Feliz Año Nuevo 2015!

My dear musicians and music lovers, Happy New Year to all of you and your families! And thank you very much for being here!
Here below I put the only photo that catched the moment of my greatest triumph connected to rock español. Yes, that guy in blue shirt in the upper left backstage (next to the girl in blue dress) - that's me. The foto is the property of Musica Para Marsupiales blog (musicaparamarsupiales.com).

Presentando la Banda. Hacia las Rocas Imantadas

Hacia las Rocas Imantadas "Noray" EP (p)2013
Hacia las Rocas Imantadas "aNИa" EP (p)2014

This is not the easiest subject to review. Definitely this is not the music for everyone. Sometimes it's not even 'music' in the common sense of the word. Not a band in the common sense of the word, Hacia las Rocas Imantadas is an audiovisual collective where the music, the novel or the video cannot (or shouldn't) be considered apart from other creative sides of the bandmembers. Conducted by the 38 years old 'man of many talents' David Bailon (apart from his musical self within Hacia las Rocas Imantadas he's also a writer and a comic book author) together with his adherents Miguel Castro and Maria Muñoz, these sound collages are like the sketches from the extraterrestrial scrapbook where nothing is stable and nothing is habitual. You hardly can find the songs here (there are vocal parts but the vocals are mostly the narrations). What you'll get are the crawling, fragile and hypnotic free-form tracks that incorporate the diverse range of sub-styles and influences like lo-fi, ambient, space rock, Fennesz, Fushitsusha and the early Mercury Rev and mix them to the point where it does not make sense trying to categorize the final result.
It is definitely an adventurous listening but it's a good adventure to dive into.

Hacia las Rocas Imantadas' Bandcamp page
Hacia las Rocas Imantadas' Facebook page

Presentando la Banda. Clara Plath "Hi Lola !!" EP

Clara Plath "Hi Lola !!" (p)2014 Self-released

I am very pleased to present to you the young and restless quintet from Murcia: Clara Plath. Unfortunately, this short album has come to my hands too late to be included in the "best of" lists but it surely deserves it. First of all - Clara Plath, the namesake frontwoman of the band, has the beautiful sexy voice. The second - the music the band plays is good old school indie rock with the prevalence of guitars. I have a bent for this kind of music so two names have occurred to me right from the dark times of the 90's indie: The Geraldine Fibbers and Helium. Both bands were led by the girls with the deep voices (Carla Bozulich and Mary Timony respectively), and both bands were making music so loud that it was in controvercy to those girls' pretty appearances. Apparently, the Clara's songs are more conventional in terms of structure and dynamics but the 'loud clanging guitars and the rich voice of the female singer over them' template is present anyway.
The five-piece consists, apart from the girl at the mic, of Roberto Lopez (guitars and keyboards), Gabi Holden (guitars), Miguel Angel (bass) and Sergio Nicolei (drums). They are able to create the sound which is coherent and thick. The "Hi Lola !!" EP contains six songs plus one hidden track, and all the songs are memorable (with "A Whisper" as the most memorable amongst them) footstompers less or more rocking. Any of these songs might be a hit single, so this short album is very close to perfection within the chosen way/style/genre, I suppose.

You can easily get the full album HERE and/or like the Facebook page HERE.

The post #101. Comps of Foehn Records and El Hombre Bala Records

It's the post #101, so it's something like starting a new life. And I'd like to start this new life with something good for everyone who reads these words.

Two of the best and most innovative labels of Spain - Foehn Records (Barcelona) and El Hombre Bala (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) - have released recently their compilations of the best 2014's tracks of the bands from their rosters. And you can get them for free on the labels' bandcamp pages (see the links below).

Foehn Records 2014

El Hombre Bala Records 2014

Enjoy.

P.S. I think I should make my own compilation right now. Oh, no - no 'right now'. A bit later.

The Best Of 2014. Album #1 (and the post #100)

The fractured.

The sick.

The morbid.

The hysterical.

The ironic.

The balladesque.

The minstrel-like.

The haunted.

The dark.

The spooky.

The best album of the year is...

...01. Joe La Reina "Bailamos Por Miedo"

(p)Subterfuge

Ademas, it's my post #100 in this blog! I should clebrate this somehow...

The Best Of 2014. Albums 2 - 3

03. Rufus T. Firefly "Nueve"
(p)LagoNaranja

It was an absolute shock. At the moment when music stopped I got stuck with my mouth open and my mind totally blown out. It was not an intention, but this album crawled through my system like a venomous reptile. Call it psychedelic pop, call it space rock, call it everything you want to, but this quintet from Madrid suburbs has created an album which is deep, smart, obscure, blurry, diverse and coherent, absolutely controlled and wide as space all at once.

The thing that speaks for itself: "Nueve" was produced and mixed by Manuel Cabezali from Havalina, the man who rarely makes a fault.

02. Vetusta Morla "La Deriva"

(p)Pequeno Salto Mortal

From the moment I heard "Golpe Maestro" for the first time I was pretty sure that this album is going to be the champion. I wrote a review in English, a review in Russian as well as the first attempt of the history of Vetusta Morla in Russian. I saw no alternative for the most part of the year. And the only thing that finally made "La Deriva" a runner-up is as follows: the album that made it on the very top really came as a surprise while "La Deriva" has shown the highest level of the band but it was no surprise at all. 

The Best Of 2014. Albums 4 - 10

10. Acuario "Cassette Para Los Niños"

(p)Marxophone

The solo analogue electronica project of Nudozurdo's Leo Mateos. These great tunes (imagine something between Depeche Mode's "Some Great Reward" and Dorian's "La Ciudad Subterranea") accompanied by the familiar plaintive vocals of Leo should be the good intermediate POI for the one who's waiting for the next Nudozurdo release - but it's not good, in fact. It appears to be fucking good.

09. Guerrera "Mauna Loa"

(p)Matapadre

A supergroup of sorts (Guerrera represents the members of the local Galician indie bands - such diverse as melodic indie/grunge-oriented Holywater or blackened crust/hardcore Ictus, for example), this band is the energy, the fury and the rampage all incapsulated and wrapped up in psychedelic/ sludge/ progressive thunderstorm.

08. I Am Dive "Wolves"

(p)Foehn

A total opposite to Guerrera, I Am Dive's new album is the quiet slowcore mixed with ambient IDM and dreampop, a perfect soundtrack to the lonely hours spent on the thin border between the reality and the dream.

07. Sr. Chinarro "Perspectiva Caballera"

(p)VEEMMM

In the 2010's Antonio Luque has come to the 'album per year' schedule. But despite the short interims between albums the last one contains some visible changes to the renowned musician's usual template. On his most recent work Antonio sounds like he was bitten by Bill Callahan. So, "Perspectiva Caballera" is the most cohesive album in Sr. Chinarro's history - and probably the saddest one.

06. Niños Mutantes "El Futuro"

(p)Ernie Producciones

Though "Las Noches de Insomnio" and "Naufragos" contained some truly great songs, but they did not work for me as albums. So "El Futuro" is their first album in years which contains some great songs and works very well as a whole.

05. Sidonie "Sierra Y Canada"

(p)Sony/Octubre

The best bittersweet pop album of the year. "These songs surely will make sing and dance along and get stuck in your head for [at least] months", I wrote 8 months ago. And now I must admit that it works just like I predicted.

04. Poomse "Vs.The Kingdom Of Death"

(p)Foehn

With two albums in Top10 and absolutely fantastic Karen Koltrane short album, Barcelona-based Foehn Records is the 'Champion of All Indie Labels' in 2014. The Poomse's album was the first released by Foehn this year - in the very beginning of February, so this album follows me all the year through. With the songs like "Empty Sea", "August, 2011" and especially "Daily Bread" it's the best companion for the old school indie rock fan like me.