This Drama "Loose Talk" (p)2023 Golden Robot

This Canary Islands-based band managed to sign its name into the canon of Deep Elm Records - the seminal indie label and one of the key factors in Midwest Emo bloom in the second half of the 90s. But don't expect this mini album to throw all the well-documented hallmarks of the aforementioned genre right in your face. It meets you and greets with... an acoustic guitar riff?! Yes! These six songs are entirely based on the acoustic riffage, the tight basslines and vocals balancing on the thin line between a sad sigh and a sarcastic grimace.

It strongly reminds me of "Arboreal" - the latest to date album of another loud-turned-semi-acoustic band Holywater from Galicia province. Another clear reminiscence is the [half-forgotten Georgians'] Dead Confederate "Peyote People" mini-album and its centrepiece "First Fires". 

Thus, despite their creators' emo past, these songs are not about expression of emotions, they are about keeping them inside. They're about channeling the inner tension, and they're perfect in it.

SPTF 

GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte "Pyramids" (p)2023 Foehn/ Keroxen/ Discrepant

They did it again. "The Canarian combo just released an album that bears little resemblance to their previous releases" - the phrase that can be attributed to every Gaf's album. The band never showed any trace of desire to be placed into a certain genre or category or scene but it's apparent that with each subsequent release they try to "try harder" on that way. Every album is a step - or a jump - aside. 

First, "Pyramids" is mostly electronic. At least, its first half.

Second, it's 100% instrumental. Carolina doesn't sing, Mladen doesn't sing. No one says a word.

"Pyramids" was recorded in El Tanque (the former petrol tank 50 m in diameter and 18 m in height converted into art space) during 3 day long improvisational sessions. 

It's two LP album but it contains only 7 tracks. Three are two synth-laden tracks ("Pyramids 1", "Pyramids 4"), a bass-driven kraut piece ("Pyramids 2"), an atonal jazz piece with leading trumpet ("Pyramids 3"), two meaty post-rocky tracks ("Reptylian", "Speed Of Darkness") and a space rock elegy ("Wormhole 74"). Structurally they are sequenced to make the whole picture evolve constantly like a spoonful of mercury splashed onto the surface. Album starts from tiny synth musings, then it grows up to guitar-fueled storm and finally calms down descending slowly to serenity and peace. That's the main course but there are multiple pitch roll and yaw corrections on the way.

Summed up, it's not so mindwrenching as "Garden Island" (the album by GAF's another avatar GAF And The Love Supreme Arkestra recorded in the similar circumstances) but it's still an adventurous experience. The listener's discretion is advised.

BNDCMP