The Best Of 2015. 10x10

In terms of longplays it was some kind of a martyr for me to choose the better albums out of the good ones. I've spent hours and hours after hours writing and re-writing the lists. What you see below is the result of many iterations.
So let's go. The 10th place, ten albums, 10x10.

Los Rusos Hijos De Puta "La Rabia Que Sentimos Es El Amor Que Nos Quitan" (p)self-released Listen/Buy

La Perra De Pavlov "Cronica De Un Movimiento" (p)self-released

AMA "Nada Dos Veces" (p)Jabalina Listen/Buy

Perro "Estudias, Navajas" (p)Miel De Moscas Listen/Buy

Bye Bye Lullaby "Origen" (p)self-released Buy

WANN "We Knew It Was You" (p)self-released Listen

Grushenka "La Insoportable Levedad Del Ser" (p)El Genio Equivocado Listen/Buy

Hazte Lapon "No Son Tu Marido" (p)El Genio Equivocado Listen/Buy

Tulsa "La Calma Chicha" (p)Gran Derby Buy Listen

Vacaciones "Soy Tu Fan" (p)Discos De Kirlian Listen/Buy

• The second effort of Argentinean garage/noise punks Los Rusos Hijos De Puta (how could I discard the band with such the name!?) is less psychotic and more controlled than their "Hola" EP that was released 2 years ago. And their song "Fan" is the one you definitely are to listen to. 
• La Perra De Pavlov seems to me a fake pop band in the best sense of the term "fake pop": actually they make pop music in the vein of Two Door Cinema Club but their rock roots are not fully hidden in the sand. The tracks "Huellas" and "Retratos" are the evidences.
• The tight and moody indie pop of AMA's "Nada Dos Veces" was the constant in my playlist all the year through, and most likely will continue to live in there.
• The Murcian noise popsters Perro have released their best release to-date. Being the longtime fan of such bands as Enon and Skeleton Key as well as of many post-hardcore bands, I can embrace the music of "Estudias, Navajas" pretty easily.
• Bye Bye Lullaby impressed me much by their performance on Sonorama 2015. So I've purchased their album "Origen" in iTunes immediately by return a la casa. There is a couple of the traditionalist country tracks ("Gravedad Cero", for example) on the album, but on the most part of "Origen" the band successfully manages to widen the borders of the genre to make more interesting and diversified music. 
• The members of the post-hardcore duo WANN name the releases of the labels Polyvinyl, Jade Tree, Deep Elm and Dischord amongst their main influences. This means alot to me. The place where the new album "We Knew It Was You" was recorded means to me even more. "Recorded, mixed and mastered in La Caterva Grabaciones (Telde, Gran Canaria) by Jose A. Lopez". Just look in the liner notes of Pumuky's "Justicia Poetica".
• The second longplay of the twee/nugaze quintet Grushenka sounds like the twin brother of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's debut. Sincerity in every note.
• To name the folk pop duo Hazte Lapon a folk pop duo is the wrong way because Hazte Lapon is some kind of avant garde folk pop duo. In fact the band is beyond all borders and is quite difficult to be categorized. The new album is diversified yet tight music that has folk pop only as a base for planting the strangely attractive with-the-smile-in-the-corner-of-the-mouth compositions above it. 
• Miren Iza was silent for enough time to start to miss her. This year she has returned with the new release, and "La Calma Chicha" is the major step aside from her previous country/folk-based releases. Now her music is the somber inward-looking experimental rock with the leanings to the likes as Marina & The Diamonds or Joanna Newsom. 
• 13 years were gone since the previous effort of twee/indie pop combo Vacaciones. This indie-pop-how-it-should-sound-like album "Soy Tu Fan" was released through the bookstore-turned-record label Discos de Kirlian, and now the band runs the crowdfunding campaign to release it physically as LP.

The Best Of 2015. 11x11, The EP's and mini-albums

My official 'best of 2015' selection starts with the Top11 EP's and mini-albums. Yes, I know that ones of Bala and Axolotes Mexicanos are treated rather as longplays than as EP's - but their running time counts in 20 minutes, so I put them into this category.
Here we have fast and furious sludge metal from two Galician girls (Bala), the thoughtful alternative rock with touches of Pearl Jam and Muse (Paciente Cero), the best Canarian-bred electro rock from Estaretega Pencherjevsky, MINIATURa and K0manec1, the lo-fi covers mini-album by one of the best Spanish singers/songwriters (The New Raemon), the new project of ex-Muy Fellini frontman Juan Maravi (Exnovios), the quiet post-rock in its most intimate form (Paracaidas), the twee-pop-goes-punk trio Axolotes Mexicanos, the perfectly crafted post-hardcore by catalanes Pedro Parque, and the fragile sadcore/slowcore you're not going to shake off  from your head once you have a listen (Jon Koldo L. Salas).

Bala "Human Flesh" (p)Matapadre Buy/Listen

Paciente Cero "Viene" (p)self-released Listen Buy

Estratega Pencherjevsky "Sentinel" (p)self-released Free Download

The New Raemon "El Yeti" (p)BCore Disc Buy/Listen

MINIATURa "Estrategias De Perdicion" (p)El Hombre Bala Buy/Listen

Exnovios "Exnovios" (p)self-released Buy/Listen

Axolotes Mexicanos "Holi <3" (p)Elefant Buy/Listen

Paracaidas "Pensamiento de Paz Durante Un Ataque Aereo" (p)Records Del Mundo Buy/Listen/Free Download

K0manec1 "Retroactiva" (p)El Hombre Bala Buy/Listen

Jon Koldo L. Salas "Tardes de Arena" (p)Miusichole/Ultra-Local Buy/Listen

Pedro Parque "Victoria" (p)self-released  Buy/Listen

The Best Of 2015. Honorable Mention

First of all, I should mention the albums that finally haven't made it into the main 'best of 2015' selection. These are the great albums, and while there are certain reasons that made me to put them aside they deserve to be mentioned anyway.

Nixon "El Ultimo Fuego" (p)self-released

El Lobo En Tu Puerta "Grabaciones Sumergidas 2015" (p)Familia Palmer/Knockturne

Las Ruinas "Siesta Mayor" (p)El Genio Equivocado

Carla Morrison "Amor Supremo" (p)Cosmica

Copiloto "Los Puentes Hundidos" (p)Grabaciones En El Mar

Dover "Complications" (p)Sony

Nudozurdo "Rojo Es Peligro" (p)Everlasting

Murciano Total "Quereres Y Dejenes" (p)El Genio Equivocado

Disco Las Palmeras! "Asfixia" (p)Sonido Muchacho

Spheniscidae "Nuevo Espacio" (p)Animal Iceberg

Automatics "Big Ear" (p)Clifford

El Relevo Aleman "Liberacion" (p)Gran Tigre

Que Bailen Los Demas "El Disco de Que Bailen Los Demas" (p)Discos Del Rollo

Mi Capitan "Drenad El Sena" (p)Music Bus

Harrison Ford Fiesta "Harrison Ford Fiesta" (p)Foehn

Coleccionistas "Coleccionistas" (p)Demian/Gran Sol

Cuello "Trae Tu Cara" (p)BCore Disc

Diego Hdez "Autotrophic Music" (p)Foehn

Alberto Montero "Arco Mediterraneo" (p)BCore Disc

Lupulo "Lupulo" (p)self-released

Ricardo Vicente "Hotel Florida" (p)Cydonia

Wilhelm "How High Lily?" (p)Origami

Za! "Loloismo" (p)Gandula

Tupperwear "Catanga EP" (p)Micromusic

Elena "Concepte Vitrina" (p)Warner

Joaquin Pascual "Una Nueva Psicodelia" (p)Subterfuge

Febrero "Ya!" (p)self-released

Fominder "El Circo Robado" (p)Polar

Las Historias De Una Lagartija "Ahora Que Somos Miticos EP" (p)Animal Iceberg

The Trunks "Bipolar" (p)self-released

The Best Of 2015. A Disclaimer

This situation really needs a disclaimer.

This was a tremendous year. And now it is totally impossible for me to choose my 'classic' Top30 albums out of the great quantities of the perfect examples of what Spanish rock music really is. When I started to summarize the year-end results I discovered that there are at least 96 albums and EP's that, from my point of view, need to be marked out as 'best of 2015'.

So I thought it over and found out the following decision:

- there will be Top10 places,

- the tenth place will contain 10 albums, the ninth place will contain 9 albums and so on up to 1 album in the first place, a winner,

- the certain positions of the albums within the certain place are irrelevant (in other words, the order within the place doesn't matter),

- the best EP's will be put in the separate section as '11x11'.

To prevent the possible misunderstanding of any kind every 'best of 2015' entry will be preceded by the following header:

The black background of the header would emphasize additionally the importance and the weightyness of the 'best of year' selection. 

No kiddin'.

BALA "Human Flesh"

BALA "Human Flesh" (p)2015 Matapadre

The last aqcuisition to-date of the brilliant Galician indie imprint Matapadre is the female duo (Anxela: giutars and vocals, Violeta: drums and vocals) named BALA. 

Oh, really, the girls? TWO girls? Yes, only two girls are punching hard in the rage of fury making this highly energetic and overtly psychotic [yet never dissonant] mixture of grunge and stoner rock. The vocals are mostly the howling chants with the certain words almost undistinguishably drowned in the boiling meltown of the guitar squawk. The pulse of drums beats irregularly yet unceasingly, giving the music the nerve it demands. The tracks are short so the album rushes through your ears just like the fast cold-hearted bullet*.
These chicks are the Babes In Toyland of the post-industrial civilization.
The pure rapture.

* 'bala' means 'bullet' in Spanish

The best tracks: Tripas + Chained, A.S.A.B, Joan Vollmer

BUY/DOWNLOAD

The Bright "Lineas Divisorias"

The Bright "Lineas Divisorias" (p)2015 Subterfuge

14 months ago two of us were standing before the Plaza del Trigo stage waiting for the first full day of Sonorama 2014 to start. Then The Bright - the band I knew nothing about - came onstage and pretty easily made our lives brighter (additionally, after their set I caught them backstage and asked for the photo, and they didn't decline).
On the new album "Lineas Divisorias" (again under Subterfuge wing) Miryam Gutierrez and Anibal Sanchez have done the same trick that Zahara or Russian Red did before them: they have abandoned their former country/folk roots in favor of [at times] loud guitars, [at times] danceable rhythms, [at times] vintage-sounding synths and [almost everywhere] absolutely timeless melodies. These songs might've been written now or 30 years earlier - the only visible difference is just the quality of production (this time arranged by renowned indie mastermind Paco Loco).
Dunno 'bout the lyrics but the music itself provides you with the freshness of the seaside breeze and the spotlessness of young souls. For me the best tracks off the album are the quite moody "El Final Del Amor" and "Tarde", but there is a lot of more lighthearted hymns of youth and beauty - including the first single "Aire" supported by delicate-yet-provocative video - that can add some splashes of bright colours to the grey everyday life.

The best tracks: El Final Del Amor, Tarde, Aire, Visceral

Briefs #1

Unfortunately, at the moment I'm not able to post here as frequently as it was earlier due to some complicated circumstances at my dayjob, but the sun of Spanish rock still shines bright so I got an urge to write something about it, at least in brief.

First, there are some sad news.

• In August Javier Fernandez, the former drummer of Los Piratas, was accidentally killed by police attended at the place by the claims of domestic abuse. Fernandez, who suffered bipolar disorder, was shot dead after the refusal to obey the policemen. Later the family of the musician posted a message revealing that he was just ill and was never aggressive/abusive.
• After two cool albums and one equally cool EP Mi Pequena Radio finally called it a day as a band. I am waiting for any good news from the bandleader David Tabuena. 
• Mercromina decided to finalize the second stage of their existence, with Joaquin Pascual already having solo album to be released later this year. I was lucky enough to catch their show at Sonorama.
• Helena Miquel left Delafe Y Las Flores Azules putting the further perspectives of the band on hold. As for the time-being there are no additional notifications, let's say that from this moment on the band is just Oscar D'Aniello (Delafe) and Dani Acedo (no nickname).
• The Asturias-based indie label Discos Humeantes has called it quits for good. The final release of this garage/punk-oriented imprint is the 2-LP comp album "Siempre Adelante: Los Primeros Anos de Discos Humeantes". You can obtain the digital version of the album here on the 'name your price' basis.