Las Resenas Casuales. Grushenka "Tecnicas Subversivas"

Grushenka "Tecnicas Subversivas" (p)2012 El Genio Equivocado

Named after the female character from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Karamazov Brothers" (yes, yes, the Russian roots are detected!) Barcelona's Grushenka play noise pop. And dreampop. And twee. All in a pretty naive way. I discovered them through the Ondas Del Espacio's Los Planetas' homage CD where they reinterpreted "Mi Hermana Pequena" and were the best band I wasn't familiar with. Honestly, I should say that the Los Planetas' song being played by Grushenka sounds better than any of Grushenka's own songs. But that's not the sentence - it's just the fact ascertaining that the band makes their own songs another way, and judging them by a cover (what a word-play here!) is not the best way to consider them at all.

Stylistically, "Tecnicas Subversivas" lies somewhere halfway from Times New Viking's "Dancer Equired"(which is undoubtedly the calmest album of the usually fast and furious trio) to The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart successfully delivering the carelessness-based creative vision of the first and fragile sincerety of the second.  

The best tracks: El Mecanismo De Defensa, Punset Ya Me Lo Dija, Ese Gran Lunar De Tu Epalda

Las Resenas Casuales. Fira Fem "Fira Fem"

Fira Fem "Fira Fem" (p)2013 Aloud Music

The members of the metropolitan quartet Fira Fem explore the lands of modern 'electronica-meets-indie rock' cliche with their sophomore nameless release. I suppose that  there's a lot of international influences in there but I can't name one. So, there's the one that is not international: Delorean.

The band's music is the danceable mix of echoed vocals, trembling multitracked guitar lines and the neverending flow of evocative electronica. The songs mostly sound like they're remixes. Imagine how the Delorean's remixes on, dunno, The Shins could sound like. I don't think that Fira Fem discover some new horizons with this album but it's interesting enough for not to discard the band. Would try to catch their show on this year's edition of Sonorama.

The best tracks: I Fucked Fira Fem Before They Were Famous, Wrong Movements, Los Novios Son Los Nuevos Zombies

En el Camino A Contempopranea

A Quick Guide To... Jabalina Musica

Jabalina Musica is a cult indie label from Madrid. The label's roster mostly concentrates on the various sub-genres of indie pop. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Jabalina. The date was celebrated by the series of local concerts. For last five years Jabalina and its head Tanis Abellan has produced two absolutely astonishing singles collections: 'Jabalina Love Songs' and 'Dedicatessen'. These collections are published so deliciously that mere appearance of the discs could make your heart go wild. So let's start from the second one.

Graphics of 'Dedicatessen' are designed by Jesus Galvan who is the brother of Antonio Galvan, the man behind the Parade project. 

The series include the following items (in alphabetical order) all printed on colour vinyl:

1. ALDO LINARES y las mujeres
2. AMA ante el virus de la rabia
3. APENINO cerca de las estrellas
4. DOBLE PLETINA contra los amores perdidos
5. J'AIME en la noche eterna 
6. KLAUS&KINSKI a cuatro reinas moras
7. LLUM y la revuelta emocional 
8. PARADE en el estudio Ghibli
9. PUMUKY y el eterno femenino
10. SOLLETICO y el hombre de la casa
11. SOUVENIR y los finales sin fin
12. WILD HONEY Dear Cindy

Most of the bands - well-known (Klaus&Kinski, Parade, Doble Pletina) or not (Solletico, Ama) - deliver different kinds of lo-fi/synth-pop/folk pop/indie pop music with the fragile male/female vocals and general sense of the light melancholy. Even my all-time favorites Pumuky sound here like they do not want to tear the common canvas. I'm not gonna tell you that all these bands and musicians are the same or anything like that - no, absolutely. They are all different and all have their own features, but they have something in common here within this series - let it be baritone-voiced singer/songwriter Llum or quirky pop experimentators Doble Pletina, or Klaus&Kinsky who abandoned their twee in favor of loose acoustic piano-based songs.

For me, being familiar with the most of the presented musicians, nevertheless I've made one good discovery here - J'aime. His americana-tinged music is the perfect soundtrack for the rainy evenings spent home alone with a good bottle of wine.

Las Resenas Casuales. Eric Fuentes "Barcelona"

Eric Fuentes "Barcelona" 3CD, (p)2014, BCore Disc

Ex-leader of the renowned alternative band The Unfinished Sympathy Eric Fuentes has done a lot of work. Triple album - can you imagine that? Who's gonna issue triple albums these days? 

To prevent the album from being boring on the same templates repeated for 30+ times over and over again, Eric has chosen the way not to be concentrated on himself. He has invited some friends from the local music community to sing some songs. It was a good idea because these songs that were sung by different singers got the new dimensions and the new characters. The standout track of that kind is by no means the one that is sung by local superhero Ramon Rodriguez who usually goes under the alias The New Raemon, "Disfruta Perdiendo".

Most of the songs are sung in English - much as the back catalogue of The Unfinished Sympathy was. But the best track on the whole album is in Catalan ("Amb L'Algua Al Coll", and I have posted it here in the blog two weeks earlier). The second best track - El Hombre Burbuja-like "Incansable" is not English-languaged as well.

Probably, you can't call "Barcelona" unified cos the songs on the album are pretty much diversified in style. But it's strong feature is that you can feel how Eric simply does what he wants without any convoluted production tricks and martyr-like attemts to give the songs the additional glance. The whole album is not so long overall (~100 min) and it will hardly make you fall into boredom. But you will hardly like every song on it.

The best tracks: Amb L'Algua Al Coll, Incansable, Future Lovesong, Disfruta Perdiendo

Ha Llegado: VV AA "De Viaje Por Los Planetas"

This weekend has brought me the good news: my copy of "De Viaje Por Los Planetas" arrived.

"De Viaje Por Los Planetas" is a limited edition book ((c) Ondas Del Espacio) which marks 20th anniversary of the first Los Planetas' LP "Super 8", with the companion CD that includes the cover versions of LP's songs made by renowned Spanish bands such as Pumuky, Doble Pletina, Klaus & Kinski, McEnroe, Disco Las Palmeras! and others.

The book is only about to be read, but CD was auditioned right after the mail package was torn apart. 

Most of the bands involved into the project are well-known not only within the music community but also for the foreign beholders like me. 

Doble Pletina, Klaus & Kinski, Denver  - they have turned Los Planetas' songs into their own pieces. For instance, it's almost impossible to discover some familiar sounds of the [probably] most famous LP's track "Que Puedo Hacer" in the version made by K&K. Odio Paris and Pumuky were more accurate to the legacy of the band which was one of the main influences for them. The absolutely gorgeous version was made by Pamplona's finest Muy Fellini. 

At least two bands have surprised me in the good way: Grushenka and Universal Circus. Never heard of them before, but both are absolutely great.

The Next Stop: Contempopranea

Despues del concierto de GAF tenemos una nueva direccion...

Oh, sorry, just got psyched. But yes, there's a new direction ahead.

Contempopranea.

Province of Extremadura, town of Badajoz, XIXth edition of the fest.

Originally, Contempopranea took place in Alburquerque but this year it will be divided into two sets: 1st in Badajoz (6-7th of June) and 2nd in Alburquerque (25-26th of June). Taking in mind the fact that 1st set of the fest would coincide with my birthday we have decided to put this event into our schedule.

In the very beginning of my falling for rock espanol I dreamt about visiting Contempopranea, and finally the dream will come true. The  1st leg of this year's edition includes the sets of Izal, Sidonie, Love Of Lesbian, Ivan Ferreiro - all these names could make me go mad, and the chances are they will.