014
As a person who listened to the first album of Atencion Tsunami pretty frequently once, I feel myself absolutely comfortably within the frames of the band's artistical template being kicked and tossed by the rhythm section while having the bird's wing-like guitars floating around my head.
Mixed by Havalina's Manuel Cabezali, "Que Le Corten La Cabeza" sounds warmer and smoother (and apparently more mature) than its predecessor "El Lejano Oyente". The loudest moments of the album remind me of Nudozurdo, another spaceward-looking band from Madrid. The quiet moments (like the song "Cables", for example) are pretty close to Paracaidas. If this album could come to my hands a couple of months earlier it would make it to my TOP30 year-end list without any doubt.

Incendios "Un Cuerpo Humano" (p)2013
But the most shocking [in the good meaning of the term] is this 6-song album. I can't find much words about it except those: it is absolutely fantastic from the moment when the music starts to the moment when it stops. It's the 30-minutes long masterpiece that simultaneously holds your heart tight by one hand and tenderly pats your head by another.

Official RDM site

TIENDA

Muchisimas gracias a Miguel Bellas por contactarme y invitarme al mundo perfecto de Records Del Mundo.