Pumuky "No Sueltes Lo Efímero"(p)2025 Keroxen

"Our songs are mostly about love, but almost none of them are about romantic love," the closing statement of Pumuky’s latest interview to La Provincia explains a lot about Jaír Ramírez’s creative approach.

Love as loss, love as obsession, love as a heavy burden… That’s where he used to tread.

The average listener's apathy is killing me. "Castillo Interior", the double EP released five years ago, should have attracted to Pumuky at least some portions of Jamie Stewart’s (Xiu Xiu) and Jim Tamborello’s (Dntel) fanbases. But it didn’t. I hope now the things are gonna change.

Pumuky has once again become a band—Mariano (bass) and Albert (drums) have joined the lineup. How long were Jaír and Noé on their own—seven years? Eight? They needed to spend that time adjusting to changed circumstances: starting families, the birth of daughters... The things like that. The tracks for "Castillo Interior" were recorded by Jaír at night on a laptop while Nayra and Gara were asleep. The new album was recorded at La Mina, Raúl Pérez’s Granada-based recording studio responsible for my last year's Top3 albums.  

There’s a tangible hope that "No Sueltes Lo Efímero" will hit the mark. All three pilot singles received a unanimous reaction, often dubbed "universal acclaim". Journalists, fans, and casual listeners alike are thrilled. "Lo Recuerdo Todo" (the second single) feels like the heaviest song in the band’s back catalogue. Jaír once shared the story of "La Singularidad"—the third single—on Twitter: the song traces back to "Erizar La Alma" from Pumuky’s 2003 debut demo. 259 months in the making.  

Every Pumuky album is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle: no two are alike, yet each undeniably belongs to the same picture. The same multiverse. "No Sueltes Lo Efímero" seamlessly connects with "Plus Ultra" (2011) and "Justicia Poética" (2015): shoegaze and slowcore, a bradycardic rhythm, and a velour-lined wall of sound. Ethereal electronics and guitars—so loud and dense, yet creating a sense of fragility, a half-reality of what’s happening.

Plus Jaír’s voice—a voice "from the other side," a voice "from another planet." Utterly detached from both earth and sky.  

The album has no weak spots. They could have randomly picked three other songs as singles and still gotten the same universal acclaim. "Terriblemente Bello", "Estudio Sobre Mi Rabia" and "Hablando Con Los Animales" - this selection could have been as strong as any other.

What haven’t I mentioned yet? Myself. For me, this is deeply personal story. My favorite and historically significant band (alongside Yo, Estratosférico). My friends. I’ve hugged their wives, I’ve given their daughters the toy rabbits. I’m as biased as it gets, and I’m absolutely thrilled to be that biased when my favorite band's new album comes out.

That’s how it goes.

This Drama "Loose Talk" (p)2023 Golden Robot

This Canary Islands-based band managed to sign its name into the canon of Deep Elm Records - the seminal indie label and one of the key factors in Midwest Emo bloom in the second half of the 90s. But don't expect this mini album to throw all the well-documented hallmarks of the aforementioned genre right in your face. It meets you and greets with... an acoustic guitar riff?! Yes! These six songs are entirely based on the acoustic riffage, the tight basslines and vocals balancing on the thin line between a sad sigh and a sarcastic grimace.

It strongly reminds me of "Arboreal" - the latest to date album of another loud-turned-semi-acoustic band Holywater from Galicia province. Another clear reminiscence is the [half-forgotten Georgians'] Dead Confederate "Peyote People" mini-album and its centrepiece "First Fires". 

Thus, despite their creators' emo past, these songs are not about expression of emotions, they are about keeping them inside. They're about channeling the inner tension, and they're perfect in it.

SPTF 

DOM "Warm" (p)2023 self-released

The first word that comes to mind upon listening to the new release of Domingo Aleman's "household" solo project DOM is 'visceral'. You can almost see how this music pours out of Domingo's body in its own intuitive way. How it paves its way through his skin pores. How it streams through his fingers short-circuiting the guitar strings. How it's pulsating within the drumkit (yes I know the drums are programmed but I'm not speaking of what I know, I'm only speaking of how it feels). 

The tracks are quite repetitive and it's the case when repetition transforms into captivity. That's why the longest tracks are the best here (for me personnally I'd prefer this to be glued together into one 40 minutes long piece without pauses between the tracks). As long as Domingo is not your conventional songwriter with the songs built up on some basic four chord sequences there is no standard verse-chorus structure to be found on this album. So the music just flows around to envelope you with its vibe and to move you to another place full of tribal rhythm, offbeat synths and fluid desert rock guitars.

BNDCMP