Best of 2016. Honorable Mention #2

This could be the good Top20, but it's only 'honorable mention' because music-wise this was hugely successful year.

Previous entries:
Honorable mention #1
Top10 EPs and mini albums

A Por Ella Ray "Turista" (p)self-released
BANDCAMP
A Por Ella Ray is the new name for me (as well as for the most of us). They play music that has a lot of influences: Egon Soda, Los Piratas, Vetusta Morla - but the band definitely has its own face.

Brian Hunt "Love/Unlove" (p)self-released
LOVE UNLOVE
Two sides of this rare format (double EP) are divided by the mood. The 1st side ("Love") is sweet and sunny power pop/americana, while the other ("Unlove") is gloomy and painful experimental rock.

Familea Miranda "Radiopharm" (p)BCore Disc
BANDCAMP
Wordless psychotic hard-punching psychedelia born in the ovens of Bcore.

Holograma "Gemini" (p)Foehn
BANDCAMP
This album was released by Foehn Records. Listening to the Foehn's releases always adds +2 to your intellectual skills.

Joana Serrat "Cross The Verge" (p)Loose Music
SPOTIFY
The part of Joana's soul definitely lives somewhere in the Nashville suburbs and befriends the likes of Amy Stroup and Katie Herzig.

Julieta 21 "Alerta" (p)self-released
SPOTIFY
Another Sonorama'2016-inspired discovery for me. Good songs, rich sound - but I believe it could perform much better if it was a bit less polished.

Keiko "Within" (p)El Hombre Bala
BANDCAMP
Massively diversified double album (2nd half is instrumental) incorporates many genres of guitar music - from blues to abstract experimental guitar noodling. An adventurous listening.

Lazaro "Soles Y Pinguinos" (p)self-released
SPOTIFY
One more cool band to follow. I know nothing about them, and it's definitely my fault cos this album is almost entirely great.

Love Of Lesbian "El Poeta Halley" (p)Warner
SPOTIFY
Now I like this album much more than at first listen, when I liked just a couple of tracks. But I still consider some songs ("Cuando No Me Ves", for example) sent in the wrong direction. That's why LoL are not in Top50.

Marcos Cao "Oceano Caos" (p)Marcos Cao/Sony Music
SPOTIFY

The debut solo release of the former La Sonrisa De Julia frontman. Sweet and beautiful semi-acoustic songs.

Moriran Todos! "Saltar" (p)The Borderline Music
BANDCAMP
This album of the melodic danceable indie rock in the vein of The Right Ons is full of potential hits.

Nocturnos "Hemos Visto Lobos" (p)INUIT Produciones
BANDCAMP
The 2nd LP by Nocturnos cant't decide what to choose: to be the guitar-driven indie pop record ("Fantasia Liberal") or to be the fashionable indie electro album ("Rey Absolutista"). Despite this dychotomy the songs are great.

Postman "Life Can Change In A Moment" (p)Keroxen
BANDCAMP
It's the release #2 by the newly born Keroxen label. Postman (aka Abstract Groove) is one of the most prolific electronic producers of Tenerife. He explores mostly drum&bass/abstract techno/broken beats territories. Reminds me of my techno-infused university years. Funki Porcini, Plastikman, something like that.

Siloe "La Verdad" (p)Mushroom Pillow
SPOTIFY
This is the great album with great songs that stuck in the head for weeks, and there's only one problem: 75% of it sounds like Vetusta Morla. You know, EXACTLY like Vetusta.

Speaker Cabinets "Requiem For Atlas City" (p)Formula Free
SOUNDCLOUD
Loud, fast and furious dance rock from Barcelona. They say it's like the 60's psychedelia mixed with electronica beats, but you can easily recognize the influence of the multiple dance-related English bands from Jesus Jones to Klaxons as well.

Stay "The Mean Solar Times" (p)Rock Indiana/Picture In My Ear
BANDCAMP
With the help of Owen Morris and Andy Bell the Catalan psychedelic britpopers have recorded an album that is much better than the most of the contemporary British britpop.

Temas Incomodos "Alicia En Ningun Lugar" (p)RockCD
OFFICIAL SITE
This album of good-to-great songs lacks cohesion, as some tracks sound like if they were done by different bands.

The Lazy Lies "The Lazy Lies" (p)Right Here Right Now
BANDCAMP
Read this

The New Raemon & McEnroe "Lluvia Y Truenos" (p)Subterfuge
SPOTIFY
This record of double authorship wears the Ramon Rodriguez and Roberto Luzon identities on its sleeves and is able to add new colours to their well-known pallettes. But 'the slowest Raemon record and the fastest McEnroe record', as told by some reviewer in Spain, at times falls in between. 

We Were Heading North "We Were Heading North" (p)El Hombre Bala
BANDCAMP
The intelligent Canarian post rock's tiny healing protuberances will slightly touch the wounds of your soul.

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:

Sonorama Ribera 2013. The Report. Day 3, 17.08.2013. El final and other hesitations - Part 2

We missed the show of McEnroe so the 1st band we saw in the evening were Barcelonians Stay. Stay are the britpop act with the psychedelia touches, and as for me their presence on the main stage was kinda difficult to explain. The venue was definitely too large for these guys. I don't want to say they were bad or playing poorly or anything. No, they were playing well and bandleader Jordi Bel was really good in stretching the psychedelic vibe out of his guitars - but it was really too large for them. Plaza del Trigo or Carson Camping would be much more appropriate.

Stay

Havalina is one of the bands whom I really adore. But for Tanya, they seemed to be too loud to fall in love with before Sonorama. So the Castilla y Leon stage was lucky for loud bands this year. And two of us were on the first line of defence again - we were standing pressed to the security bars right in front of the bass player Ignacio Celma. 

In terms of the playing techniques all three members of the band - Manuel Cabezali, Ignacio Celma & Javier Couceiro - were amongst the best musicians on the fest. Their control over the sound they made was almost unbelievable. They produced such the solid wall of sound that it would be undistinguishable for many bands of larger 'capacity'. We were absolutely stunned during their show. We were so stunned that even did not noticed how the man behind the scene turned them off while they were in the very beginning of "Incursiones" due to they got out of timing so the rest of the song was some kind of unplugged with the audience singing all the lyrics.

Havalina

After the unforgettable set of Havalina we started running to the escenario principal - started and... all of a sudden stopped at the same moment. In the falling curtains of the dusk we saw the 'footballfieldful' sea of people who were just standing there. All of them were awaiting for Xoel Lopez. So the mean plan to get to the stage as close as possible fell apart.

Xoel Lopez is the reason I'm here. Not only in Sonorama. Globally 'here'. This is the musician who, performing under the alias Deluxe opened for me the door to the world of the spanish indie music. Searching for his recordings in Internet I had discovered all the rest of the bands I love now. So this would be the heartwrenching moment for me. And it was, really. Xoel and his band were playing, and I was standing in the middle of the crowd with my eyes shut and listening to his voice not being able to make a single move. The set consisted mostly of the songs from Xoel's lates release "Atlantico" with only one new song and only one song from his past days (it was gorgeous "Historia Universal"). And his supporting band was so harmonious that there was no single wrong note in the whole hour-long show. And Xoel's artistic magnetism kept the crowd as the whole entity with the thousands of hearts beating as one.

Xoel Lopez

Then was the time for us to spend a couple of sonos for sparkling water and calimocho. Our legs were crying for us to give them some rest so we placed our tired bodies on a sidestep against the FutureStars stage, where we noticed the band playing in there. The band was good, so we stood up again and came in. According to the schedule this would be Llum. I had never heard about this band before so it was another good discovery for me (later that night that band revealed to be Garamendi, not Llum). We had made some jerky dance for half an hour anf then came to Castilla y Leon for The New Raemon. 

Garamendi

For the last couple of years Ramon Rodriguez is acting in the close connection with the band Maga from Sevilla, and here they were promoted as The New Raemon & Maga. Before their show started we had to listen to the part of Standstill set. Standstill is the renowned band who began in 90's as 2nd wave emo act but lated changed the direction and started making music with post rock-tinged chamber pop in its core base. What the fuck were they playing there I could not understand. It was something tribal, with doubled drumkit on the stage, dense strumming of acoustic guitar, all very repetitive and disturbing. Sorry, not my kind of music at all.

The New Raemon & Maga were the opposite thing. With the whole bunch of the good songs where the Ra(e)mon's songs were interleaved with Maga's power-pop singalongs this show was driving and upbeat. Both acts were very warmly received by the audience. But at the end of the show we hardly could stand on our feet. Fatigue have knocked us down to the ground, and three Supersubmarina songs ago the Sonorama Ribera 2013 was over for us.

The New Raemon y Maga

It's a pure grief and disappointment that we have lost the chance to watch the show of L.A. and now I am deemed to cope with it. The only reason to lower the grade of self-disappointment is the fact of L.A.'s "Dualize" album purchase on the mercadillo. 

And for the most part, that's all.