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пятница, 4 августа 2023 г.

Sonorama Ribera 2023. The Prologue

In a cursory examination of the Sonorama schedule published yesterday it becomes apparent that the Spanish indie music landscape is changed. The chances are it's changed forever. Sonorama always was a rock-oriented event, but now at least 25% of performers are the urban- and trap-related artists. If to include the rock bands than implement the elements of urban styles into their music (Cupido, Jimena Amarillo, etc) the percentage would be even higher narrowly reaching one third of the lineup. What does it mean globally? The trap, reggaeton and other related subgenres are the music of the young. The persons into their forties may still be listening to rock, but the festivals make their living out of the younger people. If you want to follow the future you need to align to the youngsters' tastes. I may not like it but I am not a target market anyway.
Another considerable part of the Sonorama 2023 lineup is the "festival indie". Festival indie is the negatively connoted entity within the music business of Spain. It describes the zillions of the same-sounding rock bands that more or less follow the template of the Big Three (Love Of Lesbian, Izal, Vetusta Morla) casting aside the theatrical grandeur of the former and the genre-bending tendencies of the latter. Briefly, this is the generation of the rock bands more concerned about reaching the festival headliner status than the creative validity and innovation. What does that mean globally? It means that the "burbuja de festivales" (festival balloon, or festival bubble) is not over yet, and the possibility of performing deep in the night and/or seeing your name printed in largest typeface possible is still a ripe target for the young rockers, even if it not necessary entails any substantial commercial success. This ain't necessarily bad but the common lack of imagination within this category is, say, disappointing. The only thing they are as vocal as inventive in is the brief summary in their Spotify profile.
The last thing I'd like to emphasize is the direct consequence of the previous two. There is so little space left for the 'non-aligned' artists or the bands hard to allocate to any distinct category. There was absolitely no issue for me to sellect 10 to 20 "the most interesring smallest font size bands" out of the festival's billboards of the previous editions. This year it's neither 20 nor 10. It's, like, six. Six bands. Dani, 30s40s50, Martina Efedra, Jimena Amarillo, Victorias, Vera Fauna - and even then, none of them I'm 100% assured of, as long as at least three of them are flesh and blood of "indi festivalero". Thank goodness there are some better-known bands in the lineup (Kitai, Niña Coyote eta Chico Tornado, León Benavente, L.A.) there's no doubt about.
Am I any depressed based on these reflections? Nope. 
There's one thing that makes me looking forward to these 4,5 days of music and wine (and calimocho as an option). Just imagine: it's 2:00 a.m and you walk from the food court to WCs left of one of the secondary stages. As you walk along to the front side of that stage the sound is reaching you - and then in a matter of a second you are stunned. You forget where you're walking to. You don't mind the late hour as well as your growing fatigue. There's nobody else around you in this world. It's only you - and the band onstage. I'm sure it's gonna happen because it happened to me many times before.
Because it always happens in Sonorama.

понедельник, 23 сентября 2019 г.

Sonorama Ribera 2019. The Report

The fifth year in a row we come to Aranda a day prior to the start of the festival. This is because we love to soak up the atmosphere of the old town walking through the empty streets, sitting at the empty squares drinking wine, making photos at the empty Plaza del Trigo with the stage already built up. Avoiding any rush we purchase the food and drinks in the empty supermarket. We visit “La Cantinaccia” restaurant whose chief administrator Francisco we befriend – and it’s quite unattended as well. The next 5 days it would only serve for musicians and executives – but now, a day before the storm begins, it’s quiet and relatively unattended. The only place that’s not gonna change with the Sonorama virus breaking out and contaminating the area is our hotel “Kinedomus”. Samuel – the host and our friend after all these years – arranges such the calm and peaceful location that it appears like the perfect place to survive the fest. Just imagine: you’re jumping, you’re slamming, you’re running, you’re singing, you’re shouting, you’re freaking out for some like 8 hours in a row and finally you get totally worn out. Then you come to the place that is all about tranquility, and the only sound you can hear is the nature sounds. You sleep well and recharge your batteries for the new day challenges. The hotel offers the spa, the gym and the pool services but usually we have no possibility to use either of them due to the constant lack of time. At times we see other guests taking sunbaths at the pool between the morning and the night sections of concerts (yeah, ‘the morning section’ sounds like a joke as it lasts from 12 p.m to 17 p.m). But the locals are way more relaxed than us as they’ve got no urge to see as much performances as possible – the urge we’ve surely got. That’s because for the Spanish people Sonorama is one of the hundreds of festivals around. For us it’s the ONLY one. So we’ve got no time to rest. We can only change the clothes in between the sections and then direct our tired bodies to the new experiences.

***

Despite the list of actions we are taking on a regular basis, as compared to all the previous Sonoramas this Sonorama would stand alone. With six festivals behind our backs we’re getting in contact with many persons around – musicians or music lovers/festival goers. It’s quite usual for us to do all these greetings, embraces and hi-fivings while walking around. We could even get involved in a company of friends for some time and float on from stage to stage being surrounded by familiar faces and treated like the part of the team. But this time we would be going to be (with this ‘be’ being strictly emphasized) the part of the team from the very beginning – and throughout the fest. Gloria would arrive to Aranda from Benavente at Wednesday, the 07th. Eva would arrive to Aranda from Leon, and Oscar with his girlfriend Loreto would arrive to Aranda from Guadalajara at Thursday, the 08th. Tito would arrive to Aranda from Guadalajara at Friday, the 09th. This would be our main crew. 

As all these things have already happened, now I’d like to declare that finally we appeared like the members of the community apart from our previous image as ‘these strange Russians’ hanging around in solitude and fright-like state of mind.
Moreover, Rafa Tuñon & his friends came to Aranda at Friday and we spent some time with them just like an year before, so I expect this to be our tradition.

***

The next thing I’d like to declare is the following: my list of Top15 ‘smallest font size’ bands was a total winner. Every mentioned band was a stunner.
Presumido have perfectly kickstarted the festival. If their studio recordings are about “one part guitars/ two part synths”, the live performance had the opposite proportion – and it sounded great.
Ballena appeared as stylistic twin brothers of El Mato A Un Policia Motorizado from ‘the other side of the pond’ what was nice for me as I always adored El Mato
Crudo Pimento, whose mere existence could make any festival artistically viable cos they are different. Just different. “When you will talk about this later, please don’t call us indie rock” – Raul told to the people upon finishing the show. Not even gonna do this, Raul!
Igloo, our friends from Galicia Tanya and me were happy to reunite with. Our mutual opinion was it has been their best performance we ever beheld. Even without some live staples (“Gremlins de Ciudad”, “La Reina Ourensana”) being performed, this was the powerful and magnetic show.

Agoraphobia, the female four-piece that could make L7 jealous. This stage (Heineken, Plaza la Sal) was apparently too small for them, I believe they could set on fire much larger venue.

Invisible Harvey, the experienced singer/songwriter from Barcelona with his hi-quality songs. Prior to his performance I was a bit afraid of him being too subdued for such the large-scale festival like Sonorama – but Dimas Rodriguez fortunately dispelled all possible fears.
Echo. Initially we intended to see the performance of Australian Blonde as we liked them a lot but due to schedule complications (and the fact that some Spaniards are not so inclined to hurrying up, haha!) we arrived at Santa Catalina place right when the band walked out from its gates. We were like ‘Fuck it, who’s next up here… Wait, it’s Echo! Let’s stay here for them!’ And the young band nailed it. They made it worth it coming there even missing the show of the Gijon sound innovators completely.

Boogarins appeared like more consistent and cohesive band than many of their neo-psych peers. I made my friends (and friends of the friends) go to see them. We were all, like, ten persons with two packs of beer, so we won ourselves some clean spot on the grass and then enjoyed the concert sitting on the ground and drinking Mahou.
The Crab Apples, a photo reporter’s delight. If we lived in the world without digital photo cameras then it would be the hard show to capture for any photographer cos he’d run out of the daily stock of film within, say, 10 minutes of the action. Just add the really good songs and competent playing to the picture – and you’d get the idea of ‘must see’ event what it undoubtedly was.

Mostaza Galvez, whose performance I’d surely put into Top5 best concerts of the festival. The pure essence of what contemporary rock music should be: the great songs, the cool sound and – that’s probably the most important thing – ‘we’re doing this our own way’ approach. 

Basanta, whose pagan masks and competent songwriting impressed all the spectators. Really, two days after their show I overheard small talks in the crowd: “Have you seen Basanta? They were so cool!
Alexanderplatz. I didn’t expect him to use ‘more guitars less synths’ live approach. When we were about to enter Plaza la Sal, I even told my compañeras: “It doesn’t sound like Alexanderplatz!” But then we turned over the last corner and it appeared to be Alexanderplatz after all - and it sounded cool. There were some minor technical problems closer to the end of the show, but they didn’t spoil the impression.
Apartamentos Acapulco, the one and only Plaza del Trigo performance we managed to see this year. The powerful shoegaze with grandiose post-rock’y climaxes that could shake you to the bone. 
Niña Coyote Eta Chico Tornado, the perfectly synchronized interaction led only by the eye contact between Koldo and Ursula.

Additionally, I’d like to mention two more bands of small font size that impressed me much. The first one is Yoghourt Daze. This trio made me completely unleashed. An epic win for any 90’s rock music fan. The second one is Margaux. We saw only 4 songs of them (as we were away in the Church of Saint Mary for Joan As Police Woman performance) but it was apparent that the band deserved more attention. Later at night we met their frontman Javi Teral at Mostaza Galvez’ gig and talked a bit. Nice guy.

***

Along with Mostaza Galvez, IglooNiña Coyote Eta Chico Tornado and Yoghourt Daze, my list of the best performances also includes:
Berri Txarrak. By far the most impressive event we attended during this Sonorama. The legendary Basque band is going to close its activity this year, as it was announced in the very beginning of 2019. So every performance of Berri Txarrak is the last one: the last in Aranda, the last Asian tour, the last European tour… So it felt bittersweet to see this band playin’. They seemed like they were doing everything to make us miss them more. They were unbearably perfect. They looked and sounded like the best live act of the century.

Luis Brea. Frankly, I wasn’t familiar with his songs before this concert. For me it all looked like that: the man with visible anti-star approach walked out and within 5 minutes got the crowd at his knees. Then he grabbed us, smashed us, lifted us, put us down… «I wanna get all of his albums» - this was my only thought when Luis terminated his performance.
Luis Albert Segura. “I don’t get that idea of breaking up LA”, Tito pleaded while we were walking to the Castilla stage. “He and only he was that band, how could he break himself up? What’s the point?” Nevertheless, while Luis Albert changed the supporting band and switched to castellano, the music as well as stage presence stayed [more or less] the same. He surely is one of the best Spanish performers, and his shtick is still with him.

***

They’ve got that huge 6 m2 poster that says: “Follow the band of the moment” on a wall in Aranda. Kitai is the band pictured on this poster. The official Kitai’s Instagram account posted this with some wording like: “Hey, bro, have you seen that? We are the band of the moment!” addressed to Diego Ibañez, the frontman of the real ‘band of the moment’ Carolina Durante.
Frankly speaking, I’d sing “Cayetano” to myself while doing some work or walking on the street much rather than any Kitai’s song – just like many other people. But if we talk about music… It’s incomparable. Carolina Durante is the simplistic down-to-earth post punk band with jangling guitars and slacker attitude. Kitai is artsy - in the best sense of the word - quasi-metal rockers with full-blown shows and inclinations to virtuosity. Their drummer David is probably the best drummer of the scene #rightnow. Their bass player Fab is the Spanish Flea. And Alejandro, the frontman, is that kind of performer who can switch from a friendly kitten to Pennywise the Clown in a split second. Anyway, Carolina Durante have got that smash hit, and Kitai still haven’t. But I’m just curious if Kitai are eager to have it at all.
Before their show we were just dead. The fifth day of the festival lifestyle made its toll on us. I didn’t even manage to approach Ursula and Koldo from Niña Coyote Eta Chico Tornado who were walking along in 5 meters from us cos all what I could do was just sit on the ground.
We survived somehow the performances of Despistaos (who were just awful) and some rappers duo (awful as well). We kinda enjoyed the show of Dinero – as much as we could enjoy it in our ‘low batteries’ mode. But then Kitai came out and for the next hour we were alive again cos this band onstage was an unleashed beast splashing its energy all around. For an hour we forgot about our fatigue, we forgot about the fact that it was the last gig of the festival, the last laugh of the laughter, the last spark of the flame.
Now I’d like to call it “efecto Kitai”.

***

For the first time ever I was eager to see some international acts in Aranda, namely Joan As Police Woman and Deacon Blue.
I was a fan of Joan Wasser since… I don’t remember when. Back in the first half of the 90s she played violin (along with providing occasional backing vocals) in the indie rock combo The Dambuilders. So my fandom of hers dates back to this period. To see Joan performing in the Church of Saint Mary you should pay 5 Euros additionally, so no friends followed us there. But we paid this additional cost to dive into perfection, and it was well worth it. This was just amazing. In the middle of the set I found myself about to start crying. I turned my head to Tanya and saw my wife struggling to not let the tears run down her face. Even the big man right in front of me tried secretly to brush away the tear – but I noticed that anyway… I hardly could talk when we met Joan during meets & greets after the concert, but I managed to express our feelings to her saying something like “I don’t believe in god but now I would like to praise him for your existence” – and it was the truth.

The night before I was granted with the chance to fulfill one more ‘teenage dream’ cos the Scotland’s finest Deacon Blue were set to perform at Escenario Aranda (the 2nd main stage). Deacon Blue is the kind of band I never dared to think of mere possibility of seeing them live. It wasn’t even a dream for me cos it was like ‘Ok, let’s meet a dinosaur, find a pirate’s chest of gold, see Deacon Blue performing’ a kind of possibility. The entire concert I was smiling like a fool standing there in the first row right before the security fence. I felt myself young cos this band was the important part of my youth.

***

In addition to the above mentioned I’d like to emphasize the following bands whose performances deserved the attention and the kind words to be said upon them.
The Levitants. We were too far (and this ‘too’ was more like ‘tooooooo’) to fully enjoy their show but even from the farthest point of view their strengths were apparent.
AA Mama. We managed to catch only the first song of their set before leaving for Australian Blonde (the mission incomplete, as you’ve already known) but it was such a good song. So their upcoming album is in the list of the most anticipated albums of the year for me.
Javiera Mena. They’ve got vibe, they’ve got sound, they could make you dance to even if you never intended it (like me who just wanted to make a couple of photos).
The Rebels. Tito made us see them, and for good reason. This band plays grunge and does it great.
Crystal Fighters. Basically I'm not a huge fan of their albums but live they are the top tier entertainers.
Nadia Alvarez. The 'contemporary Nashville country rock' musician with the pack of good songs.





понедельник, 20 августа 2018 г.

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.

воскресенье, 19 августа 2018 г.

Sonorama 2018. Day 3


Friday, 10th
By the morning before walking to Castilla Y Leon (Santa Catalina) stage for Nat Simons we made a brief stop at our favourite Plaza la Sal’s Heineken stage where Duque were performing at the time. The band looked a bit elder being compared to average Heineken stage residents but was alive, kicking and undeniably pleasant. 
Nat Simons’ music is quite close to that of Joana Serrat but Nat managed to perform her program with much more diversity. She interchanged fast rock and roll songs with slower ones and did a couple of cover versions as well. I never thought I would dance to a Tom Petty song one day but she made me to do so.
Then we returned to the old town of Aranda to see the way louder Basque band Kometa. We never heard a single song of them before, but it quickly became apparent that we should count +1 up to our list of discoveries.
After we took a break to have ourselves a cup of cold white wine at Plaza Mayor we came again to Santa Catalina place just in time to see Pet Fennec but the band onstage apparently was not Pet Fennec. The fast glance at Sonorama app (by the way, this year this app was really useful) – hey, that’s Jorge Marazu! Somehow the schedule was shifted pushing Jorge Marazu and Pet Fennec to perform later than it was planned initially.
Pet Fennec. This was the performance no one really attended to. Right after Jorge Marazu finalized his set the spectators started slipping away, so at the moment the band began to play there was literally no one before the stage. Only a dozen of persons were hiding their bodies into the thin strip of shadow at the far right side of the stage. We stepped into the shadow as well but quickly came off thinking: ‘What the fuck? If we are going to be the only ones to support the cool band why can’t we keep staying in the sun?” Pet Fennec were really cool. I liked their album, and their live performance made me like them even more.
Due to the aforementioned schedule shift along with our subsequent visit to a restaurant* (being invited by Javier Ajenjo) our spare time between ‘morning’ and ’night’ sections was diminished so we were late to attend the Angel Stanich gig at the main stage Ribera del Duero. However, we came in time to catch the very beginning of Luis Alberto Segura’s show.
L.A. was amazing as always. He’s got a lot of great tunes spread over his last 4 albums starting from “Heavenly Hell” (as he never plays the songs from three albums independently released prior to his breakthrough record) so he could play three hours in a row without losing the certain level of quality.
Right after L.A. covered up Nada Surf began to play on the main stage. This was the special moment for me. I was stunned as Nada Surf were my all-time favs and I could proclaim myself being a fan since I first listened to “Inside Of Love” back in 2003. I sang along and shouted out to every song with the tears in my eyes almost breaking my voice…
As the magic couldn’t have been prolonged beyond the timing of the standard festival set we were forced to find us new entertainment, and we found it in El Ultimo Vecino. I always thought El Ultimo Vecino was an one-man synth-driven project but it appeared to be the full band. Moreover, the band spearheaded by Gerard Alegre Doria behaved like if they ain’t no strangers to the indie rock vocabulary. 
Regarding La Plata, I expected more, to put it frankly. All the songs of their set explored the same sound and almost the same dynamics.
New Day have blown me away, and I went completely mad. That was pretty strange as I don’t like their debut album that much to go nuts, but onstage Amparo Llanos and her tiny band sounded ferocious. Their songs being performed live managed to express much more energy and melody. Not all of their songs were perfect but the most of them knocked me off.

* In the restaurant we were seated next table to a company of four. One of them was Eric Jimenez, the drummer of Lagartija Nick and Los Planetas. He was so friendly and gave off such great charisma that I can only admit we've never met a person like him before.

Day 4

суббота, 18 августа 2018 г.

Sonorama 2018. Days 1-2

This particular Sonorama differed much from all the previous editions we’ve been involved into. This time we made an initial decision to abandon seeing as many bands as possible. When there’s a lot of events around it’s hard to keep up fully with what’s going on so most of the time you’re running from stage to stage with the sweat on your teeth trying to catch a couple of songs here and then a couple of songs there. Now we were more about soaking our bodies and minds into the atmosphere of the festival instead. We’ve got along with more people, we spent more time simply enjoying just being the part of it. 

Wednesday, 08th
The festival started at 9:00 pm sharp with the performance of Disco Las Palmeras! It looked like shame the audience was rather sparse during their show as Diego Castro and his pals deserved much more attention. But it was only Wednesday, and the most of the young festival people didn’t arrive to Aranda at the moment, I suppose. Anyway, their new album “Calida” is one of the year’s best, so I enjoyed the new songs a lot – and poor are the ones who didn’t came.
Triangulo Inverso is one of those bands that are deemed to be popular while lacking originality. You may easily recognize the influences of Izal, Vetusta Morla, Miss Caffeina in their songs. For the festival stages such bands are the great deal cos their songs are always good enough to make the people rave and dance and fully enjoy it but at the end of the day it’s a dead end. For me it’s pretty clear you need something more to be truly original.
The next ones to step upon the stage were Correos. The Sonorama’s darlings (I’ve lost count of how many times they performed at different locations of the fest for the last 5 years) were loud and cheerful and highly energetic as always. The fact they had lost a member prior to recording of their new disc “Terapia, Terapia” didn’t impact their sound and stage behavior at all. They presented the pack of older hits along with a couple of new tracks from “Terapia, Terapia”. I should declare the new ones fitted great so the next time the crowds gonna be shouting out the lines from “El Ultimo Verso” or “Sobreviviendo” like they shouted out ”Calles llenas de gente vacia/ Y nadie sabe donde esta la salida“ or “Todo el mundo necesita un corazon salvaje” now.

Thursday, 09th
We started the first full day of Sonorama from the Floridablanca performance at Plaza la Sal (Heineken stage). Floridablanca had only a handful of songs released publicly as singles earlier this year, and their debut album is set to release for the autumn that comes. But for me they are kind of old friends as my Sonorama history was ignited by these guys. I mean, all my love and adoration of this fest started to blossom from the performance of the band named Sin Rumbo in the year 2013. Floridablanca are exactly the same guys who performed as Sin Rumbo up to the year 2017. Now they have changed direction starting to play synth-driven music with sunshine pop/balearic influences. It was quite different to what they did before but anyway entertaining. As I predicted previously, if you're a fan of Sin Rumbo it's easy to convert yourself into the fan of Floridablanca.
The next band to perform on the same stage was the young quartet Patio Rosemary. Up to their concert I was put into situation that cut short my abilities in squaring down the correct and weighted opinion on this band as we were approached by a group of our friends (hi there Glo, Eva, MariAn and company!), and during Patio Rosemary’s set we spent more time talking and embracing each other than listening to the band.
Right after Patio Rosemary came offstage we left Plaza la Sal and came to a restaurant to enjoy some lechazo. While sitting there at the table with the piece of meat in one hand and the cup of wine in another we were thrilled by the news that today’s concierto secreto (now it’s called #EspirituRibera due to DO Ribera Del Duero sponsorship) on Plaza del Trigo would be Cycle. The same Cycle our friend David Tabuena plays with! We finalized our meal quite quickly and rushed to Plaza del Trigo but this place was overcrowded as usual. Fortunately, we managed to win ourselves some free space aside of the stage so for the last 4 songs we stayed in a couple of meters from David and China Patino (David Kano, Juanjo Roig and the frontman Luke Donovan were a bit farther from us). Cycle performed mostly the tracks from their new album “Electrik” – at least in the final part of their set. Right now I look at the results of the poll “What #EspirituRibera event you consider the best” in twitter, and the Cycle’s gig is on the last place with no chance to step up. I totally disagree with that, by all means Cycle were great.
After we met David backstage we took a 2 hour break before the nighttime set of concerts in recinto ferial (main festival area).
***
The first evening show was the one of Joana Serrat. Well, I can’t call it disappointment of any kind though I can’t hide my dissatisfaction. The songs were still that great but the sound was samey song to song. It sounded like ‘ok, as we’ve got this guy on pedal steel let he play it all the way’. I don’t know... Her albums are gorgeous, there’s nothing about sameness in “Dripping Springs” or “Cross The Verge” – but live the impression was somehow spoiled for me. Anyway the show pleasant enough to feel some kind of regret when moving away halfshow from Burgos stage to Ribera stage for catching the second half of Tulsa’s gig. 
This was the 3rd time we observed Miren Iza’s band live and surely this was the most danceable show out of these three as it was based upon the material of the last year’s perfect “Centauros” - in contrary to the previous two that were post-“La Calma Chicha” gloomy yet vulnerable psych-pop ones.
The next stop was the Burgos stage again. El Increible Paso was the new name for us and we wanted just to check the band out. So we did right what we wanted to do: we checked this band out placing Hombre Esponja and his pals into the ‘to listen to their albums later’ category. As evidenced by the show they stood both legs in folk rock and probably paid some debt to Izal but they’ve got something of their own as well.
We never managed to appear at Neuman’s performances before so this time we arrived to Aranda stage beforehand to get ourselves the good places. Everyone who ever listened to his albums knows well that Paco Neuman is a guitar junkie. Who else could start his set with 12 minute long “Deleted Files” from the most recent release “Crashpad” ((p)2017 Subterfuge)! Then Paco continued to pour the waterfall of the guitar swirl onto the audience. He changed guitars after every song and used two full pedalboards of guitar effects. I think ‘astonishing’ is the proper word to describe his art.
Then we walked to the Burgos stage for the Modelo de Respuesta Polar performance that appeared to be the logical continuation of Neuman’s as the five-piece from Valencia used three guitars onstage to produce the sonic squall simultaneously vigorous and intimate. With every new album the songs of Modelo de Respuesta Polar are getting slower and mellower but live the band is still powerful and loud.
Despite the fact the shows of Neuman and Modelo were really great, the best show of the night definitely was performed by Pasajero. The Madrid-based band collected the best tracks out from their three albums for that special night. 100% hits, 100% energy, 100% pleasure.

среда, 1 августа 2018 г.

Sonorama 2018. 10 ‘minimal font size’ bands whose shows you surely should attend

Some bands from the lower lines of the new Sonorama poster have apparently outgrown the minimal font size (Tulsa, Modelo De Respuesta Polar, Villanueva, etc) so please find below the short list of the bands and personalities who deserve it to an equal extent.

Disco Las Palmeras!
With the new effort “Calida” ((p)2018 Sonido Muchacho) the Galician power trio spearheaded by Diego Castro abandoned both the scratching noise of “Asfixia” and the ever-buzzing wall of sound of “Ultra” leaving the core of their songs peeled off almost completely. And I’m curious how it would sound live.


Floridablanca
The re-branded and re-named madrilenos Sin Rumbo switched to the sunshine balearic disco-pop. Despite they stepped aside quite far from what they were before, if you’re a fan of Sin Rumbo it’s time to convert yourself into a fan of Floridablanca.


Joana Serrat
The best Americana singer-songwriter the Iberian Peninsula ever gave birth to.


La Plata
While most eyes are set at their equally promising labelmates Carolina Durante you shouldn’t overlook young post punk band from Valencia. They have released this year their debut album “Desorden” that created considerable splash amongst the music press and, additionally, have found its place in my own record collection.


Pet Fennec
The Basque band that draw comparisons to such North American indie legends as Band Of Horses, Built To Spill and Nada Surf. As for me, kinda perfect reference points.


Burrito Panza
This year Burrito Panza have released “Un Nuevo Frente Frio” – by all means the best album in their career – and one of the best to-date. You shouldn’t miss the chance to watch at the band on the creative peak.


Cosmen Adelaida
They may look like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s young followers but this metropolitan combo has 3 full lengths along with 2 EPs (all on El Genio Equivocado) of high quality dreampop-meets-post punk in their back catalogue. They have already experienced performances on FIB, Primavera Sound and ContemPOPranea – so this year they’re gonna tick the box at Sonorama’s name.


Nocturnos
Covering the vast specter of genres from dizzy synth groove of “Rey Absolutista” to the guitar-driven rock club singalongs of “Fantasia LiberalNocturnos are stylistically polymorphous and amusing in every turn. Year ago they were set to perform at Sunday that made attending their show completely impossible for me. This time I’m ready to fix this honest mistake.


Ladilla Rusa
As funny as kinky this drag queen fashioned duo is going to kick asses with their trashcan aesthetics, ‘death on the dancefloor’ electropop and quirky sense of humor (“Whitney Houston, tenemos un problema”).


Cala Vento
The Catalan duo is the only band out of my wishlist that finally made it to the festival’s line up. Unfortunately, I’m forced to leave Aranda by the Sunday morning, so there’s no chance for me to catch them. You should do it for me.

суббота, 9 сентября 2017 г.

#Sonorama20. Interlude. The 5 Years Rankings

As this was our fifth Sonorama (some kind of a jubilee) I'd like to select some best events we witnessed for these years.

Top10 performances on secondary stages (including Plaza del Trigo that should in no way be considered secondary):
10. Love Of Lesbian – 2016, Plaza del Trigo (concierto secreto)
09. The Handicaps – 2013, Red Bull
08. Sin Rumbo – 2013, Carson Camping
07. Igloo – 2013, Plaza del Trigo
06. Yo, Estratosferico – 2017, La Carpa Meetin Arts
05. La Habitacion Roja – 2015, Plaza del Trigo (concierto secreto)
04. Disciplina Atlantico – 2016, Burgos
03. Ninos Mutantes – 2014, Plaza del Trigo (concierto secreto)
02. Havoc – 2015, Burgos
01. Maryland – 2014, Plaza del Trigo. The best ever concert I witnessed in my whole fucking life.

Top5 discoveries:
05. Proyecto Solaz
04. The Bright
03. Bestlife (Under Your Seat)
02. Correos
01. Joe La Reina
Accidentally, all of them are of the year 2014. I hope this year's discoveries (Yoyo Banana, Tierra Vertical and Molina Molina) will enter the next rankings successfully passing the test of time.

Top5 of our fails:
05. 1st night of Sonorama 2013 when we tried to enter recinto ferial with our Canon D450 in the bag and they didn't let us go.
04. Our unawareness of conciertos secretos (2013) as there were nobody to tell us about.
03. Wrong place for Rufus T. Firefly (Plaza del Trigo, 2015) in the epicentre of watergun wars.
02. Never being present on all the accompanying events (breakfasts, visits to bodegas, tastings, etc.)
01. Totally missed concierto secreto that followed the aforementioned Rufus' performance - that one with Zahara, Xoel Lopez, Sidonie, Angel Stanich and others.