Sauna Bytes "Sauna Bytes"

Sauna Bytes "Sauna Bytes" (p)2020

From the very first sounds this album welcomes a listener with the elevated vocals and jangling guitars reminiscent of either the pre-Britpop (or even pre-C86) Foggy Albion scene or some 80’s post-punk heroes from Down Under (The Church’s “Heyday” is arguably the most evident influence). Talking about more contemporary – as well as geographically closer – reference points I would like to mention the Madrid-based quartet Pasavento or Sauna Bytes’ Comunidad Valenciana compatriots Peepshow – both bands are visibly following the same path of pro-Britain pop/rock heavily infused with taste, elegance, tone-setting synths and tight ‘exactly as much as required’ drum section. As those bands remain relatively unnoticed by wider audience despite the undeniably high quality of their output I can’t escape the feeling that the lower profile bands (calling them ‘second tier of Spanish indie’ would be offensive, I guess) are now making way more interesting music than the most of their top tier (when you add ‘top’ to ‘tier’ it ceases to sound offensive, though) ‘always-in-the-public-eye’ peers do.

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Peepshow "Como Hacer Una Bomba Atomica"

Peepshow "Como Hacer Una Bomba Atomica" (p)2018 Polar Records

Peepshow is the rock formation from Valencia that’s got family ties to (i.o. shares the drummer German Garcia with) another local combo En Septiembre that appeared to be one of my last year’ discoveries.

I started to get familiar with the band from the first video filmed for this album: “Nuevo Imperio”. The song sounded like it could fit to the last Dorian’s album so initially I thought Peepshow was one of these electro rock bands. Recently it revealed that sound-wise this danceable song had little in common with the rest of the album. Musically – apart from the aforementioned “Nuevo Imperio” – two main influences are easily distinguishable (or at least they seem distinguishable for me personally): the Nacho Vegas’ narratives and Viva Suecia’s guitar-fueled sonic grandeur. The band’s modus operandi is when a song starts with the subtle arrangements over the slow-paced drum beat, gains up and then blossoms into the epic-like space rock crescendo midway. 

The lyrics are bittersweet, sarcastic and rather biting regardless of the matter the frontman Uve Martinez is singing about: the social issues (“1999”, “Nuevo Imperio”), or the indie music mythos (“Gente Normal”), or the human intercourse (“Como Hacer Una Bomba Atomica”).

The production qualities are additionally complementing already top-notch album, the band sounds really big. In the world better than ours they could make a considerable splash with it. 

FCBK

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