Las Resenas Casuales. Letters From Reykjavik "Kalt"

Letters From Reykjavik "Kalt" (p)2012 El Hombre Bala Records

Another rock band from Canary Islands I have got acquainted with right now. Starting from year 2010 this six-piece indie-rock combo was successfully mixing La Habitacion Roja's translucent pop-psychedelia with shoegaze-touched sounds and angular post-punk bass lines in the vein of Galicians Igloo. The detached vocals of the singer Ruben Guisado made me recall at times The National's Matt Berninger, at times Esteban Ruiz from Sevilla-based band The Baltic Sea (another great band that I have to tell about a bit later).

I have found them some time ago through El Hombre Bala Records' bandcamp page and bought an album for just 1 Euro - but started listening only today while having my weekly trip from my native Tula to Moscow. And I was pretty shocked in a good way. This obscure band produced such the powerful music that within the first minute of the first song I came to conclusion that I was listening to the great band (yes, usually I make this kind of decisions pretty quickly). With every subsequent song I was frightened that the band might not be able to maintain the certain level of greatness they'd already approached - but every time my fears were false. It seemed like all six members of the Letters From Reykjavik had enough imagination to apply the amount of creative freedom into the tight structures of a post-punk based pop song. And don't forget about really cool melodies here.

Overall, "Kalt" is the powerful and melodic guitar-driven music that sounds fresh and can make you nod your head to every beat of the drums. Great album with no strings attached. It's so sad that the band finally called it quits last autumn after 4 years spent together.

The best tracks: Broken Fences, Suddenly, Ballad

Las Resenas Casuales. Najwa "Rat Race"

Najwa "Rat Race" (p)2014 WEA Spain

Q: What is the most common thing between guinea pigs and the band Brasilian Girls?
A: Guinea pigs don't relate neither to Guinea nor to pigs.

First of all, this is NOT the dance-pop album. No.

Possibly, Najwa Nimri might think that her previous work "Donde Rugen Los Volcanes" which also has that distinct electronica sound was a bit lifeless. To breathe life into these cold and mechanistic sounds and beats the former actor had teamed up with New York-based electronic duo Brasilian Girls, and started to write songs in English, then went on full frontal on the disc's cover, then made provocative teaser videos, and finally appeared naked on the cover of the magazine. Wait, I forgot that she started singing in English.

The final result, however, doesn't differ much from "Volcanes". Where the new album lacks in nerve in comparison with the predecessor, "Rat Race" considerably exceeds it in accessibility and melodicism - but not to the point where it could be like 'well, "Donde Rugen Los Volcanes" was avant garde IDM and "Rat Race" is europop'. This is the record that seemingly strives to be 'pop', but really it isn't.

So I should declare that Najwa Nimri-Brasilian Girls team has finally created the album which apperas like Madonna's "Confessions On A Dancefloor" for the mentally rich.

And did I say that they made her to start singing in English?

The best tracks: Feed Us, Ballerina Legs, I've Seen that Face Before

Las Resenas Casuales. La Habitacion Roja "La Moneda En El Aire"

La Habitacion Roja "La Moneda En El Aire" (p)2014 Mushroom Pillow

This is a short story rather than a review.

In the very end of September'2013 me and my mujer Tanya were standing on the top of el Teide, the sleeping volcano for whom the isle of Tenerife should say 'thank you' for this isle's mere existence. The day was mostly sunny and we could see the 4 more isles around in the waters of Atlantic ocean, but on the top of the mountain the velocity of the wind was around 46 kms per hour and it was really cold. Our clothes were not intended for such the conditions, so we had a little time to spend there. But when we were only climbing up the mountainside one of our intentions was to sing some song on the top.

This idea sounded pretty beautiful: two people in love with each other, in love with Tenerife, toda la Espana and the local rock music being standing upon the highest mountain of Spain and singing the great song in Spanish. The song was not chosen in advance, though.

The previous day we met Noe Ramirez from Pumuky and spent an hour with him, so [the song penned by the local Tenerifian band] 'Los Enamorados' could be a good choice to sing. But it was so cold out that the words came into my mouth suddenly, and the words were: "Si tu y yo eramos tan felices, si tu y yo eramos indestructibles". We shouted them out several times and then started climbing down. So one of the emblematic moments in our life was marked by La Habitacion Roja's song.

The new album is the logical successor of the previous effort, "Fue Electrico" - to the point where it could be named "Fue Electrico Pt. 2". Recorded in the famous Rockfield Studios by the band teamed up again with the producer Santi Garcia, the whole album seems to be carefully grown up from 'Ayer', the song which was chosen The Song Of The Year by many Spanish mass media two years ago. So, if you liked "Fue Electrico" much, the new album is the fruit for you.

The best tracks: La Moneda En El Aire, No Quiero Ser Como Tu, Si Tu Te Vas (Magnifica Desolacion)

How It All Started, or What Brings The Spanish Grief To This Guy?

I have a bunch of columns in my blog now. 'Las Resenas Casuales' is for reviews, 'Los Treinta Principales' is for the best 30 albums of Spanish indie rock on my humble opinion (or, should I better call this 'The 30 Albums That I Truly Love And Adopt The Grandeur Of''?), 'Las Canciones Ocasionales' is for occasional videos which I suppose to be pretty interesting for some reasons. I started an overview of the bands from Canary Islands - the thing which never was made in English before. I dream of starting getting the interviews here. And the question is 'Why?' Or 'What's up to you, guy? What happened to you and made you totally wasted and fucked up? Why, for the God's sake, Spanish indie rock?'

I don't know, really. It was something like that.

Autumn of the year of 2006. 6:55 a.m. I'm sitting in front of the TV set and having my breakfast (I recall this to be some kind of sandwich) before going to the work. And it's 'Euronews' channel on TV. I'm talking with my wife and looking on the screen without a care. The 'music' section of Euronews could be pretty interesting at times. Not this time, possibly, as this morning there is someone called Deluxe. Never been heard about him. The skinny and unshaven guy in black clothes leaves his bycicle at the fence, sits on the low barrier of the playground in the park and starts playing a song with his acoustic guitar to a bunch of occasional beholders. 

And within the next minute I stopped chewing, stopped talking. Even stopped breathing.

I can't recall the song Deluxe (yes, I learned only his alias from this short clip) was playing. I only know that the song changed my life.

The next couple of years I was trying to find in Internet some information about this guy. And it was not an easy target. First af all  - requesting 'Deluxe' in Google you might retrieve the whole lot of useless trash including tons of deluxe versions of everything along with, dunno, VIP prostitutes. The second obstacle - my native town of Tula was not that sort of advanced place of living in terms of Internet expansion. It was, frankly speaking, one step above the dial-up.

The things started changing in the 1st half of 2008 when I moved to Moscow. Having cheap and fast Internet now, I learned that Deluxe was the alias of Galician native Xoel Lopez. But the far more important thing that I learned from all of my unstoppable searches: there were lots of great bands in Spain besides him. I recall Tulsa to be the second Spanish band I fell in love with, and my actual all-time favorites Love Of Lesbian were the third. Then I learned about Mi Pequena Radio, Pumuky, Vetusta Morla, El Nino Gusano, El Hombre Burbuja, Mercromina, etc. There were also lots of Spanish-languaged musical blogs which were mostly piratic ones. Some of them successfully converted into the informational and cultural resources intended for the support of indie musicians: El Mundo De Tulsa, Senor Pollo leaving their unfair past behind - and some fell into obscurity.

I might start this blog in Spanish - but there are many music blogs in Spanish which are far better than mine (I'm just living too far from the event places - and I'm way too shy to finally start making interviews! - to create really good resource). But almost no one talks about this great scene in other languages.

Why not in Russian? There is a big problem with my countrymen - they like something for free very much and don't like at all to pay for something they used to get for free. But I don't - and never will - give links to mp3s here unless it's free distribution by an artist himself - and it vastly diminishes the importancy of me and my blog in the eyes of an average Russian music lover. I know it sounds a bit snobbish - but that's the fact.

Las Canciones Ocasionales. Russian Red, Najwa

In February two of the most recognizable girls in Spanish rock music - Lourdes Hernandez aka Russian Red and Najwa Nimri aka Najwa - are going to release their new albums. And they decided to support the albums with some kind of pretty strange videos.

A Brief Overview Of The Canarian Rock, Vol. 1

What makes me wonder about the Canarian music scene the most - is that dichotomy between this impression of the enclave of Heaven on Earth which Canary Islands appear in the eyes of the outside beholder, and the gloomy music this place generates. Really, instead of being as merry and sunny as the beaches of Las Americas or Maspalomas the music is mostly dark and inward-looking and unconventionally structured and convoluted as the bound limbs in the forests of Anaga.

San Borondon

This project of another local band Malcortado participant Jorge Miranda plays folksy and at times quirky yet tuneful lo-fi indie-rock. Their music is simple enough to easily attract a listener while having its own roughnesses and angles left unpolished.

Cabeza Borradora

One of the most longstanding musical projects of the Canary Islands, Cabeza Borradora, named after the David Lynch's enigmatic "Eraserhead" movie, appeared from the hot and heavily inclined streets of La Orotava, Tenerife, in 1993 to spread around the sound of Madchester wearing the influences of Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, New Order and Jesus Jones on their sleeves. The band went on to hiatus in 2000 and stayed silent for almost 13 years when returning in the very end of 2012 with the updated line-up, new concerts schedule and new release named "The Jack Nance EP" planned for 2014.

Malaspecto

The idyosynchratic duo focuses on Casiotone-based cartoon-voiced lo-fi techno pop. The band left several years in hiatus but recently returned to making music and released their reedited 2002 album through the local El Hombre Bala imprint in 2013.

Malcortado

This band from Gran Canaria island pays homage to 90's american indie movement playing loud and fresh indie rock in the vein of Superchunk and others of that generation proving that this type of music is not dated. The band only is to record a full lenght.

GAF & la Estrella De La Muerte

Led by Mladen Kurajica, the loose psychedelic and mostly instrumental combo emerged from Santa Cruz de Tenerife. GAF is another Canarian band well-known on the mainland, having 4 LPs in the background - all issued via Barcelona-based Foehn Records - and gigs in such countries as Japan and Mexico. The most recent album, "Sunriser" (p)2013 has received favourable reviews all over Spain. The centerpiece of this record is the gorgeous 20-something minutes long track "Yannakis" which amalgamated almost all basic elements of GAF's music: dreamy pipes and other winds, trippy translucent guitar drones, athmospheric ambient sounds, quasi-ritual drums - all this comes through lightweight first half of the track twisting and coiling up and down to become the armor-crashing wall of sound in second half. And it makes me recalling little-known space rock bands like Poem Rocket or SIANspheric4.

El Pilar Azul

A solo project of Pumuky's current line-up guitarist Adan Zeus. "El Constante Sin Nombre", the debut longplay of the band, reached #14 in my 'Top30 of 2013' list, but now I think that it should have a bit higher ranking - as long as I'm listening to it on an everyday basis. The slow evolving post-rock-oriented music of rare beauty.

Pumuky

Formerly raised from Ycod de los Vinos, Tenerife, this musical vehicle of Jair Ramirez quickly became the most notable band ever emerged from Canarias. Having 'revolving door' cast of musicians in the band (the only constant member of Pumuky besides Jair is his brother Noe) now Pumukies include Adan Zeus from El Pilar Azul, Dani Benavides (one-time member of El Pilar Azul, who also has the project of his own, LuzFuturo), Acaymo D and Jose A. Lopez from Malcortado.

Working for several initial years with no visible results, Jair had crystallized his music vision which resulted in building up the sound of his own. The first longplay "De Viaje Al Pais De Las Tormentas"  ("From The Travel To The Country Of Thunders") (p) 2006 was somewhat of a halfway to the perfection. The album had minor impact on the music scene but established Pumuky as 'persons of further interest' as well as allowed the band to make new connections within the scene.

The things roughly changed in a good way in 2009 when the second full lenght named "El Bosque En Llamas" ("The Forest In Flames") entered almost all the year-end national music polls, and along with the mainland longstays Vetusta Morla who released their debut LP "Un Dia En El Mundo" that year Pumuky were marked as the biggest national indie-rock sensations.

The next full lenght effort "Plus Ultra" deserved 2 years of working, and when being released it marked the slight change of the musical direction with the band now mostly focusing on dreampop sound.

Two years later the band released an EP "Pumuky Y El Eterno Femenino" for their label Jabalina Musica 'Dedicatessen' series. So now Pumuky is the band of absolutely unique sound - unique not only for Spain but for the worldwide music scene as well. The nation's property, not less.

Saletile

The ambient noise post-rock/krautrock duo from the town of Los Realejos, Tenerife. They have several EPs ("Trilogia Acustica", "Trilogia Noise", "SALE TILE") in back catalogue, all of them are up for free download from their BC page. The interstellar travels-inspired music of Saletile sounds interesting and innovative and seems to be free from the shortcomings which are common for the music of such type - it doesn't put you into that totally drugged-out state of mind.

A sampler of the actual sounds of Canarian scene you can obtain now from the BC page of local label El Hombre Bala Records.

Las Resenas Casuales. Lendrone "Uno"

Lendrone "Uno" (p)2013 Matapadre Discografica

This is the first full lenght from the Galician experimental rock combo. In the world where Chileans Mostro are the highest extremum of experimentation, and the old 'american underground' pre-post-rock instrumental band Pell Mell is the lowest one, Lendrone with their mixture of complicated with simple and banal with inventing could be some kind of semantic middle.

"Uno" is divided onto two parts by the intermediate segue called "La Mecanique Moderne" which is considerably shorter and quieter than any other track on the album. Before and after the aforementioned track we have the captiously built-up instrumental krautrock-tinged math-rock where the heavy use of syntesizers meets the occasional bursts of noise, overloaded bass lines are beaded on the convoluted rhythmical patterns, and where the plain canvas of a composition can all of a sudden explode with the guitar overdrive.

'The heavy use of synthesizers', 'convoluted rhythmical patterns', 'overloaded bass lines' - these features are the common place for the most of 'experimental-math-noise-jazz-everything else'-fusion bands, and the main thing lays in the surface of the proportions. In case of Lendrone the proportions are definitely right. The trio from La Coruna gives the listener the fascinating trip without taking away the time to rest and breath easily from him.

The best tracks: Don Balon, La Marcha Solar, Methavolante

The digital version of the album you can download from the Matapadre bancamp page or Lendrone BC on the 'name your price' basis.