Sonorama 2018. 10 ‘minimal font size’ bands whose shows you surely should attend

Some bands from the lower lines of the new Sonorama poster have apparently outgrown the minimal font size (Tulsa, Modelo De Respuesta Polar, Villanueva, etc) so please find below the short list of the bands and personalities who deserve it to an equal extent.

Disco Las Palmeras!

With the new effort “Calida” ((p)2018 Sonido Muchacho) the Galician power trio spearheaded by Diego Castro abandoned both the scratching noise of “Asfixia” and the ever-buzzing wall of sound of “Ultra” leaving the core of their songs peeled off almost completely. And I’m curious how it would sound live.

Floridablanca

The re-branded and re-named madrilenos Sin Rumbo switched to the sunshine balearic disco-pop. Despite they stepped aside quite far from what they were before, if you’re a fan of Sin Rumbo it’s time to convert yourself into a fan of Floridablanca.

Joana Serrat

The best Americana singer-songwriter the Iberian Peninsula ever gave birth to.

La Plata

While most eyes are set at their equally promising labelmates Carolina Durante you shouldn’t overlook young post punk band from Valencia. They have released this year their debut album “Desorden” that created considerable splash amongst the music press and, additionally, have found its place in my own record collection.

Pet Fennec

The Basque band that draw comparisons to such North American indie legends as Band Of Horses, Built To Spill and Nada Surf. As for me, kinda perfect reference points.

Burrito Panza

This year Burrito Panza have released “Un Nuevo Frente Frio” – by all means the best album in their career – and one of the best to-date. You shouldn’t miss the chance to watch at the band on the creative peak.

Cosmen Adelaida

They may look like The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s young followers but this metropolitan combo has 3 full lengths along with 2 EPs (all on El Genio Equivocado) of high quality dreampop-meets-post punk in their back catalogue. They have already experienced performances on FIB, Primavera Sound and ContemPOPranea – so this year they’re gonna tick the box at Sonorama’s name.

Nocturnos

Covering the vast specter of genres from dizzy synth groove of “Rey Absolutista” to the guitar-driven rock club singalongs of “Fantasia Liberal” Nocturnos are stylistically polymorphous and amusing in every turn. Year ago they were set to perform at Sunday that made attending their show completely impossible for me. This time I’m ready to fix this honest mistake.

Ladilla Rusa

As funny as kinky this drag queen fashioned duo is going to kick asses with their trashcan aesthetics, ‘death on the dancefloor’ electropop and quirky sense of humor (“Whitney Houston, tenemos un problema”).

Cala Vento

The Catalan duo is the only band out of my wishlist that finally made it to the festival’s line up. Unfortunately, I’m forced to leave Aranda by the Sunday morning, so there’s no chance for me to catch them. You should do it for me.

Vol Menor "Tota Una Vida Perduda En Un Clic"

Vol Menor "Tota Una Vida Perduda En Un Clic" (p)2018 self-released

There are persons that breathe music, drink music, find music everywhere, and infiltrate music from the air through the pores of their skin. The music flows in their veins, and you’d never know the real blood/music ratio in there. I remember that time when I saw some DVD of Ben Folds. That one where he, at home, was playing piano, singing, telling stories, sipping bourbon from a rocks glass – all in the same time, and I felt like ‘Man, this guy’s really married to the music!’ cos it seemed so natural for him to make music while doing some light housekeeping activities. Like washing dishes with one hand while playing synths with another.

Carles Cuxart is obviously one of those persons. A gifted songsmith, he has been recording and releasing albums under the moniker Vol Menor for at least 7 years. Eight albums of high quality indie pop/folk were released since – including the instrumental album “My Roy Orbison” and an experimental effort “Contracorrent A L’Instinct” that contained 27 tracks of 45 or 54 seconds each. From the very beginning he is teamed up with Roger Gascon who performs the production duties and provides additional arrangements. Roger is a devoted person as well. He fronts The Lazy Lies. He plays drums for Chet. He produces the records for his local pals. He’s the Catalan indie pop community jack-of-all-trades (who said ‘Dave Grohl’, dudes?)

Two albums in 2016. Two albums in 2017. Now we’ve got the triple (!) album “Tota Una Vida Perduda En Un Clic”. The 30+ songs in total, where each and every song could be considered the indie pop/ indie folk/ twee perfection. If you listen to all three albums in a row I bet there would be no chance for you to fall into the ‘samey!’ or ‘boring!’ kind of reaction. Some true gems (most likely “Big Bang”, “Alegria”, “Monstre”, “Victimes De Victimes” and “La Moto d’en Teo Es Un Drac De Foc”) would stuck in your mind from the first listen instead. Carles proves he’s able to write songs in different styles, different tempos, of different complexity and with different emotions – all with the ease that’s almost palpable. Such diversity within the given frames of a particular genre is what makes this album so unputdownable. 

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GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte "Gamma Bay"

GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte "Gamma Bay" (p)2018 Foehn Records

These people they are The Crusaders Of What

Whatever you think of them, in fact they are not ©

“Andromeda”, the single that preceeded the release of “Gamma Bay”, is one of the sweetest and the most accessible songs ever penned by the Canarian psychedelic orchestra GAF y La Estrella de La Muerte. It sounds like a cross-breed between Spacemen 3 and This Mortal Coil (or any other piece of delicate music 4AD Records released back in the 80’s). Guided by this track you may feel like you’re on the verge of listening to the sweetest and the most accessible GAF’s album.

But it’s not. Otherwise, “Gamma Bay” is probably the most uncompromised record since “Sociedad De Bienestar” – their Foehn Records’ debut. It seems like Mladen Kurajica’s longtime friendship with Stephen Lawrie (the core member of the Staffordshire shoegaze-gone-psych outfit The Telescopes whose latest efforts "Hidden Fields" and "As Light Return" seem to be the key references to the GAF’s newly revised sound) finally took over. So forget these mild designations like ‘a bit noisy’ or ‘slightly droning’ that you might apply to “Sunriser”, [at some point] more accessible “Gamma Bay”’s predecessor. Now, if it’s noisy – it’s the kind of ‘noisy’ that could make your ears beg for compassion (“Pitch Black”).

Definitely it’s not the kind of record you may choose to listen to while looking at your record collection guessing ‘what would I like to listen to right now?’ You’re in doubt? Go listen to Feeder. “Gamma Bay” needs the right mood and the right time. It needs your attention – I mean, ALL your attention. It’s nothing like ‘Ok, I’d have a cup of tea in the meantime’. It’s nothing like ‘Oh, how cool and nice is that!’ There’s nothing about ‘cool’. There’s nothing ‘nice’ in here. It’s the complete opposite to ‘nice’. It’s uncomfortable. It’s disturbing. It manages to sustain the certain degree of your anxiety even in the quieter or repetitive moments (aforementioned “Andromeda”, the 1st half of “Firewater”).

As you follow the album’s ups and downs getting trapped by its spins and swirls you come to conclusion that GAF y La Estrella de La Muerte have got their own inner cause and the instincts that guide them wherever they go to – even if you have no idea of what that cause is and does their final destination really exist. They know it better as at the end of the day every burst of noise builds up the melody.

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Los Vengadores "El Arte De Vivir"

Los Vengadores "El Arte De Vivir" (p)2016 self-released

First we saw them live at the Burgos stage on Sonorama 2015. Just occasionally passed around the place and got caught by the sounds. Afterwards I purchased their then-current release "Caminos Cortos" via iTunes. It stuck in our car audio system for months.
Next we caught them whilst Sonorama 2017 and equally enjoyed their new program. We had a brief talk with the guys, they gave us the most recent album "El Arte De Vivir" as a gift.

There are the bands that carry you away with the intricate techniques and unusual ways of sonic sculpturing. 

There are the bands that blow you off with the wall of sound and groundshaking dynamics. 

There are the bands whose music makes you wonder ‘how they do it?’ 

There are the bands whose music makes you dance or laugh or cry on some primordial level. 

Los Vengadores (this time stylized as V.E.N.G.A.D.O.R.E.S) are none of these bands. Their specialization is the most important thing there is - the song. Just the song, not what furbishes it into something else. There’s no excessive experimentation, there's no extra sonic manipulation – just the good songs. A lot of good songwriting to enjoy. 

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Wild Animals "Hoax"

Wild Animals "Hoax" (p)2018 BCore Disc/ La Agonia de Vivir/ Pifia Records

The first album of the Madrid-based trio Wild Animals was good, but it was too short and slipped through your years too fast to frame up the face of the band. Now with the amazing “Hoax” it becomes clear that Wild Animals are the missing link (both stylistically and geographically) between Galicia’s Maryland and Catalonia’s Bullitt. Surely these are the good news for those who embrace that subgenre of melodic alternative rock that comes close to pop-punk neither being ideologically true punk nor falling into Blink 182 kind of guitar pop.

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Flor Y Nata Records, Part II

The 2nd part of Flor Y Nata Records' recent releases overview. The 1st one is HERE.

Vermú "Vermú" (p)2018

From the very beginning of this EP you can smell the flavors of – at least – Niños Mutantes, Nunatak, and flamenco (thanks to the implementation of the castanets) in the air. The tight melodies are flourished with the heroic vocals and the neat arrangements. The result is 22 minutes of soul-touching balladry that makes us want more from the band.

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Vuelacruz "Vuelacruz" (p)2018

The folk rock in the vein of The Lumineers that sporadically flushes into the neighboring genres, such as quite noisy indie rock (as evidenced by the track “No Hay Perdon”). The traces of the likes of Kodaline or Mumford & Sons’ more rock-oriented 3rd album are also evident. Thus, mostly this eponymous album consists of the tiny and quiet semi-acoustic songs orchestrated with winds and strings. The pleasant effort that’s got nothing you could turn your back on.

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Urtain "Manual De Supervivencia Para Ilustres Decadentes" (p)2017

They’ve got three albums released through 2009 to 2014, and now they return with the new record produced in syndication by Flor Y Nata and local Mallorca imprint Espora Records. The band represents the pop side of rock: Merseybeat, power pop, Fito & Fitipaldis, Sidecars, you name it. Sounds like not my kind of music. But I remember how I first listened to Buddy Guy. Blues had never been my kind of music but somehow I enjoyed the art of one particular bluesman. This time I enjoy the art of this particular band cos it’s funny, it’s melodic, it’s intended to make you feel better. It’s just hard to resist to its reckless optimism.

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Flor Y Nata Records, Part I

3 weeks ago I was surprised to find the mail receipt in my physical mailbox. It was the real surprise as I made no orders in the recent time. I walked down to the Post Office and received a small parcel revealed to be the Flor Y Nata Records promotional pack of CDs. Flor Y Nata Records is the Tarragona-based indie imprint. Once it appeared in my list of 20 most important Spanish labels. Later it managed to grow even more important on me as it signed one of my personal favorites Clara Plath. Now I am happy to be chosen as some kind of the blogger relevant enough to receive the promotional materials directly from the label.

Below is the first part of the coverage of what the current face of the label looks like.

Atticusfinch "Vacaciones En Shangri-La" (p)2018

Take the sweet pop melodies. Speed ’em up x1.3 times and then wrap ’em with the punk’y rock and roll arrangements. The result will satisfy the vast specter of music lovers whose tastes lay in - or around - indie pop/ power pop. I.e for those who love the bands in array from Aerolineas Federales to Los Fresones Rebeldes to When Nalda Became Punk, Atticusfinch will be the piece of pie.

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Ambros Chapel "Portraits" (p)2017

Serious and tight indie rock with quite plaintive vocals (not so plaintive as ones of Manos Del Topo, though) and strong allusions to The Cure’sque post punk with some gothic aroma. The kinship with The National and other smile-less new millennium post punk-based acts is evident as well. I’ve learned of them only now but in fact it’s the fourth release by the band. They’re from Valencia, and the quality of their music may lead Ambros Chapel to grow into Your Second Favourite Band From Valencia.

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Sidderales "Canciones Urgentes" (p)2018

Sidderales are the ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of band. Just look at their photos and you’ll immediately get the idea what kind of music they play: it’s rock and roll. The only question that remains is what kind of rock and roll they play. Since I’ve listened to their previous LP (“Siete” (p)2016 Flor Y Nata) for me there’s no secret that the Badalona-born quartet plays this form of rock and roll that tends to power pop, alternative rock and hard rock simultaneously. The new EP follows the path of “Siete” and as an amusing trick contains the cover version The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry” (not listed on the sleeve).

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The 2nd part is HERE