Los Treinta Principales. #27. The New Raemon "Libre Asociacion"

#27. The New Raemon "Libre Asociacion" (p)2011 BCore Disc

In the end of 90's the Barcelonian Ramon Rodriguez started the band Madee, and that was the time when he - as many of his peers - have chosen the english lyrics as the way to spread his vision to the world. And it took almost 10 years for him to change the template. In the middle of 00's he appeared solo - now under the moniker The New Raemon, and while the stage name was english again the lyrics were not.
"Libre Asociacion" is the most accomplished album of Ra(e)mon to date, and it contains the fully arranged songs - unlike its mostly acoustic predecessors "A Proposito de Garfunkel" & "La Dimesion Desconocida" - with the wide pallette of instrumentation. When you start listening to this album you quickly may consider the opening title "La Bella y La Bestia" the best song ever penned by Ramon. But until the album ends you may change your mind at least three times, finally establishing "El Refugio De Superman" as the best one (in fact, "Libre Asociacion" has no bad songs at all).

The best songs: La Bella Y La Bestia, El Refugio De Superman, Kill Raemon, La Vida Regalada

Los Treinta Principales. #28. Second "Fracciones De Un Segundo"

#28. Second "Fracciones De Un Segundo" (p)2009 DRO Atlantic

The remarkable voice of Sean Frutos is the trademark of Second, the band from Murcia. "Fracciones De Un Segundo" was the 1st album of the band fully sung en castellano (the previous effort "Invisible" was a mix of songs sung in English and Spanish). Starting from the majestic hit "Rincon Exquisito" and throughout the album "Fracciones De Un Segundo" delivers great pop/rock tunes with strong danceable potential ("Rodamos", "Todas Las Cosas", "Dicen"). But the most winning moments are the songs which are coloured with sadness and/or built on the contrasting bittersweet emotions, such as "Nuevos Secretos", "Para Bien O Para Mal" and especially "Mas Suerte", another gorgeous song situated close to the end of the album.

The best songs: Rincon Exquisito, Mas Suerte, Conocerte, Nuevos Secretos

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.

Los Treinta Principales. #30. Delorean "Silhouettes"

I'm starting the new topic now.

For the past 6 years I've listened to approximately 500 albums by 150 artists/bands within 'rock en espanol' community. I suppose I can make some conclusions.

So, "Los 30 Principales" is underway.

#30. Delorean "Silhouettes" (p)2001 Underhill

Delorean were, in fact, the 1st Spanish band I’ve ever heard – it was their eponymous album in 2005. But before this band of Basque Country origin started playing their warm sunshine electronica (with which they reached almost universal acclaim in 2009 when "Ayrton Senna" EP was out) there was the initial 'rocking' period of the band marked only by "Silhouettes".

Starting with that simple riff that made Smashing Pumpkins glorious 8 years ago "Silhouettes" sounded like a mixture of New Order and Jimmy Eat World spontaneously adding to the mix the elements of jangle pop and melodic progressions more characteristic for... ummm... Elliott Smith?
Leaving aside Delorean's further achievements, this album can be considered fresh and warm and melodic and free of any possible las faltas provinciales. But in the discography of the band it is (and probably always will be) some kind of a bastard child.

The best songs: Break Concrete, Automatic, Mini Skirt Girls

Sonorama Ribera 2013. The Aftermath

Just uploaded some hi-res photos of Igloo, Mi Pequena Radio & Sin Rumbo to my Flickr account:

Igloo set

Mi Pequena Radio set

Sin Rumbo set

All photos were taken by Tanya.

Sonorama Ribera 2013. The Report. Happylogue

In the final part I'd want to put out some additional thoughts on Sonorama. Tips or something like that.

First of all, I'd want to say that I could write it in Spanish. Pero si escribia esta cronica en espanol, la cronica seria preparada antes de la proxima Sonorama. So I decided to use English to speed up the process.

1. Schedule.

The fact that I have prepared the schedule with all the bands coloured three types (blue - obligatory, pink - maybe, white - no muy interesante) makes it possible to attend most of the shows at the first line before the stages. I may call it 'the competent planning'. But, in fact, having all the bands coloured three types prevented me from acquainting with the new musicians. Really, The Handicapes, Sin Rumbo and Garamendi were just the lucky coincidences. We should've not seen them at all because they were all white in my schedule. And we didn't see the shows of Pasajero, Izal, Jack Knife because there was no intention to see them - but these shows were amazing, as far as I know now.

2. Social networking.
All these new technologies became very useful, really. Now you can always be in touch with all the possible changes of the schedule or know what's up for the next night - or, more likely, what WAS up for the moments you have slept over. Or learn that Garamendi is not Llum. But remember that constant posting or streaming really kills the espiritu of the moment. You may become involved into networking more than into simple enjoying the shows. Not the best way, I suppose.

3. Communication.
It's always useful to communicate with the people around you. For us, it was a bit harder as we're not the native speakers. I met no trouble in buying a bottle of wine in the winery shop, or receiving a cup of tea in the hotel. But to talk with the girls and the guys you run into casually - it's pretty hard even taking in mind that 90% of people around are knowing more than you about what's going on here and there and elsewhere. Learn Spanish, you lazy dude.

4. Photo camera.
It was a bit disappointing for us to have our Canon camera banned - especially if to know that we had purchased it for Sonorama. I believe that it's a kind of inevitable, but for us who made it for 4000 km. (5,5 hours in a plane and 1,5 hour in a car) to get here and and to finally lose the main operating tool leaving us with only the poor-quality mobile photos as the snapshots of our memories it's anyway a bit frustrating.

5. Life.
'La vida es aquello qe pasa entre Sonorama y Sonorama' (Life is what passes between one Sonorama and another) says the slogan of the festival. No lie. I do confirm.

6. People.
Finally, just look at the happy people.

Sonorama Ribera 2013. The Report. Day 3, 17.08.2013. El final and other hesitations - Part 2

We missed the show of McEnroe so the 1st band we saw in the evening were Barcelonians Stay. Stay are the britpop act with the psychedelia touches, and as for me their presence on the main stage was kinda difficult to explain. The venue was definitely too large for these guys. I don't want to say they were bad or playing poorly or anything. No, they were playing well and bandleader Jordi Bel was really good in stretching the psychedelic vibe out of his guitars - but it was really too large for them. Plaza del Trigo or Carson Camping would be much more appropriate.

Stay

Havalina is one of the bands whom I really adore. But for Tanya, they seemed to be too loud to fall in love with before Sonorama. So the Castilla y Leon stage was lucky for loud bands this year. And two of us were on the first line of defence again - we were standing pressed to the security bars right in front of the bass player Ignacio Celma. 

In terms of the playing techniques all three members of the band - Manuel Cabezali, Ignacio Celma & Javier Couceiro - were amongst the best musicians on the fest. Their control over the sound they made was almost unbelievable. They produced such the solid wall of sound that it would be undistinguishable for many bands of larger 'capacity'. We were absolutely stunned during their show. We were so stunned that even did not noticed how the man behind the scene turned them off while they were in the very beginning of "Incursiones" due to they got out of timing so the rest of the song was some kind of unplugged with the audience singing all the lyrics.

Havalina

After the unforgettable set of Havalina we started running to the escenario principal - started and... all of a sudden stopped at the same moment. In the falling curtains of the dusk we saw the 'footballfieldful' sea of people who were just standing there. All of them were awaiting for Xoel Lopez. So the mean plan to get to the stage as close as possible fell apart.

Xoel Lopez is the reason I'm here. Not only in Sonorama. Globally 'here'. This is the musician who, performing under the alias Deluxe opened for me the door to the world of the spanish indie music. Searching for his recordings in Internet I had discovered all the rest of the bands I love now. So this would be the heartwrenching moment for me. And it was, really. Xoel and his band were playing, and I was standing in the middle of the crowd with my eyes shut and listening to his voice not being able to make a single move. The set consisted mostly of the songs from Xoel's lates release "Atlantico" with only one new song and only one song from his past days (it was gorgeous "Historia Universal"). And his supporting band was so harmonious that there was no single wrong note in the whole hour-long show. And Xoel's artistic magnetism kept the crowd as the whole entity with the thousands of hearts beating as one.

Xoel Lopez

Then was the time for us to spend a couple of sonos for sparkling water and calimocho. Our legs were crying for us to give them some rest so we placed our tired bodies on a sidestep against the FutureStars stage, where we noticed the band playing in there. The band was good, so we stood up again and came in. According to the schedule this would be Llum. I had never heard about this band before so it was another good discovery for me (later that night that band revealed to be Garamendi, not Llum). We had made some jerky dance for half an hour anf then came to Castilla y Leon for The New Raemon. 

Garamendi

For the last couple of years Ramon Rodriguez is acting in the close connection with the band Maga from Sevilla, and here they were promoted as The New Raemon & Maga. Before their show started we had to listen to the part of Standstill set. Standstill is the renowned band who began in 90's as 2nd wave emo act but lated changed the direction and started making music with post rock-tinged chamber pop in its core base. What the fuck were they playing there I could not understand. It was something tribal, with doubled drumkit on the stage, dense strumming of acoustic guitar, all very repetitive and disturbing. Sorry, not my kind of music at all.

The New Raemon & Maga were the opposite thing. With the whole bunch of the good songs where the Ra(e)mon's songs were interleaved with Maga's power-pop singalongs this show was driving and upbeat. Both acts were very warmly received by the audience. But at the end of the show we hardly could stand on our feet. Fatigue have knocked us down to the ground, and three Supersubmarina songs ago the Sonorama Ribera 2013 was over for us.

The New Raemon y Maga

It's a pure grief and disappointment that we have lost the chance to watch the show of L.A. and now I am deemed to cope with it. The only reason to lower the grade of self-disappointment is the fact of L.A.'s "Dualize" album purchase on the mercadillo. 

And for the most part, that's all.