Lua Gramer "Destruir El Pop"

Lua Gramer "Destruir El Pop" (p)2020 Clifford Records

With the name that sounds like an intention (it can be translated as “To Destroy the Pop Music”) this album provides us with the sweet girl/boy vocals placed in front of post-punk/ indie-pop blend seasoned with the nugaze sound. The way the sweet melodies of the verses are scorched by the bursts of fuzzed-out guitar noise of the choruses is probably to display the announced destruction of pop. I’d single out "Desastre" as the track that showcases the band's modus operandi in the most illustrative way and "La Comunidad" as the best track of the album. Under the bottom line, it sounds like the ideal record for the fans of both The Field Mice and Amusement Parks On Fire.

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3spada "cuaderna d3 bitacora"

3spada "Cuaderna d3 Bitacora" (p)2020

It looks like Paco Espada has created this album without any navigation system. It's like, "What's your destination?" - "My destination is somewhere". He drifts freely through the genres as diverse as neo-prog ("Epitafio d3 Seikilos"), groove metal ("Grey Garden"), funk rock with scratches and ethnic motives ("Just Sound"), cabaret-stylized modal jazz ("Cefiro") or even crossover ("No Way") with his abilities to add some bass-driven component into any given genre clearly on display. With such the heterogenous environment it's obvious that some tracks may work perfectly for you, and some may not. For me, the aforementioned jazz theme doesn't seem like the real deal while the rest of the album with the bunch of tracks forged in the metal-related subgenres got me completely satisfied.

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Sauna Bytes "Sauna Bytes"

Sauna Bytes "Sauna Bytes" (p)2020

From the very first sounds this album welcomes a listener with the elevated vocals and jangling guitars reminiscent of either the pre-Britpop (or even pre-C86) Foggy Albion scene or some 80’s post-punk heroes from Down Under (The Church’s “Heyday” is arguably the most evident influence). Talking about more contemporary – as well as geographically closer – reference points I would like to mention the Madrid-based quartet Pasavento or Sauna Bytes’ Comunidad Valenciana compatriots Peepshow – both bands are visibly following the same path of pro-Britain pop/rock heavily infused with taste, elegance, tone-setting synths and tight ‘exactly as much as required’ drum section. As those bands remain relatively unnoticed by wider audience despite the undeniably high quality of their output I can’t escape the feeling that the lower profile bands (calling them ‘second tier of Spanish indie’ would be offensive, I guess) are now making way more interesting music than the most of their top tier (when you add ‘top’ to ‘tier’ it ceases to sound offensive, though) ‘always-in-the-public-eye’ peers do.

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b1n0 "b1n0"

b1n0 “b1n0” (p)2020 Foehn Records

Look, a lot of the critically acclaimed records of today sound like they were created the following way: all tracks were burned onto a CD, than CD was placed into a grinding machine, and finally the record was glued together from the billion silvery plastic pieces removed out of the grinding machine. If you look regularly into the Pitchfork Media’s ‘best new music’ section you know what I mean - Arca, FKA Twigs, Rosalia’s “El Mal Querer”, etc. While b1n0’s eponymous debut album apparently belongs to the same ‘cross-everything avant-pop’ subgenre of experimental music the aforementioned musicians belong to, it sounds more, dunno… human? Like, “Well, we would like the robots having got their tunes to make love to, but we still shouldn’t ignore eukaryotes”. Thus, on the Arcameter b1n0 are way closer to Moses Sumney than to Jlin.

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Gonzalo Fuster "Almacenero Marx"

Gonzalo Fuster "Almacenero Marx" (p)2020 Discos Belamarh

Have you ever noticed that the most simple sounding music is often the hardest to describe? This is the case of “Almacenero Marx”. It sounds like it’s 60% silence or indistinct homemade ambient noises but how would you describe the other 40%? Free-form minimal no-wave neo-classical musique concrete acid jazz with sporadic laughter, interfamilial dialogues or a toddler's mutter used as vocals? Ok, let's put it like that's the real thing. Do you get the idea? Chances are you don't. It needs to listen to the record to get the idea of it. One-take spontaneity mixed with bedroom pop techniques mixed with avant-garde mind of the former El Ser Humano mastermind.

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Venezia Rojo Shocking "Playful EP"

Venezia Rojo Shocking "Playful EP" (p)2020 

It's good cuz the songs are damn good.

It's bad cuz it's only three song long.

For the fans of James, Idlewild, Galaxie 500. Mostly James.

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Sr. Chinarro "El Bando Bueno"

Sr. Chinarro "El Bando Bueno" (p)2020 Mushroom Pillow

I do believe "El Bando Bueno" might easily be considered the career's best for Sr. Chinarro as it's got everything for that. It's ideal, undoubtedly. Regarding his earlier legacy (let’s say, every album up to “Enhorabuena A Los Cuatro”), I mostly like all these albums but there always are the songs that I don’t like. This is the album where I like every particular song. I insist on there is no weak song on "El Bando Bueno". But for me personally, I still love his saddest, bleakest, most brooding releases (namely "Perspectiva Caballera" and "El Progreso") more than this one because this one sounds a bit too comfortable. It sounds like the man is... happy?

SPTF