Rock Español A Través De Los Ojos De Un Ruso: The Prussians

суббота, 15 декабря 2018 г.

Best Of 2018. Top50 Albums. 31 - 40

<writer's block>

40. Da Souza "Futbol D'Avantguarda"

(p)Famelic

BNDCMP

Much-lauded indie pop album is as incompromisingly quirky as hauntingly melodic. Sounds great live.

39. Monte Del Oso "Cosas Que Salvar De Una Casa En Peligro"

(p)Farmway/ Underhill

BNDCMP

Read this

38. We Were Heading North "Lightness"

(p)El Hombre Bala

BNDCMP

The tender instrumental music that suddenly explodes with the bursts of guitars to shift the focus from the soft pastel cinematic soundscapes to the grandiose God Is An Astronaut-like post rock.

37. Les Atxes "Decora Paneres"

(p)El Mamut Traçut

BNDCMP

The album shows how to raise a bunch of good songs out of the crooked off-key guitar strumming and the fractured rhythm section.

36. Belako "Render Me Numb, Trivial Violence"

(p)El Segell

SPTF

Four folks from Pais Vasco found their niche in the very beginnig of their career as a band, and they continue to tread the same path since - but every time the result sounds fresh and exciting.

35. Invisible Harvey "No Es Justo Que Llegues Ahora"

(p)El Genio Equivocado

BNDCMP

Undeniably the best record of the prolific Catalan singer/songwriter Dimas Rodriguez.

34. Cycle "Electrik"

(p)Subterfuge

SPTF

The renowned electro band moves into the guitar-driven rock territories with David Tabueña (ex-Mi Pequeña Radio) now onboard.

33. Tuxedo "Tuxedo III"

(p)Musaranas

BNDCMP

The Valladolid-born slowcore, really beautiful and never boring.

32. Ornamento Y Delito "El Glamour De Las Provincias"

(p)Fikasound

BNDCMP

Ornamento y Delito released the new album at the very end of December'17. While finalizing my '2018 Top50' preparations I've put it on to listen briefly to a couple of tracks to taste it and in a half an hour found myself with the mouth wide open.

31. The Prussians "Karma"

(p)3 Notes

SPTF

The ultimate 'contemporary indie rock' album. A million of influences, the great sound, the pulsating rhythms, the good vibrations.

Top20 EPs and mini albums

среда, 30 ноября 2016 г.

Best of 2016. EPs and mini albums

There's a lot of people around who tell us creating lists is stupid. Fuck'em. Creating lists is cool indeed, and it always gonna be cool. So I'd like to start my regular year-end ranking process from the EPs and mini albums Top10. It wasn't any easy to confine the strict 10 out of multiple items of the great music in shortened formats. I was forced to strip out the extended plays of such cool bands and musicians as The Trunks, Lua Gramer, Nuria Graham, La Maniobra De Q as well as the pack of Canarian delegates Ponyboy, Cumbia Ebria, Edui Bercedo and Noiseed.

Let's talk a bit about the structure of Top10. Geographically it covers vast territories from Galicia (Bestlife) to mainland southends (Murciano Total, Apartamentos Acapulco) through metropolitan area (Pasavento, The Levitants, Disciplina Atlantico) and then to Baleares (The Prussians), African enclave Ceuta (Higinio Orduña) and Canary Islands (Estratega Pencherjevsky, San Borondon).
In terms of acquaintance there are 3 bands that could be labeled as 'Sonorama discoveries' (Disciplina Atlantico, The Prussians, The Levitants) - I was learned about their existence but never listened to them before I saw their names on the Sonorama 2016 poster. 3 more bands (Pasavento, Higinio Orduña, Apartamentos Acapulco) are totally new to me while the other 4 are 'the old pals' (Bestlife, San Borondon, Estratega Pencherjevsky, Murciano Total).
Genrewise the list could be divided onto two large 'umbrella brands' of contemporary rock music - indie rock and electro, but it can be easily structurized further to the lesser particles. Of the 'electro' albums the one of Higinio Orduña is the foggy indietronica/ folktronica, while other two are inclined to synthpop (Murciano Total) and futuristic slo-mo techno that perfectly fits for sci-fi movies' soundtracks (Estratega Pencherjevsky). Of the 'indie' albums Apartamentos Acapulco are pure and perfect dreampop - this year is really the year of dreampop for me. San Borondon are the sunny bright power pop with catchy tunes and lo/fi sound. Disciplina Atlantico are the noisy post-punk band whose sound is as energetic as icy-cold. I really want more from them in 2017 as their eponimous 4-song EP is the good appetizer with these stop/start dynamics and masterful use of upbeats. For two 'The …s' bands there's some kind of strange situation. First I saw The Levitants performing on Sonorama's Burgos stage they seemed like the Spanish version of The Foals to me, but studio recordings are far from this impression. Otherwise, The Prussians didn't sound like The Foals onstage, but from the laptop speakers their "Kerala" EP sounds much in these British indie stalwarts' vein.
My dearest Bestlife (Under Your Seat) have added the new elements to their music so the sound pallette (yes, I use this cliche for the first time this year) of "Invincible Anymore" is quite diverse - from the Paul Weller'esque power pop "She's A Whisper" to grunge-laden rocker "As If I Needed Someone". Being compared to their previous "Taking You Back Home" EP the new mini album sounds like the improvement or the logical progression, and it's really interesting what will they do on the next effort.
Pasavento. This Madrid-based four-piece explores the sound I adore the most: the mixture of the 90's post-shoegaze britrock with hardly distinguished but tasty touches of intelligent 00's post-post-hardcore (The Jealous Sound's "A Gentle Reminder" is the best reference to what I'm trying to describe by the newly invented term 'intelligent post-post-hardcore'). All six tracks of "Tuvo Su Momento" are perfect, but they could be even better if they were ten (or twelve).