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суббота, 18 августа 2018 г.

Sonorama 2018. Days 1-2

This particular Sonorama differed much from all the previous editions we’ve been involved into. This time we made an initial decision to abandon seeing as many bands as possible. When there’s a lot of events around it’s hard to keep up fully with what’s going on so most of the time you’re running from stage to stage with the sweat on your teeth trying to catch a couple of songs here and then a couple of songs there. Now we were more about soaking our bodies and minds into the atmosphere of the festival instead. We’ve got along with more people, we spent more time simply enjoying just being the part of it. 

Wednesday, 08th
The festival started at 9:00 pm sharp with the performance of Disco Las Palmeras! It looked like shame the audience was rather sparse during their show as Diego Castro and his pals deserved much more attention. But it was only Wednesday, and the most of the young festival people didn’t arrive to Aranda at the moment, I suppose. Anyway, their new album “Calida” is one of the year’s best, so I enjoyed the new songs a lot – and poor are the ones who didn’t came.
Triangulo Inverso is one of those bands that are deemed to be popular while lacking originality. You may easily recognize the influences of Izal, Vetusta Morla, Miss Caffeina in their songs. For the festival stages such bands are the great deal cos their songs are always good enough to make the people rave and dance and fully enjoy it but at the end of the day it’s a dead end. For me it’s pretty clear you need something more to be truly original.
The next ones to step upon the stage were Correos. The Sonorama’s darlings (I’ve lost count of how many times they performed at different locations of the fest for the last 5 years) were loud and cheerful and highly energetic as always. The fact they had lost a member prior to recording of their new disc “Terapia, Terapia” didn’t impact their sound and stage behavior at all. They presented the pack of older hits along with a couple of new tracks from “Terapia, Terapia”. I should declare the new ones fitted great so the next time the crowds gonna be shouting out the lines from “El Ultimo Verso” or “Sobreviviendo” like they shouted out ”Calles llenas de gente vacia/ Y nadie sabe donde esta la salida“ or “Todo el mundo necesita un corazon salvaje” now.

Thursday, 09th
We started the first full day of Sonorama from the Floridablanca performance at Plaza la Sal (Heineken stage). Floridablanca had only a handful of songs released publicly as singles earlier this year, and their debut album is set to release for the autumn that comes. But for me they are kind of old friends as my Sonorama history was ignited by these guys. I mean, all my love and adoration of this fest started to blossom from the performance of the band named Sin Rumbo in the year 2013. Floridablanca are exactly the same guys who performed as Sin Rumbo up to the year 2017. Now they have changed direction starting to play synth-driven music with sunshine pop/balearic influences. It was quite different to what they did before but anyway entertaining. As I predicted previously, if you're a fan of Sin Rumbo it's easy to convert yourself into the fan of Floridablanca.
The next band to perform on the same stage was the young quartet Patio Rosemary. Up to their concert I was put into situation that cut short my abilities in squaring down the correct and weighted opinion on this band as we were approached by a group of our friends (hi there Glo, Eva, MariAn and company!), and during Patio Rosemary’s set we spent more time talking and embracing each other than listening to the band.
Right after Patio Rosemary came offstage we left Plaza la Sal and came to a restaurant to enjoy some lechazo. While sitting there at the table with the piece of meat in one hand and the cup of wine in another we were thrilled by the news that today’s concierto secreto (now it’s called #EspirituRibera due to DO Ribera Del Duero sponsorship) on Plaza del Trigo would be Cycle. The same Cycle our friend David Tabuena plays with! We finalized our meal quite quickly and rushed to Plaza del Trigo but this place was overcrowded as usual. Fortunately, we managed to win ourselves some free space aside of the stage so for the last 4 songs we stayed in a couple of meters from David and China Patino (David Kano, Juanjo Roig and the frontman Luke Donovan were a bit farther from us). Cycle performed mostly the tracks from their new album “Electrik” – at least in the final part of their set. Right now I look at the results of the poll “What #EspirituRibera event you consider the best” in twitter, and the Cycle’s gig is on the last place with no chance to step up. I totally disagree with that, by all means Cycle were great.
After we met David backstage we took a 2 hour break before the nighttime set of concerts in recinto ferial (main festival area).
***
The first evening show was the one of Joana Serrat. Well, I can’t call it disappointment of any kind though I can’t hide my dissatisfaction. The songs were still that great but the sound was samey song to song. It sounded like ‘ok, as we’ve got this guy on pedal steel let he play it all the way’. I don’t know... Her albums are gorgeous, there’s nothing about sameness in “Dripping Springs” or “Cross The Verge” – but live the impression was somehow spoiled for me. Anyway the show pleasant enough to feel some kind of regret when moving away halfshow from Burgos stage to Ribera stage for catching the second half of Tulsa’s gig. 
This was the 3rd time we observed Miren Iza’s band live and surely this was the most danceable show out of these three as it was based upon the material of the last year’s perfect “Centauros” - in contrary to the previous two that were post-“La Calma Chicha” gloomy yet vulnerable psych-pop ones.
The next stop was the Burgos stage again. El Increible Paso was the new name for us and we wanted just to check the band out. So we did right what we wanted to do: we checked this band out placing Hombre Esponja and his pals into the ‘to listen to their albums later’ category. As evidenced by the show they stood both legs in folk rock and probably paid some debt to Izal but they’ve got something of their own as well.
We never managed to appear at Neuman’s performances before so this time we arrived to Aranda stage beforehand to get ourselves the good places. Everyone who ever listened to his albums knows well that Paco Neuman is a guitar junkie. Who else could start his set with 12 minute long “Deleted Files” from the most recent release “Crashpad” ((p)2017 Subterfuge)! Then Paco continued to pour the waterfall of the guitar swirl onto the audience. He changed guitars after every song and used two full pedalboards of guitar effects. I think ‘astonishing’ is the proper word to describe his art.
Then we walked to the Burgos stage for the Modelo de Respuesta Polar performance that appeared to be the logical continuation of Neuman’s as the five-piece from Valencia used three guitars onstage to produce the sonic squall simultaneously vigorous and intimate. With every new album the songs of Modelo de Respuesta Polar are getting slower and mellower but live the band is still powerful and loud.
Despite the fact the shows of Neuman and Modelo were really great, the best show of the night definitely was performed by Pasajero. The Madrid-based band collected the best tracks out from their three albums for that special night. 100% hits, 100% energy, 100% pleasure.

суббота, 9 декабря 2017 г.

Best of 2017. Albums 21-30

<<< 41 - 50
<<< 31 - 40

30. The Unfinished Sympathy "It's A Crush!" (p)BCore Disc
After spending 7 dormant years that helped to establish and develop the solo careers of Eric Fuentes and Joan Colomo, The Unfinished Sympathy returned this year with the BCore Disc's reissue of "We Push You Pull" (their last effort before dissolution initially released via Subterfuge) and absolutely new release "It's A Crush" also on BCore that found one of the Spain's most important millenial alt-rock bands in the perfect form.
BNDCMP

29. Kitai "Piromanos" (p)Entrebotones/Sony
The enormous progress for the Madrid-based alternative rock quartet whose masterful performance techniques somehow overshadowed their songwriting abilities. Led by my compatriot Alex the band starts to move from funk-rock crossover of their previous "Que Vienen" LP to Deftones-like alternative rock with stunning melodies and huge choruses.
SPTF

28. Murciano Total "Cencia" (p)El Genio Equivocado
This year Jose Lozano's talents in audiovisual productions (especially his trademark 'moving collages' style) became popular within the local indie community making him quite busy with providing his abilities to the third parties (as to fellow labelmates Birkins as to the all-Spanish indie giants Los Planetas) but this didn't spoil his musical achievements at all. "Cencia" is the third LP of the duo released within the three consecutive years, and it sounds even better than the previous ones that were awesome themselves.
BNDCMP

27. Tulsa "Centauros" (p)I*M Records
I've purchased the album via iTunes, downloaded it to my iPod and then headed to the railway station to catch the train to Moscow. In the carriage I put my headphones on and… fell in love with this strange genre-bending form of pop music that's peculiar for the modern days' 'girls with guitars' from Feist to Butterfly Boucher and many others.
SPTF

26. Saim "Accidents" (p)Bubota Discos
The clear evidence to the fact that The Catalan Post Hardcore ™ splashes out the birthplace reigning over the nearby territories. The Mallorcan trio recorded an album that precisely reflected the genre's most attractive features without sounding too much thought over or artifcial.
BNDCMP

25. Captains "Captains" (p)Jabalina Musica
Fee Reega has put out two albums this year: one (darker, moodier, more foggy) under her own name via Humo Records, and another as Captains via Jabalina Musica. "Captains" contains the post punk'y rhythm section aggregated with the one-of-a-kind vocals of Fee and the lots of influences from the 80's synth-pop to krautrock and shoegaze that as a result brings us the inventive and purely underground album of good pop potential.
BNDCMP

24. Mordem "Fragments To Dominate The Silence" (p)The Winter Hunters
The album created by Elba Fernandez sits perfectly within the borders demarcated by the quieter moments of Madonna's "Ray Of Light" (which upon release was honored as a sound production masterpiece), the hip hop-less side of Massive Attack and the darker emanations of the contemporary female-fronted acts like Florence and the Machine who pave their convoluted ways through the pop/trip hop-bordered sonic experimentalism.
BNDCMP

23. I Am Dive "Music For Silent Running" (p)WeAreWolves
Being released in December of 2016 this wordless soundtrack never entered the 2016 annual polls, though as all other works of I Am Dive it deserves the closest attention. Not the planned album itself, "Music For Silent Running" is an imaginative soundtrack for 1972's science fiction movie "Silent Running" recorded by the duo back in 2015. But even the by-product by this band is of the highest quality possible.
BNDCMP

22. Anchord "As A Real Return" (p)Saltamarges/ BCore Disc
Initially released via Saltamarges imprint and later commissioned by BCore Disc this album is all what you have ever wanted from the classic post-hardcore album: the energy, the unpolished sound, the tight melodies wrapped up in the harsh guitars.
BNDCMP

21. Birkins "Aqui Hay Dragones" (p)El Genio Equivocado
The trilingual Canarian band abandons the article 'the' in its name simultaneously abandoning the english language almost completely as if acquiring additonal valency instead: "Aqui Hay Dragones" is way more eclectic musicwise than the previous Birkins' efforts, but in the same time it sounds tighter and more coherent.
BNDCMP


среда, 9 декабря 2015 г.

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.

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
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.










среда, 26 августа 2015 г.

Sonorama Ribera 2015. The Report. #2 "Action!"

Date: August, Thursday 13th
Place: Spain, Burgos Province, Aranda de Duero, Plaza del Trigo & Recinto Ferial

Thursday, 13th at midday we came to the heart of Sonorama, the Plaza del Trigo, to start our normal festival life. We were a bit late to get there right at the start of the first performance - the one of Los Nastys. We saw this band live two years ago on Carson camping stage, and they were not so great, honestly speaking - especially being compared to the band that followed them (Sin Rumbo - and they were absolutely perfect). This time Los Nastys performed much better - and though the music was not of our kind, the band was funny and energetic and seemed capable to give the day the right start.
Los Nastys

When Los Nastys came offstage we ran to the Red Bull Tour Bus stage to see what's happening there. The guys from Supertennis were performing. This year Sonorama established close ties to another great summer festival, ContemPOPranea. To visualize these ties both festivals some kind of delegated one band from the roster to the partner. Sonorama delegated Correos, and ContemPOPranea delegated Supertennis. This band played melodic power pop and sounded quite interesting to dig them deeper.
Supertennis

By return to Plaza del Trigo we beheld the lovely show of Nunatak, one more cool band from Murcia. Nunatak became our first true discovery of this Sonorama. I knew nothing about the band, so for me and Tanya they were surprisingly good.
Nunatak

The band's sound was built around more or less traditional folk rock format and incorporated tubes and violin, and their performance was so sparkling that it was absolutely impossible not to fall for.
Right after the show of Nunatak we tried to get in touch with JuanMa Fernandez, el guitarrista de Igloo, who as we knew was somewhere around there. Thanks to the free wi-fi coverage of the most part of old town of Aranda we managed to find him in the crowd. The next band to come on the stage was Analogic - and I have little to tell about them because all through the show of Analogic we talked to JuanMa and rarely looked stageside.
Analogic

After we parted ways with JuanMa (previously making the agreement to meet at VIP zone at night) we went to Red Bull to look at the last band of the morning session - Bye Bye Lullaby, the winners of the DO Ribera del Duero "Talento Ribera" contest. They looked cool and sounded cool, and became one more band to monitor (and I monitor, no kidding - two minutes before I started to write this report I purchased their album on iTunes, and right now I type all these words and phrases listening to it).
Bye Bye Lullaby

The night session started for us from the stage Burgos Origen Y Destino (former Future Stars) and the band Bambikina on it. I found them on Facebook a couple of months before the Sonorama and wanted to see them live. It was folk-based kind of misic again, and Esther Mendez, the frontwoman of the band, was so funny and honest and devoted to what she was doing there. By the way, Burgos Origen Y Destino this year became the full-fledged stage instead of being just pretty small tent.
Bambikina

In the meantime we caught a couple of songs by Marlango on the main stage - it was pleasant enough to stay there for more but Tulsa were 'a must see' for me so we returned to Burgos stage to see Miren Iza and her pals. Tulsa is one of the definitive bands for me as they were the third Spanish band whose music I embraced some years ago, and their album "Solo Me Haz Rozado" I adore much since then. Earlier this year Tulsa released the new album named "La Chica Calma" that marked considerable stylistic change for the band. Now their music is more electronic, more introvert, more somber. Accompanied onstage by the persons of Charlie Bautista and Marti Perarnau caliber, Miren presented to us the set of new songs cross't with a couple of older tracks - and all this turned into definitely one of the best performances of the day. It was really impressive yet laconic.
Tulsa

Then there was another discovery. Naming 'discovery' the band with 20-something career is not so smart for me, but nevertheless I have never ever listened to Australian Blonde before this Thursday. This band really amazed me. Especially their guitarist who appear to be Paco Loco, one of the most renowned indie rock producers of Spain. Now we could see why they called him 'loco' (crazy). From afar he looks like J Mascis, but if J mixes his furious playing with anemic stage behaviour then Paco does everything full throttle. His guitar playing is full of energy, and his appearance is absolutely frenetic - he rarely stops moving more than for a second or two unlike his colleagues including Francisco Nixon, the man behind the mic.
Australian Blonde

Having stopped the headbanging on Australian Blonde we came to VIP zone to have ourselves some wine (this year there were 12 labels of DO Ribera del Duero wine, so one might taste them all and choose the best for his own taste) and to meet JuanMa. After both goals were successfully met we found out that one of the main 'points of interest' of this edition of Sonorama started to take place on the main stage.
The bright and colourful performance named Morente Live! was a homage to the late flamenco singer and composer Enrique Morente. In the 90's he was the first classic flamenco musician to make connections to indie rock world, and later Jota (Los Planetas) and Antonio Arias (Lagartija Nick) became his recurrent companions. After Enrique had passed away in 2010, his younger daughter Solea created a band with Jota and Antonio to pay homage to Enrique's large legacy. Initialy an one-off project, Los Evangelistas turned into something more releasing two albums, touring intensively and experiencing the mutual work with Youth, one of the most renowned British producers of all time. The show was semantically divided into several acts and started from the classic flamenco. We were not interested in classic flamenco and decided to walk around and just look what's happening here and there. The sounds from Burgos stage caught our attention so we came there again to look at Los Vengadores. Los Vengadores were loud, melodic and highly energetic. It was nice because I like loudness, melodicity and high levels of energy.
Los Vengadores

But as the show on the main stage developed, it came farther and farther away from the basic flamenco, gradually incorparting the elements rarely found in the classic genre. So when we returned to Ribera stage there were Estrella Morente - the eldest daughter of Enrique, Solea, Antonio Arias, Jota along with other Los Planetas members and a string of classic flamenco musicians. This last part of the show was absolutely spectacular and driving, full with pure emotions and beauty.
Morente Vive! troupe

When the final crescendo was over we stayed before Ribera stage to win ourselves the better places for Dorian. We met success moving our wine-fueled bodies right at the security bars by the very center of the stage. The waiting period faded fast and we quickly became surrounded by the screeching young females evoking Marc Gili before their eyes. Dorian launched the show with the biggest hit single from the "La Velocidad del Vacio" album - "Los Amigos Que Perdi". Celebrating the tenth anniversary of band's existence this year, now the band tours in support of the album "Diez Anos Y Un Dia". If the tracks on the album were arranged in intelligent acoustic key, then live they sounded much louder and considerably more powerful. The guitar sound was predominant throughout the show. As we knew most of the songs on "Diez Anos Y Un Dia" by heart, we sang them along being definitely not the worst singers in the forefront of the crowd (some chicks by our side were much worse than us). Closer to the end of the show the paper gun was triggered, and we found ourselves placed inside the papercuts blizzard. It looked - and felt - very beautiful and uplifting.
Dorian

It was great but what would come next should be even greater. Earlier this day it was declared that Dorian would set up the signing session in mercadillo right after the show. Accidentally, we took a couple of Dorian CDs from home to listen to in the car during our North Spain travel. So we got something to be signed by the band. The only thing that was not prepared for this was me.
I thought that the musicians would stand behind the counter and we would just give them our CDs to sign, and they would sign them in the free-flow mode. In the best case we could say them "Hi!", I supposed. But in fact it wasn't so. We were invited into the space where we could shake hands with them, embrace them, talk to them... It's so sad that I wasn't prepared for this. I was absolutely stunned by the mere possibility of staying behind them so I've almost lost my tongue and felt myself like a fool. All the guys were so welcoming to us, and Belly was so beautiful and nice... Poor dumbhead me, it could have been much better! Anyway, to meet and greet with one of our favourite high profile bands was the great experience.
After that we just listened to Dinero from afar, to Kuve (the band fronted by the younger sister of Second's Sean Frutos) from afar and to La Habitacion Roja also from afar. The night was done.

The only thing to apologize was the missed performance of Reina Republicana. I planned to see them but it was absolutely impossible due to Dorian show and signing session.


Text: Mikhail
Photo: Tatiana & Mikhail

четверг, 12 сентября 2013 г.

Los Treinta Principales. #29. Tulsa "Solo Me Has Rozado"

#29. Tulsa "Solo Me Has Rozado" (p)2007 Subterfuge


Led by Miren Iza, Tulsa were also from Basque Country. On their first longplay the band made an attempt to recreate the alternative country sound - and did it very authentically. In fact, you may expect it to be the album of some american band before Miren starts to sing. And her voice makes the great deal to make you fall in love with the songs.
Though thematically the album is mostly dark it doesn't sound moody. Free of any odd steps or studio trickery "Solo Me Has Rosado" is nevertheless bright, hopeful and full of great alt-country melodies.

The best songs: Carretera, Estupida, Limonakis, Tengo Hambre.