The Best Of 2020. Compilations (and a split album)

I’m still devoted to the ‘solo performer or a band’ standard regarding the selection for the main Top50 list but the truth is, if I wasn’t that stubborn the list would be topped by a compilation. One of these compilations below. 

Conjunto Podenco/ Lullavy "Garabato" (p)Repetidor 

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Various Artists "Radar Keroxen Vol.1" (p)Keroxen 

That said best release of the year. Four bands (Gaf Y La Estrella De La Muerte, Conjunto Podenco, Pumuky, Saletile), two tracks per band. The perfect combination of four different approaches united by the commonly shared vision that only Canarians (and the Gaf bandleader/ Keroxen co-head Mladen Kurajica) can share. Gaf's "Watashi Wa Tako" is the best track I have listened to this year.

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Various Artists "We Are Never Alone. Songs of Vic Chesnutt" (p)No Aloha 

The indie label No Aloha Records has started its activity with this quite unexpected tribute to late American singer-songwriter - and this is that rare tribute where every cover version reflects simultaneously the persons of both author of the song and the musician who reimagines it.

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Various Artists "Yo La Tengo C(L)overs" (p)edita la servidumbre 

The huge 52 track tribute to one of the most critically acclaimed indie bands of the world. No surprise at all that this attempt was taken by the [world's best] record store Ultra-Local Records well-known for its friendship ties with Yo La Tengo. There is a suggestion that this comp says more about Spanish underground than of the Hoboken three-piece.

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Various Artists "De Zaragoza a Tokio: Viajando con Capitán Sunrise" (p)Confesiones Tirado en la Pista de Baile 

A lovely compilation of cover versions that celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Santi Diego-led indie pop vehicle. The bands of Puzzles Y Dragones and Detergente Liquido caliber were gathered by the blog Confesiones Tirado en la Pista de Baile to pay homage to one of the Spanish indie pop scene's most renowned bands.

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Conjunto Podenco, Lullavy "Garabato"

Conjunto Podenco, Lullavy "Garabato" (p)2020 Repetidor

This is not that sort of homogenous split album. United by the imprint (Repetidor) and the recording space (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria's La Caterva Grabaciones) sound-wise the bands - Catalan three-piece Lullavy and Gran Canaria-born combo Conjunto Podenco - differ a lot. 

While listening to Lullavy's lone LP "Ruina" (which is completely perfect for my taste) you might apply such tags as 'ethereal' or 'hypnotic' to their 2nd wave emo/post-hardcore odes, but this time the band took different approach to make the stripped-down 'flesh-and-bones' record like if it was produced by Steve Albini. So the result is considerably harsher than "Ruina". When Saul Ibañez sings here you can almost feel his vocal chords are bleeding. The songwriting is still great, "Si No Lo Piensas" is one of the best tracks that saw the light of day this year.

Conjunto Podenco is a tough subject to describe. The band consists of the persons more than well-known within Canarian music community: Fajardo (psych-folk singer-songwriter with successful solo career), Jose A. Lopez (owner of aforementioned La Caterva Grabaciones, recording engineer and producer of multiple local bands) and Angel Clavijo (head of local event agency Conexion Canarias). Based on this info it's hard to predict what their music would sound like before you start to listen to them, right? It's strange, but it doesn't get easier to debrief what you have just listened to afterwards. Like the most of the Canarian bands, Conjunto Podenco act beyond all possible limitations creating the music that seems completely uncategorizable. You may call them post-hardcore but please take in mind that they use post-hardcore angular rhythm base only as a thin layer below all and everything they place on top of it. You're hardly gonna define a cake by the glossy cardboard pad you put it on, ain't you?

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