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

Sonorama 2018. Day 4

Days 1-2
Day 3

Saturday, 11th

Our last Sonorama 2018 morning started at midday with the band Repion performing on Plaza la Sal. Repion were one of these bands we decided to look at only by chance as there was no appropriate alternative at the moment. Fortunately, it turned out to be one of the best decisions as this band impressed us much. They’ve got mood, they’ve got vibe. They’ve reminded me of The Breeders (though I never had a chance to see The Breeders live) – especially when the sisters Iñesta swapped their instruments with Teresa coming in to the mic and Marina taking on drumming duties. The discovery #1 for me.

The next band to appear on Heineken stage were Los Estanques. We missed most of their performance while drinking beer on Plaza Mayor but we managed to catch two last songs of their set. Thus we found them charming enough to dive deeper into their Paisley Underground-bred music upon returning home.

Then we headed to Castilla Y Leon stage for Burrito Panza. I personally had the strong desire to see them live as they’ve got that enormous new album “El Nuevo Frente Frio” and I was guessing how they would reconstruct the sound of the album onstage. Live the band sounded more in the vein of Mercromina (albeit excluding the latter’s signature wall of post-shoegaze guitar noise). For me as a longtime fan of Albacete’s finest it was all ok. 

At the moment we were teamed up with Rafa Tuñon (leader of Paciente Cero) and his company of friends so we won ourselves a couple of beers and the good place next to the entrance of Santa Catalina building to fully enjoy what was happening around. Also I was happy to see Rafa and Joan, the co-heads of Burrito Panza’s label El Genio Equivocado, amongst those before the sunlit stage. Up to the next gig (La Bien Querida) Gloria and her friends came to the place so our company grew bigger.

In the very beginning of La Bien Querida’s show we recognized Manuel Cabezali playing bass for Ana Fernandez-Villaverde. As far as I know this was his first appearance in Sonorama since the show of his primary vehicle Havalina was abruptly switched off the power (due to technical issues or schedule constrictions) back in 2013. 

Inside our circle of friends we talked alot but amidst the talks we paid attention to the show where Ana in her yellow dress did her tiny dancing to her own songs in slightly electronic wrap-up.

We stayed there for one more timeslot waiting for Nocturnos to come out. Frankly speaking, Nocturnos didn’t sound like the band for escenario principal. Rather they sounded like the great band for a club. Nevertheless, they’ve got plenty of catchy tunes and lots of energy so their performance was one of the best for us. Somewhere around that time Rafa Tuñon walked away searching for his friends, and Glo brought us some more beer...

***

Cosmen Adelaida have peeled off their dream pop influences almost completely for this gig presenting us their post punk side only. I don't know was it their usual modus operandi as it was the 1st time I saw them live. As for ‘Joana Serrat – Nat Simons’ case being compared to La Plata they sounded way more diverse while treading the same path.

Los Punsetes were our next POI. The only motions Ariadna, the female singer of the band, did during the performance were to come onstage and to come off. The entire concert she – dressed up in the Alice in the Wonderland costume (or it was the uniform of 18th century chambermaid) – stayed absolutely immobile. But the music was highly energetic, and this difference created pretty strange effect. We stayed there until the end of their set, and then accidentally run into Coque and Pablo from Los Vengadores. We talked in the interim, and these two folks were so nice that it felt such a pity to part ways with them.

For the second time in a row I was watching the performance of Izal through the leaves of an adornment plant standing in the corner of the VIP zone. For the last 5 years Izal grew on to enter the Pantheon of the best live bands of Spain, so they gathered the crowd easily comparable to one Liam Gallagher gathered the last night. They started their gig with “Pequeña Gran Revolucion”, my favourite song of theirs, so I screamed alot and then the rest of the concert I was just standing literally in the ficus elastica tub trying to figure out what’s going on onstage. They finalized the show with the fireworks. It looked so beautiful and, eh, monumental.

We didn't dare to move away from VIP zone cos there were too many people onsite, so little changed for me for Dorian's concert. The same corner, the same ficus elastica, the same emotions, the songs that great... Just some contagious sense of yearning started to crawl somewhere inside my spine as I knew well that this would be our last show of this Sonorama.