The Best Of 2013. Album #3

03. L.A. "Dualize" (p) Marxophone

There's the simple term that fits "Dualize" the most - 'a grower'.
I'm not a big fan of the latest solo works of Richard Swift, american singer/songwriter who spends much time producing other musicians. So I was kinda afraid what kind of sound he might create for Luis Alberto Segura. "SLNT FLM", an EP released a year ago, have already shown the turn from the polished pop-rock sound of the great "Heavenly Hell" to visually simplified and stripped-down roots-rock tone. But what's with "Dualize"? I should admit that the things stay the same, and the album logically follows the same path as EP. However, the sound and instrumentation might seem pretty simple, but if you give the songs a bit more time to grow on you, you will see how perfectly the room is constructed and organized and structurized for each of them. Close your eyes at any moment of any song - and you almost get right there in the studio behind the shoulder of Luis playing...

P.S. The song which I disliked the most when listening to the album for the first time now I like the most. It's "Mirrorball", and it's absolutely gorgeous in its simplicity.

P.P.S. I should also admit that the label Marxophone seems to be the champion of all labels this year, especially if knowing what album would make it to the #1.

The Best Of 2013. Albums 10 - 4

10. Cyan “Delapso” (p) Sony/BMG

Under the wing of the international major label the Barcelonians Cyan have perfected their sound for the 3rd album, having now all the components in the right proportion and delivering the stark guitar/piano-pop melodies (both easily sing-alongable, as "Philippe Petit", and not so easily distinguishable, as "Solo Es Una Herida") brushed with ethereal strings and translucent electronica.

09. Maryland “Los Anos Muertos” (p) Ernie Producciones

From the very beginning of their 3rd album the band do it full-throttle: the drums are banging, the guitars are ringing and buzzing, and overall picture makes me recalling the international punk-rock acts such as Alkaline Trio, for instance, or the 1st album of the fellow countrymen Mi Pequena Radio. 

It seems to me that the Galician indie-label Ernie Producciones, who are also the home of such the renowned musicians as Julio De La Rosa or Ninos Mutantes, make no faults at all in selection of the artists they promote. Really, I haven't ever listened to the bad album with the 'balancing man' stamp on it.

08. Dorian “La Velocidad Del Vacio” (p) PIAS

The first impression: Dorian started to move towards the Great Britain islands, so it's no surprise that "La Velocidad Del Vacio" was recorded with Phil Vinall (the british producer who worked with Elastica, Black Box Recorder and Placebo, to name a few) behind the dashboard. But the experience of the band prevented them from being another Bastille or someone like that, and Marc Gil and his companeros got no problems with self-determination. The sound of the album is a bit colder in comparison with the previous effort "La Ciudad Subterrania" but their electronica truly have the heart. And the small amount of guitar noise.

07. Igloo “04. El Conjunto Vacio” (p) Ernie Producciones

The previous album of the Galicians (yes, they're also on Ernie Producciones) Igloo was much more straightforward rock, but the band is inclined to improve the sound with every subsequent release, and in terms of the sound palette "El Conjunto Vacio" is the major step forward. This album isn't easy, it doesn't wear all its insides on its sleeves. You should listen to it deeper and deeper, and then even much deeper to reach the comprehension of what Beni Ferreiro ans his pals have created for us. Gone is the sheer post-punk of the previous releases, let's meet the best rock band of Gattaca.

And don't forget the best cover of the year!

06. Mucho “El Apocalipsis Segun Mucho” (p) Marxophone

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away there was the band who almost reached international success, and the band was The Sunday Drivers. After the dismissal of the band in 2009 the leader Jero Romero launched successful solo career, and the other members teamed up with Martin Perarnau from Underwater Tea Party and started Mucho. “El Apocalipsis Segun Mucho” is the second full lenght work of the band. It's the concept album dedicated, as you might see from the title, to the end of the world. 'The end of the world according to Mucho' is accompanied by the pleasant melodies you can easily sing along with. What really makes this album so good is the Mucho's ability to create the song that is lightbodied enough to attract listeners while being not too conventional at the same time - in the wide pallette of rhythms, tempos, dynamics etc.

05. Ivan Ferreiro “Val-Miñor – Madrid. Historia Y Cronologia Del Mundo” (p) Warner Music Spain

“Val-Miñor – Madrid. Historia Y Cronologia Del Mundo” is also the concept album of sorts. It was conceived as the vehicle to transfer the solipsist vision of its auteur to the grateful listeners. So it is probably the most personal album of Ivan Ferreiro. The good thing about "Val-Minor..." is that Ivan rejected the sound and rhythms of cheap cabaret ballroom which was usual on two of his previous works: "Mentiroso Mentiroso" and "Picnic Extraterrestre". The bad thing - the album doesn't contain the direct hit of "Cancion Humeda" or "Fahrenheit 451"-like grandeur. Despite this fact, the album has shown that creative form of today's Ivan Ferreiro is somewhere between 'mighty' and 'omnipotent'. You can't resist to the atmosphere of his travel, and you simply fall into - and it doesn't matter whether or not (or how) you relate to the world named 'Ivan Ferreiro'.

04. Miss Caffeina “De Polvo Y Flores” (p) Warner Music Spain

Luckily I can just repeat something I have said previously: "With the new album "De Polvo Y Flores" ("Of Dust And Flowers") Miss Caffeina distinguished almost unbelievable level of melodicism. The songs 'Gigantes', 'Venimos', 'San Francisco', 'MM' and especially 'Hielo T' got such the armour-crashing choruses that it seemed like the band had written them for the pan-universal song contest where Miss Caffeina would be the only contestant from planet Earth". 

Vertigo, sparkles and the pack of melodies any given renowned hitmaker would kill for.

The Best Of 2013. Albums 20 - 11

20. Extremoduro “Para Todos Los Publicos” (p) Warner Music Spain

19. Carlos Siles “Doce Maneras Para Esperar El Final” (p) Flor y Nata

18. Izal “Agujeros De Gusano” (p) HOOK

17. Breis “Invisibles” (p) Sweet Song

16. Grises “No Se Alarme Senora, Soy Sovietico” (p) Origami

15. El Pilar Azul “La Constante Sin Nombre” (p) El Hombre Bala

14. Delafe Y Las Flores Azules “De Ti Sin Mi – De Mi Sin Ti” (p) Music Bus

13. La Sonrisa De Julia “El Viaje Del Sonambulo” (p) Warner Music Spain

12. Buena Esperanza “Pacifica” (p) Gran Derby

11. Muy Fellini “Fragmentos De Una Explosion” (p) Clifford

The Best Of 2013. Albums 30 - 21

30. Julio De La Rosa “Pequenos Trastornos Sin Importancia” (p) Ernie Producciones

29. Sr. Chinarro “Enhorabuena A Los Quatro” (p) Mushroom Pillow

28. Animic “Hannibal” (p) BCore Disc

27. Second “Montana Rusa” (p) Warner Music Spain 

26. Capsula “Solar Secrets” (p) Krian Music Group

25. Lecciones De Vuelo “El Giro Immelmann” Self-released

24. Zico “Demonios Al Sol” (p) Astro Discos

23. Delorean “Apar” (p) Mushroom Pillow

22. DePlasticoVerde “Mentira Universal” Self-released

21. Cabezali “Pequeno Y Plateado” (p) Origami

Los Treinta Principales. #24. Muy Fellini "Muy Fellini"

#24. Muy Fellini "Muy Fellini" (p)2009 BCore Disc/Underhill Records

When Navarra post-hardcore outfit Half Foot Outside called it quits within a year and a half after their best effort "Heavenly" was out, it was not a big surprise that all the band members (at that moment pretty disjointed geofraphically) had the projects on their own. Now teamed up with the singer/guitarist Juan Maravi (of the band Sök fame), the ex-Half Foot Outside drummer Edu Ugarte started the new band called Muy Fellini. Long gone were the 'start/stop' and 'loud guitars/intimate vocals' stylistical approaches of HFO - the duo's debut album delivered to the listeners more stripped-down and rather acoustic folk rock. The first song "La Decepcion" sounds habitual for the burgeoning (if not saying 'oversaturated') americana scene with the melody you might expect from the international pop stars Travis. But while it was chosen to represent "Muy Fellini" with a video, it doesn't speak much about the album as a whole - the rest is full of great songs but not pure pop hits. The average lenght of the songs here is 5 minutes, so they have enough time to blossom with unexpected twists and turns. Juan Maravi easily switches from acoustic guitar strumming to powerful feedback wizardry, and his warmful voice adds depth to the picture, while Edu Ugarte's tight drumming never tries to dominate the sound pallette but constructs the system of coordinates in which these songs exist. Wonderful.

The best tracks: Dificil Claridad, Un Nuevo Amanecer, La Decepcion, Paris

Los Treinta Principales. #25. Yani Como "Nada Es Lo Que Parece"

#25. Yani Como "Nada Es Lo Que Parece" (p)2011 Art Of Troya

Yani Como are from Aranda de Duero, so it's no surprise that Javier Ajenjo, the leader of the band, is also the director of Sonorama music festival - the annual event which was described on the pages of this blog earlier. Despite the popularity of the senor Ajenjo's favourite brainchild (arguably, Sonorama is the largest indie event of the state - if counting the events focused on the domestic musicians), his second favourite brainchild is not so popular amongst people. Yani Como has neither wikipedia page nor the personal page on the lafonoteca.net, one of the largest resourses dedicated to Spanish rock music. This fact makes the digging in the band's discography a bit complicated task.
So, "Nothing Is What It Seems" is, approximately, the 3rd longplay of Yani Como and, definitely, the most perfected one.
And while the initial works of the band were inclined to a casual powerpop sound, this album is more about 90's Britrock tradition in the vein of Teenage Fanclub or The Boo Radleys. The sound of the band is enriched not only by the unexpected rhythm shifts ("Aqui Estoy") or translucent psychedelic touches (almost every song on the album) but also by heavy use of the violin - not the most obvious music instrument for the rocking indie band. To be fair, the violin is present on the previous albums of Yani but only here it is not only the important component of the band's sound but the instrument that upgrades it to the higher level of coherence and to the absolutely ethereal effects in such songs like "Buenos Aires" or "50E".
And the voice of Javier Ajenjo has the natural reverb effect in it, so once you've heard it you'd never confuse it with someone else's.

In the end of 2011 I voted for this album as the 2nd best album of the year (http://i-am-sposob.livejournal.com/121826.html), and after two years passed, I can confirm that it didn't become worse.

Physically the album was distributed through the tiny wine shops network (even the special wine bottles were created with the cover of the album as the wine label). So this is the only album from the TOP30 list that I have no hope to obtain on CD.

The best tracks: "Buenos Aires", "50E", "Aqui Estoy", "Magia"

No videos were made for this album, though.

Los Treinta Principales. #26. Love Of Lesbian "Cuentos Chinos Para Ninos Del Japon"

#26. Love Of Lesbian "Cuentos Chinos Para Ninos Del Japon" (p)2007 Naïve

After a short (not so short, really) break caused by my vacations now I'm back on the track.
The presented album was some kind of a milestone for me. If Deluxe opened the gates into rock en espanol scene for me, Love Of Lesbian were the ones who proved my then-yet-to-be-fledging affinity real.
There's a lot of subjectivity in this review (and in this position as well). I do understand that the 2nd part of the album fails a little bit - the first six songs on this disc are really the best ones. But this fact never spoiled my attention because this album means so much to me.
It is the second LoL's album sung en castellano, and if "Maniobras De Escapismo" had shown that the band received additional valency with the use of the native language, than "Chinese Stories For Japanese Kids" became the major step forward in terms of melodical progressions and stylistic diversity. The trip-hop of "Universos Infinitos" befriends here the upbeat pop-rock tune of "La Nina Imantada", the gorgeous "Los Colores De Una Sombra" flows into the acoustic "Un Dia En El Parque", and the family Christmas singalong "Villancico Para Mi Cunado Fernando" neighbors the Krishnaite-like chanting of "Shiwa". Add to this pallette the simple and funny "Me Amo" and the tragic slowburner "La Parabola Del Tonto" - and just try to imagine how to complete the cohesive album out of all of these songs.

The album spawned 5 videos (which is almost unbelievable for an indie band) and started the creative cooperation of Love Of Lesbian and young female director hiding under the alias Lyona.

The best tracks: Universos Infinitos, La Nina Imantada, Noches Reversibles, Las Colores De Una Sombra, Villancico Para Mi Cunado Fernando