The Best Of 2020. Top50. 31 - 40

40. Junco Y Mimbre "Junco Y Mimbre" (p)Hidden Track 

Call it jangle pop, call it college rock. What Junco Y Mimbre lack in ambition they compensate it in quality of songwriting.

BNDCMP

39. El Lobo En Tu Puerta "Santana Bendita" (p)Spinda 

One of the best metal releases of the year - I mean, one of the best worldwide. Quirky, heavy, inventive, sarcastic and ultra-melodic record whose creators should be proud of. 

BNDCMP

38. Arista Fiera "Cromatismo Domestico" (p)El Genio Equivocado 

The dreampop band from Malaga. There are songs where you think: "Wow, it's the best release of the year!" There is a couple of songs that leave you less enthusiastic. But the weighted average is undoubtedly high.

BNDCMP

37. Ana Bejar "Sahara Star" (p)Discos Belamarh 

What you see is what you get. Hot, dry, scorched like a world's most famous desert - that's what this music is.

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36. Llum "Los Anos Liquidos" (p)Discos De Paseo 

It took 8 years for indie pop singer/songwriter Jesus Saez to release the successor to "Limelight" (his previous LP) though he released some singles and EPs in the meantime. What could I say - for sure it was worth waiting for Llum's return.

SPTF

35. Nueva Vulcano "Ensayo" (p)La Castanya/ BCore Disc 

Read this 

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34. Kracauer "Diferencia Y Repeticion" (p)Subterfuge 

This name is abolutely new for me. I mean, I know that "kracauer" or "krakauer" means "from Krakow" in German. I know who Jon Krakauer is. But as a band, the name is new. This band is from Murcia, they successfully blend guitars with synths to get a pack of potential hits.

SPTF

33. Breis "On" (p)Sweet Song/ Producciones Acaraperro 

Read this 

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32. Atlantic "Volem Els Ponts" (p)self-released 

This is how to make Weezer's music better than Weezer themselves. The two-faced band (with Maria Lopez as frontwoman they perform as Moonflower) shows considerable progress against their debut record as Atlantic ("1976") which was good in its own right but sounded less concentrated.

BNDCMP

31. Nucli "Ephemeral Water Courses" (p)Hidden Track/ La Plana Sola 

With links to Nueva Vulcano, Bullitt, Cala Vento, Power Burkas and Bad Religion the Catalan band Nucli has created the ultimate punk rock album of the year.

BNDCMP

 

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.