Los recuerdos de Sonorama 2013

Just spent some time editing the [mostly poor quality] photos I've made with my mobile phone till Sonorama fest in August.

Sin Rumbo:

Cyan:

Igloo:

Leon Benavente:

Pumuky:

Havalina:

Stay:

Xoel Lopez & his band:

The New Raemon & Maga:

Mi Pequena Radio:

Garamendi:

Dorian:

The Best Of 2013. Albums 10 - 4

10. Cyan “Delapso” (p) Sony/BMG

Under the wing of the international major label the Barcelonians Cyan have perfected their sound for the 3rd album, having now all the components in the right proportion and delivering the stark guitar/piano-pop melodies (both easily sing-alongable, as "Philippe Petit", and not so easily distinguishable, as "Solo Es Una Herida") brushed with ethereal strings and translucent electronica.

09. Maryland “Los Anos Muertos” (p) Ernie Producciones

From the very beginning of their 3rd album the band do it full-throttle: the drums are banging, the guitars are ringing and buzzing, and overall picture makes me recalling the international punk-rock acts such as Alkaline Trio, for instance, or the 1st album of the fellow countrymen Mi Pequena Radio. 

It seems to me that the Galician indie-label Ernie Producciones, who are also the home of such the renowned musicians as Julio De La Rosa or Ninos Mutantes, make no faults at all in selection of the artists they promote. Really, I haven't ever listened to the bad album with the 'balancing man' stamp on it.

08. Dorian “La Velocidad Del Vacio” (p) PIAS

The first impression: Dorian started to move towards the Great Britain islands, so it's no surprise that "La Velocidad Del Vacio" was recorded with Phil Vinall (the british producer who worked with Elastica, Black Box Recorder and Placebo, to name a few) behind the dashboard. But the experience of the band prevented them from being another Bastille or someone like that, and Marc Gil and his companeros got no problems with self-determination. The sound of the album is a bit colder in comparison with the previous effort "La Ciudad Subterrania" but their electronica truly have the heart. And the small amount of guitar noise.

07. Igloo “04. El Conjunto Vacio” (p) Ernie Producciones

The previous album of the Galicians (yes, they're also on Ernie Producciones) Igloo was much more straightforward rock, but the band is inclined to improve the sound with every subsequent release, and in terms of the sound palette "El Conjunto Vacio" is the major step forward. This album isn't easy, it doesn't wear all its insides on its sleeves. You should listen to it deeper and deeper, and then even much deeper to reach the comprehension of what Beni Ferreiro ans his pals have created for us. Gone is the sheer post-punk of the previous releases, let's meet the best rock band of Gattaca.

And don't forget the best cover of the year!

06. Mucho “El Apocalipsis Segun Mucho” (p) Marxophone

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away there was the band who almost reached international success, and the band was The Sunday Drivers. After the dismissal of the band in 2009 the leader Jero Romero launched successful solo career, and the other members teamed up with Martin Perarnau from Underwater Tea Party and started Mucho. “El Apocalipsis Segun Mucho” is the second full lenght work of the band. It's the concept album dedicated, as you might see from the title, to the end of the world. 'The end of the world according to Mucho' is accompanied by the pleasant melodies you can easily sing along with. What really makes this album so good is the Mucho's ability to create the song that is lightbodied enough to attract listeners while being not too conventional at the same time - in the wide pallette of rhythms, tempos, dynamics etc.

05. Ivan Ferreiro “Val-Miñor – Madrid. Historia Y Cronologia Del Mundo” (p) Warner Music Spain

“Val-Miñor – Madrid. Historia Y Cronologia Del Mundo” is also the concept album of sorts. It was conceived as the vehicle to transfer the solipsist vision of its auteur to the grateful listeners. So it is probably the most personal album of Ivan Ferreiro. The good thing about "Val-Minor..." is that Ivan rejected the sound and rhythms of cheap cabaret ballroom which was usual on two of his previous works: "Mentiroso Mentiroso" and "Picnic Extraterrestre". The bad thing - the album doesn't contain the direct hit of "Cancion Humeda" or "Fahrenheit 451"-like grandeur. Despite this fact, the album has shown that creative form of today's Ivan Ferreiro is somewhere between 'mighty' and 'omnipotent'. You can't resist to the atmosphere of his travel, and you simply fall into - and it doesn't matter whether or not (or how) you relate to the world named 'Ivan Ferreiro'.

04. Miss Caffeina “De Polvo Y Flores” (p) Warner Music Spain

Luckily I can just repeat something I have said previously: "With the new album "De Polvo Y Flores" ("Of Dust And Flowers") Miss Caffeina distinguished almost unbelievable level of melodicism. The songs 'Gigantes', 'Venimos', 'San Francisco', 'MM' and especially 'Hielo T' got such the armour-crashing choruses that it seemed like the band had written them for the pan-universal song contest where Miss Caffeina would be the only contestant from planet Earth". 

Vertigo, sparkles and the pack of melodies any given renowned hitmaker would kill for.

Sonorama Ribera 2013. The Report. Day 2, 16.08.2013. Travelling and running - Part 1

As long as we came here only for 4 days we needed some time to spend it for travelling around and sightseeing. The 2nd day of Sonorama perfectly fit for this intention because all the important bands were gathered in what I called 'the main unit' giving us half a day free of duties. So we travelled to Valladolid and spent a couple of hours walking the streets of the town, and on the way back we made another one hour-long stop in Penafiel town, a home to such famous bodegas as Protos and Arzuaga, amongst others.

Valladolid

Penafiel

The day 2 schedule was as follows:

Plaza del Trigo: Banda de Turistas, Tuya, Jack Knife.

Red Bull: Dune, Sick Devils, Sharon Bates, The Panteras.

Carson Camping: El Capitan Elefante, Plank, Wolrus.

FutureStars: Mummuc, The Chinese Birdwatchers, Alis, Dehra Dun, Pantones, Egon Soda, The Tea Servants, Pumuky, Perro, Capsula.

Castilla y Leon: Tokio Sex Destruction, Leon Benavente, The Corner, Delafe y las Flores Azules, Miss Caffeina.

Ribera del Duero: Cyan, Jero Romero, Travis, Lori Meyers, Dorian.

The marathon should start for us from the show of Cyan, then Leon Benavente, then back to Ribera stage for Jero Romero, then short timeout, then Travis, then Delafe y las Flores Azules, then another run to FutureStars for my personal favourites Pumuky, while the successive shows of Miss Caffeina and Dorian long after midnight should celebrate the end of our day. That was an intention.

So the marafon had started from mercadillo. As long as I'm not the mp3-pirate anymore I'm always in the state of the rage searching for new CDs (and thank you God for not making me a vinyl die-hard) so I couldn't just walk through and then away. 70 Euros ago we came to Cyan show with 3 CDs and 3 t-shirts more.

"Delapso", the 3rd album of Cyan, made some kind of a splash in Spanish rock community this year, taking the band from relative obscurity into relative recognition. While Cyan is on the same plate with Sin Rumbo in terms of musical progress, the presence on the much bigger venue (possibly due to the contract with BMG) did not spoiled their show. The band looked potent and viable though the audience they played for was not so large. We missed the start of the show but when we came we easily approached the security bars before the scene and then were standing, jumping and dancing in front of the bandleaders Javi Fernandez and Gorka Dresbaj carrying out their performance duties.

Cyan

The next point of interest for us was the show of the new sensational supergroup Leon Benavente gathered around the person of Abraham Boba, renowned multi-instrumentalist of the Nacho Vegas supporting band's fame. The band recorded and issued an album in 2013 but one might face some hardships in trying to listen to the recorded material still the album is not on sale and only the single "Animo, Valiente" is available as of now (UPDATE: the album is up for free download from Marxophone label site - you should only subscribe for newsletter).

As far as the music of Leon Benavente is strict and cohesive in studio (as we might know from the only possible source - aforementioned "Animo, Valiente") so it is absolutely outrageous onstage. The show was fully centered at Abraham Boba whether he was sitting with his 'Farfisa' on the very right side of the stage or standing with the guitar in front of the crowd. His behaviour could be described as explosive - with occasional tribal jumps, gutar smashes, chair kicks and finally something that seemed like having sex with 'teclados' - all accompamnied with the loud thunder-like but tight music. And I could not imagine the members of Tachenko and Nacho Vegas' band could produce the music that would be absolutely out of their previous bands' system of coordinates! This was the shock, and it definitely was the positive shock.

Leon Benavente

The next show we have watched from afar as long as Jero Romero had already started performing when we came from Castilla y Leon stage to Ribera del Duero.

Jero Romero is the ex-vocalist of The Sunday Drivers, the band from Toledo who gained some internetional attention in the middle of 2000s with their brit-oriented indie rock sung in English. Now he is accompanied with the string of musicians including, for instance, Charlie Bautista, ex-member of Havalina who also have worked with Tulsa, Christina Rosenvinge, Nino y Pistola amongst others during last few years. Jero Romero's music is now far from the britpop euro-rock and based on the folk rock including the touches of blues and other related genres. And while the music itself was not our kind of pie, they played it so soulfully that we stuck in there for some time.

The crowd for Jero Romero