вторник, 12 сентября 2023 г.
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понедельник, 11 сентября 2023 г.
GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte "Pyramids" (p)2023 Foehn/ Keroxen/ Discrepant
First, "Pyramids" is mostly electronic. At least, its first half.
Second, it's 100% instrumental. Carolina doesn't sing, Mladen doesn't sing. No one says a word.
"Pyramids" was recorded in El Tanque (the former petrol tank 50 m in diameter and 18 m in height converted into art space) during 3 day long improvisational sessions.
It's two LP album but it contains only 7 tracks. Three are two synth-laden tracks ("Pyramids 1", "Pyramids 4"), a bass-driven kraut piece ("Pyramids 2"), an atonal jazz piece with leading trumpet ("Pyramids 3"), two meaty post-rocky tracks ("Reptylian", "Speed Of Darkness") and a space rock elegy ("Wormhole 74"). Structurally they are sequenced to make the whole picture evolve constantly like a spoonful of mercury splashed onto the surface. Album starts from tiny synth musings, then it grows up to guitar-fueled storm and finally calms down descending slowly to serenity and peace. That's the main course but there are multiple pitch roll and yaw corrections on the way.
Summed up, it's not so mindwrenching as "Garden Island" (the album by GAF's another avatar GAF And The Love Supreme Arkestra recorded in the similar circumstances) but it's still an adventurous experience. The listener's discretion is advised.
пятница, 8 сентября 2023 г.
DOM "Warm" (p)2023 self-released
The first word that comes to mind upon listening to the new release of Domingo Aleman's "household" solo project DOM is 'visceral'. You can almost see how this music pours out of Domingo's body in its own intuitive way. How it paves its way through his skin pores. How it streams through his fingers short-circuiting the guitar strings. How it's pulsating within the drumkit (yes I know the drums are programmed but I'm not speaking of what I know, I'm only speaking of how it feels).
The tracks are quite repetitive and it's the case when repetition transforms into captivity. That's why the longest tracks are the best here (for me personnally I'd prefer this to be glued together into one 40 minutes long piece without pauses between the tracks). As long as Domingo is not your conventional songwriter with the songs built up on some basic four chord sequences there is no standard verse-chorus structure to be found on this album. So the music just flows around to envelope you with its vibe and to move you to another place full of tribal rhythm, offbeat synths and fluid desert rock guitars.
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.
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".
The man formerly known as Ran Ran Ran drummer made an album where he did literally everything. It took some years for Ran Ran Ran to grow from obscure underground act to the local scene staple. "L'Home Sense Dits" is crafted so perfectly that his auteur jumps into the same category of 'local scene staples' with his only release.
They've got groove, they've got vibe, they've got their own face in the post-garage jangle pop scene. Their second album is almost huge, and this 'almost' leaves them enough space for growing even bigger. And this is that moment when I can proudly declare: I loved them before they got famous.
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понедельник, 21 декабря 2020 г.
The Best Of 2020. Top50. 11 - 20
"Autosabotaje", the 4th LP of the Albacete-based quartet, is the logical progression of their previous work "El Nuevo Frente Frio". And just like its predecessor, this album is the gentle and intimate take on dreampop/shoegaze's most intelligent version.
The twee pop revivalist girl/boy duo sings odes to daily grind and troubled (or only allegedly troubled) relationships accompanied by drum machine and - surprisingly intense for this kind of music - guitars.
The blueprint of Pau Vallve's production is evident on this LP by 20 years old singer/songwriter from Mallorca. But what amazes me the most is the fact that the songwriting is incredibly competent for a persont in her adolescent years. The bright and beautiful, this album is such a debut most of young songsmiths could only dream of.
With Berri Txarrak calling it a day and Lisabo rarely coming up for air, I do believe the torch of the best 'loud rock' band from Basque Country #rightnow should be passed to these folks.
I've been using the tagline "trippy, druggy, atmospheric" with negative connotations for years. This time I proudly use it heaving in mind something good. The best electronic album this side of Combray's "Ullapool"
Let's put it simple: the best post-hardcore album of the year.
This is how the huge fuck you to the world should sound like: dirty, noisy, chaotic, emotionaly charged, oozing with angst and anger lo-fi (I'd rather say, no-fi) manifesto.
11. Super Gegant "Una Casa Als Aiguamolls" (p)The Indian Runners
This album was released in the end of the year 2019 so it didn't get a chance to enter the 2019's annual polls. But this well-balanced blend of jangle pop, post punk, Superchunk and present-day Catalan indie rock surely deserves it.
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