Rock Español A Través De Los Ojos De Un Ruso

пятница, 4 августа 2023 г.

Sonorama Ribera 2023. The Prologue

In a cursory examination of the Sonorama schedule published yesterday it becomes apparent that the Spanish indie music landscape is changed. The chances are it's changed forever. Sonorama always was a rock-oriented event, but now at least 25% of performers are the urban- and trap-related artists. If to include the rock bands than implement the elements of urban styles into their music (Cupido, Jimena Amarillo, etc) the percentage would be even higher narrowly reaching one third of the lineup. What does it mean globally? The trap, reggaeton and other related subgenres are the music of the young. The persons into their forties may still be listening to rock, but the festivals make their living out of the younger people. If you want to follow the future you need to align to the youngsters' tastes. I may not like it but I am not a target market anyway.

Another considerable part of the Sonorama 2023 lineup is the "festival indie". Festival indie is the negatively connoted entity within the music business of Spain. It describes the zillions of the same-sounding rock bands that more or less follow the template of the Big Three (Love Of Lesbian, Izal, Vetusta Morla) casting aside the theatrical grandeur of the former and the genre-bending tendencies of the latter. Briefly, this is the generation of the rock bands more concerned about reaching the festival headliner status than the creative validity and innovation. What does that mean globally? It means that the "burbuja de festivales" (festival balloon, or festival bubble) is not over yet, and the possibility of performing deep in the night and/or seeing your name printed in largest typeface possible is still a ripe target for the young rockers, even if it not necessary entails any substantial commercial success. This ain't necessarily bad but the common lack of imagination within this category is, say, disappointing. The only thing they are as vocal as inventive in is the brief summary in their Spotify profile.

The last thing I'd like to emphasize is the direct consequence of the previous two. There is so little space left for the 'non-aligned' artists or the bands hard to allocate to any distinct category. There was absolitely no issue for me to sellect 10 to 20 "the most interesring smallest font size bands" out of the festival's billboards of the previous editions. This year it's neither 20 nor 10. It's, like, six. Six bands. Dani, 30s40s50, Martina Efedra, Jimena Amarillo, Victorias, Vera Fauna - and even then, none of them I'm 100% assured of, as long as at least three of them are flesh and blood of "indi festivalero". Thank goodness there are some better-known bands in the lineup (Kitai, Niña Coyote eta Chico Tornado, León Benavente, L.A.) there's no doubt about.

Am I any depressed based on these reflections? Nope.

There's one thing that makes me looking forward to these 4,5 days of music and wine (and calimocho as an option). Just imagine: it's 2:00 a.m and you walk from the food court to WCs left of one of the secondary stages. As you walk along to the front side of that stage the sound is reaching you - and then in a matter of a second you are stunned. You forget where you're walking to. You don't mind the late hour as well as your growing fatigue. There's nobody else around you in this world. It's only you - and the band onstage. I'm sure it's gonna happen because it happened to me many times before.

Because it always happens in Sonorama.

четверг, 3 августа 2023 г.

The Blog Is Back

The last three years were the silent ones for this tiny little blog. Some time ago I switched to my Russian-speaking Telegram channel https://t.me/rockspain where I’ve been posting regularly (1150+ posts overall) thus making this Blogspot facility kind of unattended. But this doesn’t mean it’s dead, it was never intended to be dead. I really do hope I’ll keep it going until I’m dead. So I’m gonna try to revive it in the closest time taking in mind there is some weighty reason behind this decision.

10 years ago I started this blog upon visiting Sonorama fest for the first time. That event made such an impact upon me I could say it changed my life forever. Since then I had visited Aranda de Duero 7 times more before this annual tradition was cut short by covid-19 pandemic and then by the ongoing war Russia started against Ukraine.

The last year I returned to Aranda having been spent double amount of time and triple amount of money as compared to the years ‘before war’. This year, as the war doesn’t seem to cease in the foreseeable future, it would be most likely my last visit to Sonorama. Taking this into account, I’m gonna spend the next week to the fullest surrendering completely to the music, trying to soak every bit of sunlight, every sound of the live performances up with my skin and my memory. And then, upon returning home, I will post here a string of reports as I did it before hoping this blog would be connecting me over the years to the places I love, to my Spanish friends, to the persons I respect the most.

Later I will try to attend Phe Festival in Canary Islands for the first time. It’s kind of a moot point as of now cos my financial credibility might not be able to bear an additional travel to Tenerife. But hope dies last.

вторник, 22 декабря 2020 г.

The Best Of 2020. Top50. 01 - 10

In one of his recent posts in Facebook Guille Mostaza has raised the following issue: when we post something we like in social networks - we post it to show what? To show what we really like or to be liked for what we show we like? And then, what we show we listen to and what we really listen to - is it the same thing? Guille didn't clarify what audiences he was appealing to - regular users or his colleagues from music business, or his colleagues from music business as regular users of social networks. For me, I believe I have stepped over this period in my life when I had to stage my tastes up to be liked for it over 20 years ago. But what I'm really interested in is the flip side of Guille's question as applied to professional music reviewers' community. When they show they like something, do they really like it or just try to stay in line with the common opinion of the colleagues? I just feel like the universal praise of some artists looks like staged. I can't contradict the universal praise of Arca or FKA Twigs because it's not my kind of music, and I don't understand how it functions and how it impacts its fans. But look at Phoebe Bridgers, for instance. All the year through I'm reading how great her "Punisher" is, then I listen to it - and hear nothing exceptional. Ok, these are the songs. There are some good songs in there. But comparisons to Elliott Smith? Seriously? I hear nothing in "Punisher" that could relate to Smith's level of songwriting. This is surely my kind of music and I know how this music works, so I'm kind of forced to think: is this hype staged? Do all these reviewers really think it's that great, or they forced to show something they don't really think as the common opinion prevails? Or is something wrong with me? And then I look into the [Spanish national] annual polls and get concerned of what I don't see in there. Do you know what I don't see? I don't see my Best Album Of The Year in there. It is completely absent. It looks like my poll is the only poll where this album sits. And I'm forced to think again: is something wrong with me and my music tastes? But then I think: I don't care. For me, with thick sound, great melodies and perfect drive/emotion balance this album sparks brightly amongst tons of music released this year. And the next 9 albums spark brightly as well.

10. Tierra Vertical "El Bosque Se Hizo Cancion" (p)self-released

Slowly processed within 3 year span this album is worth every minute of waiting. It's such a pity this strongest pack of songs rooted within post-Vetusta indie rock context seems to be overlooked as the band is not from this pool of bands (some call it mafia, haha) whose names come to mind first you hear the words 'Spanish indie".

пятница, 4 августа 2023 г.

четверг, 3 августа 2023 г.

вторник, 22 декабря 2020 г.

понедельник, 21 декабря 2020 г.

воскресенье, 20 декабря 2020 г.

пятница, 18 декабря 2020 г.

четверг, 17 декабря 2020 г.

пятница, 4 августа 2023 г.

четверг, 3 августа 2023 г.

вторник, 22 декабря 2020 г.

понедельник, 21 декабря 2020 г.

воскресенье, 20 декабря 2020 г.

пятница, 18 декабря 2020 г.

четверг, 17 декабря 2020 г.