Las Resenas Casuales. Lendrone "Uno"

Lendrone "Uno" (p)2013 Matapadre Discografica

This is the first full lenght from the Galician experimental rock combo. In the world where Chileans Mostro are the highest extremum of experimentation, and the old 'american underground' pre-post-rock instrumental band Pell Mell is the lowest one, Lendrone with their mixture of complicated with simple and banal with inventing could be some kind of semantic middle.

"Uno" is divided onto two parts by the intermediate segue called "La Mecanique Moderne" which is considerably shorter and quieter than any other track on the album. Before and after the aforementioned track we have the captiously built-up instrumental krautrock-tinged math-rock where the heavy use of syntesizers meets the occasional bursts of noise, overloaded bass lines are beaded on the convoluted rhythmical patterns, and where the plain canvas of a composition can all of a sudden explode with the guitar overdrive.

'The heavy use of synthesizers', 'convoluted rhythmical patterns', 'overloaded bass lines' - these features are the common place for the most of 'experimental-math-noise-jazz-everything else'-fusion bands, and the main thing lays in the surface of the proportions. In case of Lendrone the proportions are definitely right. The trio from La Coruna gives the listener the fascinating trip without taking away the time to rest and breath easily from him.

The best tracks: Don Balon, La Marcha Solar, Methavolante

The digital version of the album you can download from the Matapadre bancamp page or Lendrone BC on the 'name your price' basis.

Los Treinta Principales. #22. Los Planetas "Super 8"

#22. Los Planetas "Super 8" (p)1994 BMG

"Super 8" was not the first experience of planting the contemporary british/american alternative rock sound onto the fruitful lands of Iberian Peninsula. It was not the most successful guitar album of the time in terms of revenue. Arguably, it was the first truly creatively successful effort - successful to such level where it might sin duda compete with the 'inspiration sources'.

But, what is significantly more important, it was the album that stabbed the polemark of the audience attention to the whole (pretty much burgeoning at that time) Spanish scene of guitar-driven music in the vein of american 'smart' alternative rock (in the range from Dinosaur Jr to Mercury Rev) as well as of pre-'Cool Britannia' post-psychedelic quasi-shoegaze model (from Spacemen 3 to Swervedriver).

So, it was not the album that spawned the 'underground movement' - it was the album that started something on macro-level.

The best tracks: Brigitte, Estos Ultimos Dias, De Viaje

Las Resenas Casuales. Manolo Breis "Verna"

Breis "Verna" (p) 2014 Sweet Song Records

Today the singer/songwriter from Murcia Manolo Breis (who ususally appears in public using only his surname) releases his new album called "Verna" less than 10 months after his previous effort "Invisibles" was released.

Breis is not that widely bred in 2000 'detuned guitar/lo-fi sound/high-pitched voice'-kind of singer-songwriter. His songs are fully arranged, and while his musical pallette is not so wide but it is far from minimal as well. Exploring mostly slow-to-middetmpo dynamics, this album is calm and appeased. And from the first listen I get the feeling that the album lacks the song that can stuck in your head for hours and days. But the songs have their good features, like smartly structured "El Timon" or slowly growing up "Malos Tiempos" - and these two songs are definitely amongst the best ones here.

The best tracks: Dame Algo De Ti, Al Amanecer, El Timon, Malos Tiempos

The album can be officially downloaded from HERE for free.

Las Resenas Casuales. La Maravillosa Orquesta del Alcohol "Quien Nos Va A Salvar?"

La Maravillosa Orquestra Del Alcohol "Quien Nos Va A Salvar?" (p) 2013 Mus Records

To put it shortly, the Burgos-based sextet La Maravillosa Orquestra Del Alcohol (or LaMODA) plays acoustic bluegrass in the vein of Mumford & Sons or The Lumineers. "Quien Nos Va A Salvar?" ("Who's Gonna Save Us?") is the first full lenght effort of this combo emerging from the heart of Castilla y Leon province. On their bandcamp page (where you can buy the digital version of this album or download their previous releases for free) they describe themselves as 'drinking Nashville bourbon along with Russian vodka and Irish "Guinness" all at once'. But despite these characteristics their music doesn't really sound like the cocktail one could produce from these uneasy components. If "Quien Nos Va A Salvar?" would be a drink it could be definitely too fresh for the vodka-bourbon-Guinness mixture.

The songs on this album rarely exceed 3 minutes long with the only exception of the closing 'Nueva Orleans' over-4-minutes timing. The instruments used include banjo, saxo, accordion and violins in addition to acoustic guitars and drumkit. And it sounds like the band could manage all this wide range of tools with the greatest of ease playing full throttle and singing with all the passion the human beings could infuse in the music they make never showing the signs of losing control. And while not being the major step aside from [as trendy as] typical Mumford & Sons sound LaMODA can show you how the pack of fresh melodies and the lack of vanity-indulged hypergravity can bring a breath of life (or liveliness) into this deadborn idea of 'let's make this sort of Middle American roots music in England and Sweden and everywhere else'.

Let them be the followers of the trend, but they're not the copycats.

The best tracks: Los Hijos De Johnny Cash, Vasos Vacios, 1932

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:

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Los Treinta Principales. #23. Najwa "El Ultimo Primate"

#23. Najwa "El Ultimo Primate" (p)2010 WEA Spain

There is plenty of signs showing that 'girl with guitar/piano/whatever' rock tradition (t)here in Spain is full-blown. Just to name a few renowned female singers: Russian Red, Annie B Sweet, Eva Amaral, Zahara Gordillo Campos and, of course, Christina Rosenvinge, the foremother (and the role model) for the most of the domestic girls in rock.
And I suppose the best example of this sub-scene is neither pure acoustic emotions of Russian Red nor convoluted free-form pop vision of Anni B Sweet.
Najwa Nimri exist somewhere between two worlds neither being promoted to the major league (probably due to unconventionality of her music) nor fully involved in the world of indies (probably due to her successful movie career and following non-abligation to associate herself with any given sub-culture). There is a lot of influences both stylistical and personal - avant-garde guitar drones, trip-hop electronis passages, programmed ritual beats, Cocteau Twins, Shinead O'Connor, Kate Bush - all soldered into one perfect wrecking ball of true perfection slowly coiling down from your mind to your heart. And there is nothing more as frightening as the scary image of the cover art on this beautiful and bewitching album.

The best tracks: Dejame Pasar, Como Un Animal, El Ultimo Primate