The Best Of 2015. 10x10

In terms of longplays it was some kind of a martyr for me to choose the better albums out of the good ones. I've spent hours and hours after hours writing and re-writing the lists. What you see below is the result of many iterations.
So let's go. The 10th place, ten albums, 10x10.

Los Rusos Hijos De Puta "La Rabia Que Sentimos Es El Amor Que Nos Quitan" (p)self-released Listen/Buy

La Perra De Pavlov "Cronica De Un Movimiento" (p)self-released

AMA "Nada Dos Veces" (p)Jabalina Listen/Buy

Perro "Estudias, Navajas" (p)Miel De Moscas Listen/Buy

Bye Bye Lullaby "Origen" (p)self-released Buy

WANN "We Knew It Was You" (p)self-released Listen

Grushenka "La Insoportable Levedad Del Ser" (p)El Genio Equivocado Listen/Buy

Hazte Lapon "No Son Tu Marido" (p)El Genio Equivocado Listen/Buy

Tulsa "La Calma Chicha" (p)Gran Derby Buy Listen

Vacaciones "Soy Tu Fan" (p)Discos De Kirlian Listen/Buy

• The second effort of Argentinean garage/noise punks Los Rusos Hijos De Puta (how could I discard the band with such the name!?) is less psychotic and more controlled than their "Hola" EP that was released 2 years ago. And their song "Fan" is the one you definitely are to listen to. 
• La Perra De Pavlov seems to me a fake pop band in the best sense of the term "fake pop": actually they make pop music in the vein of Two Door Cinema Club but their rock roots are not fully hidden in the sand. The tracks "Huellas" and "Retratos" are the evidences.
• The tight and moody indie pop of AMA's "Nada Dos Veces" was the constant in my playlist all the year through, and most likely will continue to live in there.
• The Murcian noise popsters Perro have released their best release to-date. Being the longtime fan of such bands as Enon and Skeleton Key as well as of many post-hardcore bands, I can embrace the music of "Estudias, Navajas" pretty easily.
• Bye Bye Lullaby impressed me much by their performance on Sonorama 2015. So I've purchased their album "Origen" in iTunes immediately by return a la casa. There is a couple of the traditionalist country tracks ("Gravedad Cero", for example) on the album, but on the most part of "Origen" the band successfully manages to widen the borders of the genre to make more interesting and diversified music. 
• The members of the post-hardcore duo WANN name the releases of the labels Polyvinyl, Jade Tree, Deep Elm and Dischord amongst their main influences. This means alot to me. The place where the new album "We Knew It Was You" was recorded means to me even more. "Recorded, mixed and mastered in La Caterva Grabaciones (Telde, Gran Canaria) by Jose A. Lopez". Just look in the liner notes of Pumuky's "Justicia Poetica".
• The second longplay of the twee/nugaze quintet Grushenka sounds like the twin brother of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's debut. Sincerity in every note.
• To name the folk pop duo Hazte Lapon a folk pop duo is the wrong way because Hazte Lapon is some kind of avant garde folk pop duo. In fact the band is beyond all borders and is quite difficult to be categorized. The new album is diversified yet tight music that has folk pop only as a base for planting the strangely attractive with-the-smile-in-the-corner-of-the-mouth compositions above it. 
• Miren Iza was silent for enough time to start to miss her. This year she has returned with the new release, and "La Calma Chicha" is the major step aside from her previous country/folk-based releases. Now her music is the somber inward-looking experimental rock with the leanings to the likes as Marina & The Diamonds or Joanna Newsom. 
• 13 years were gone since the previous effort of twee/indie pop combo Vacaciones. This indie-pop-how-it-should-sound-like album "Soy Tu Fan" was released through the bookstore-turned-record label Discos de Kirlian, and now the band runs the crowdfunding campaign to release it physically as LP.

#SonoramaRibera2014. The Report. Day 3, 15.08.2014. Minutes of glory

The program of the third day should start again on Plaza del Trigo with the set of The Handicaps. We saw The Handicaps last year on Red Bull Tour Bus and they caught our attention by their energy, good pack of melodies and unconventional use of stage railings and mic stands as the tools to play their guitars. So The Handicaps were 'must see' for us.

The Handicaps

Their set was as energetic and melodic as it had been a year ago, and we were standing right before the stage at its middle, but for us the performance was a bit spoiled by the fact that we hardly could hear the vocals (I suppose that the stage monitors were tuned this way to provide the far-standing persons with the wall of sound cos it seemed like for those behind us everything was OK). In terms of stage presence The Handicaps rocked as hell. Would like to see them again.

They were folowed by the four-piece Perro - the band from Murcia who play loud rock that has strong ties to hardcore but is not hardcore itself. Their uncommon feature is doubled drum section - yes, with two drummers. Additionally, the guitarist and the bass players shared the vocal duties and switched their instruments. We moved to the left (for us) corner of Plaza del Trigo to hide from the scorching sunlight - and there vocals were OK. Perro were bold, cocky and perky. The people on Plaza raved for them.

Perro

The next band were Correos, another alternative rock band. I was not familiar with them at all, never heard anything of them before. But they were equally cool, loud and melodic. One more band to follow or even to fall for.

Correos

After their set we met again with Javier Ajenjo. And what followed next almost drove me absolutely mad. Javier took me onstage right in front of the crowd and then introduced me to all of the people there, to all of these happy faces on the square and nearby streets. it was only for 30 seconds max but it was definitely the most heartwrenching moment of my life. The crowd even chanted my name! I'm a shy person but it was fantastic. If it was unbelievable for me to met a person who knows about the mere existence of my blog, or to hug with the fest director/musician from the band that I adore - then what was THIS? It was... I don't know. Maybe if I'm dying at 70 there wouldn't be any comparable moment for the rest of my life (unfortunately, I can't find any foto documenting this moment).

And after that the 'secret show' of Ninos Mutantes started. Plaza del Trigo stage is famous for such the surprises. Last year there was the secret show of Supersubmarina where the band played their own songs but finished them with somebody else's tunes. Now Ninos Mutantes made a set of covers that included Pixies, Depeche Mode and, again, Raphael's "Como Yo Te Amo". The only song of their own was "Errante".We were standing backstage 10 feet behind the musicians so I didn't dare to shout out the words of "Where Is My Mind" or "Errante" staying so close.

Ninos Mutantes from backstage

The opening act of the evening/night set were The Three Generations. I'd been listening to their album "Pillage" pretty regularly a couple of years ago. Live they were driving and cohesive but we left them in favor of Jack Knife. We missed this band last year on Plaza del Trigo - and as far as I knew from the reports and chronicles they set the Plaza on fire. So I would like to see them on much larger venue. And I'd rather consider this a loss. No, the band was OK - but Ribera stage seemed too large for them, and the audience seemed not to be so numerous. On the closed space of Plaza del Trigo surrounded by buildings the sound is more narrowly directed than on wide area of recinto ferial, and the spectators are so close one to another that they can almost strike the sparks by the collisions of their bodies. Maybe now they gathered the same amount of people - but here before the main stage it seemed like the lack of people.

The Three Generations

Jack Knife

Later we went to Castilla stage to see El Hombre Gancho. Before Sonorama I've checked them on youtube and found them good enough to go and see them. I made no mistake - El Hombre Gancho were fine. The band members looked like the old school latino-rockers but their music had nothing in common with old school latino-rock.

El Hombre Gancho

We stayed with them for 6 or 7 songs and we'd like to stay more but we should leave to win ourselves a better place before Ribera to see Second. Second are on tour with the last year's album "Montana Rusa", and now they're touring with the tiny classic orchestra. The participation of the orchestra is limited, it does not prevail on sound but makes the songs more colourful and bright. Second were in the perfect form. The band did not concentrate on the songs from "Montana Rusa" and played almost all the best songs from the last three albums. Overall, it was an astonishing show. "No, THAT was the best concert in my life", said I when it was over.

Second with the orchestra

After Second we came to VIP zone to drink wine and stayed there for awhile listening to DePedro from afar.

The whole show of Amaral we were watching from 'zona privado' of the VIP zone. Eva Amaral is another controversial person of this edition of Sonorama. She was one of the first headliners penned for the fest, and it was met with mixed reaction from fans due to Amaral and her band are on the far pop wing of Spanish rock music. Despite this fact she has good connections within the indie world, and her performance was much lauded anyway.

Amaral

If the performance of Leon Benavente that we say a year ago was absolutely outrageous, the new one seemed to be more controlled. All this year me and Tanya were listening to Leon Benavente's releases (self-titled LP and EP "Todos Contra Todos") so their set took no surprises for us in itself. But every performance of the band is a must by default - so great they are.

Leon Benavente

On the song "Ser Brigada" we started to break out of the crowd to run for Izal, but there was no place to run because another crowd was already there. We stuck somewhere in the middle without clean perspective to get closer to Tanya's favourite band. It was the first time for us when we could not manage to get to the security bars right at the stage - the good planning did not work well when the target shows were going back to back.

Mikel was bright and spectacular as always. We knew all the songs by heart and were just dancing and shouting the lyrics in the air. Needless to say that we were absolutely happy.

Izal from afar

At 2 a.m. we started to pave our way back home but before we walked away we listened to a couple of songs by Reptile Youth. It was enough to consider Reptile Youth not our piece of pie.

Summarizing the emotions, it was a great day for us. The greatest day. But it could be even better if we would attend the set of Cosmen Adelaida that was impossible due to coincidence with Izal.