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
