En el Camino A Contempopranea

A Quick Guide To... Jabalina Musica

Jabalina Musica is a cult indie label from Madrid. The label's roster mostly concentrates on the various sub-genres of indie pop. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Jabalina. The date was celebrated by the series of local concerts. For last five years Jabalina and its head Tanis Abellan has produced two absolutely astonishing singles collections: 'Jabalina Love Songs' and 'Dedicatessen'. These collections are published so deliciously that mere appearance of the discs could make your heart go wild. So let's start from the second one.

Graphics of 'Dedicatessen' are designed by Jesus Galvan who is the brother of Antonio Galvan, the man behind the Parade project. 

The series include the following items (in alphabetical order) all printed on colour vinyl:

1. ALDO LINARES y las mujeres
2. AMA ante el virus de la rabia
3. APENINO cerca de las estrellas
4. DOBLE PLETINA contra los amores perdidos
5. J'AIME en la noche eterna 
6. KLAUS&KINSKI a cuatro reinas moras
7. LLUM y la revuelta emocional 
8. PARADE en el estudio Ghibli
9. PUMUKY y el eterno femenino
10. SOLLETICO y el hombre de la casa
11. SOUVENIR y los finales sin fin
12. WILD HONEY Dear Cindy

Most of the bands - well-known (Klaus&Kinski, Parade, Doble Pletina) or not (Solletico, Ama) - deliver different kinds of lo-fi/synth-pop/folk pop/indie pop music with the fragile male/female vocals and general sense of the light melancholy. Even my all-time favorites Pumuky sound here like they do not want to tear the common canvas. I'm not gonna tell you that all these bands and musicians are the same or anything like that - no, absolutely. They are all different and all have their own features, but they have something in common here within this series - let it be baritone-voiced singer/songwriter Llum or quirky pop experimentators Doble Pletina, or Klaus&Kinsky who abandoned their twee in favor of loose acoustic piano-based songs.

For me, being familiar with the most of the presented musicians, nevertheless I've made one good discovery here - J'aime. His americana-tinged music is the perfect soundtrack for the rainy evenings spent home alone with a good bottle of wine.

Las Resenas Casuales. Eric Fuentes "Barcelona"

Eric Fuentes "Barcelona" 3CD, (p)2014, BCore Disc

Ex-leader of the renowned alternative band The Unfinished Sympathy Eric Fuentes has done a lot of work. Triple album - can you imagine that? Who's gonna issue triple albums these days? 

To prevent the album from being boring on the same templates repeated for 30+ times over and over again, Eric has chosen the way not to be concentrated on himself. He has invited some friends from the local music community to sing some songs. It was a good idea because these songs that were sung by different singers got the new dimensions and the new characters. The standout track of that kind is by no means the one that is sung by local superhero Ramon Rodriguez who usually goes under the alias The New Raemon, "Disfruta Perdiendo".

Most of the songs are sung in English - much as the back catalogue of The Unfinished Sympathy was. But the best track on the whole album is in Catalan ("Amb L'Algua Al Coll", and I have posted it here in the blog two weeks earlier). The second best track - El Hombre Burbuja-like "Incansable" is not English-languaged as well.

Probably, you can't call "Barcelona" unified cos the songs on the album are pretty much diversified in style. But it's strong feature is that you can feel how Eric simply does what he wants without any convoluted production tricks and martyr-like attemts to give the songs the additional glance. The whole album is not so long overall (~100 min) and it will hardly make you fall into boredom. But you will hardly like every song on it.

The best tracks: Amb L'Algua Al Coll, Incansable, Future Lovesong, Disfruta Perdiendo

Ha Llegado: VV AA "De Viaje Por Los Planetas"

This weekend has brought me the good news: my copy of "De Viaje Por Los Planetas" arrived.

"De Viaje Por Los Planetas" is a limited edition book ((c) Ondas Del Espacio) which marks 20th anniversary of the first Los Planetas' LP "Super 8", with the companion CD that includes the cover versions of LP's songs made by renowned Spanish bands such as Pumuky, Doble Pletina, Klaus & Kinski, McEnroe, Disco Las Palmeras! and others.

The book is only about to be read, but CD was auditioned right after the mail package was torn apart. 

Most of the bands involved into the project are well-known not only within the music community but also for the foreign beholders like me. 

Doble Pletina, Klaus & Kinski, Denver  - they have turned Los Planetas' songs into their own pieces. For instance, it's almost impossible to discover some familiar sounds of the [probably] most famous LP's track "Que Puedo Hacer" in the version made by K&K. Odio Paris and Pumuky were more accurate to the legacy of the band which was one of the main influences for them. The absolutely gorgeous version was made by Pamplona's finest Muy Fellini. 

At least two bands have surprised me in the good way: Grushenka and Universal Circus. Never heard of them before, but both are absolutely great.

The Next Stop: Contempopranea

Despues del concierto de GAF tenemos una nueva direccion...

Oh, sorry, just got psyched. But yes, there's a new direction ahead.

Contempopranea.

Province of Extremadura, town of Badajoz, XIXth edition of the fest.

Originally, Contempopranea took place in Alburquerque but this year it will be divided into two sets: 1st in Badajoz (6-7th of June) and 2nd in Alburquerque (25-26th of June). Taking in mind the fact that 1st set of the fest would coincide with my birthday we have decided to put this event into our schedule.

In the very beginning of my falling for rock espanol I dreamt about visiting Contempopranea, and finally the dream will come true. The  1st leg of this year's edition includes the sets of Izal, Sidonie, Love Of Lesbian, Ivan Ferreiro - all these names could make me go mad, and the chances are they will.

En Directo. GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte in SKIF XVIII, Saint Petersburg, 17/5/2014 - Part Two

Concerning GAF.

We came to SKIF place on time but were not allowed to enter. 'We got no lists for persons with electronic tickets. Please wait for 10 minutes', they told us. 10 minutes were gone quickly, but they told us again that the lists were not there yet. Ten minutes more it would be 8:15 pm. 'Chicks', I outraged, 'We came here from fucking Tula only to see the GAF playing - and they are already playing, but we stay here at your door!' 

'10 minutes', they replied, 'And there's nobody playing right now.'

So we stayed there for ten minutes more, and only after that additional small amount of time we managed to get inside. The girls were right - nobody was playing onstage yet. We stopped at the merchandise desk to see if there were the LPs of GAF. There were no GAF's LPs initially, but then came a man with the box and the box was full of GAF's vinilos. And this man was Alejandro Padron. I stayed in 10cm right beside him but didn't want to embarass him with my unexpected greetings.

In the hall where the gig should take place we saw a man in the pink polo. And this man was Mladen Kurajica. 'Go and talk to him!', Tanya said. 'He's occupied', I replied. Really, Mladen talked to one man, then to another man, then another man took a series of photos of Mladen. And then Mladen walked off to  see the rest of the band.

Before the show the audience was pretty limited. I think there were something like 30 persons. But when the band started playing people started to come in and pretty quickly the audience has grown 5 times or even more. It seemed like the most of the audience formerly had no intention to see GAF, but came to catch the show being attracted by the sounds, especially when they started playing "Alien Love" from "GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte" - the song which is closest to a 'hit' in the band's back catalogue.

The best tag I could use to describe the show of this band is 'the controlled storm'. The band rocked as hell, these Canarian shamen produced the sound which was groundbreaking. Their wall of sound incorporated trumpets, the chants of Mladen and of the female vocalist Caroline Machado, the strange percussion tools... The certain persons before the stage were convulsing like the voodoos trying to catch the rhythm but were always missing it.

The first half of the show has faded fast.

'We're going to play the last song', said Mladen, 'And it's a very long song'.

'Yannakis', said someone behind my back. 

And it was really "Yannakis', the 20 minutes long track from "Sunriser"...

The show came to its final, the light was switched on. The band started disconnecting their equipment. The audience went away. Me and Tanya came to stage. 'Mladen!!!', shouted I with my voice totally broken on flu. He raised his eyes on me: 'Oh, Mikhail! What's with your voice?' He came closer, we embraced one another, his polo was absolutely wet from the sweat. Please take in mind that Mladen was predominantly sitting during the show - these men really rock hard, have I already said that?

We've talked for a minute and then Mladen left us to finish his duty on disconnecting the equipment. While leaving he expressed the wish to meet us later and drink some alcoholic beverages with us. I tried to tell him that we had very limited time but my voice betrayed on me again and all I said was some kind of duckling's squawking. Then we stayed in the hall for 10-15 minutes to catch the possibility of meeting the band members again but they were in the secured room and we hadn't enough courage to try to get inside it.

And then we left because we really needed to leave. When we came out of the building the girls at the entrance checking desk asked us: 'Do you really want to live the place?' 'Yes', we replied, 'because we only came here to see GAF'.

On our way back to Andrey's bar VinyllaSky I felt myself like I was fully recovered from illness (except the voice). And half a bottle of scotch away we paved our way to Pulkovo airport to get onboard and fly away back to Moscow through one more sleepless night spent on salidas y llegadas.

There's a couple of things that I've known about myself during this trip (sorry for these personal details though):

1. I'm not a fan. I don't need these things like autographs and mutual photos, etc. I just need to support my favorite musicians and mostly that's all.

2. I'm too shy and I should do something with it the sooner the better. 

The stage. The Kaleidoscope background is on.

The band in the dark

The Fog Forest background

The Cosmos background

En Directo. GAF Y La Estrella De La Muerte in SKIF XVIII, Saint Petersburg, 17/5/2014 - Part One

When I learned about GAF would come to Russia to participate this year's SKIF festival in Saint Petersburg it was really nice shock cos GAF is not only the Spanish band, but it is also the band from Canary Islands, the corner of the world that I truly adore.

Also, in the middle of the spring Andrey, the friend of mine, has opened the doors of his own bar+LP shop+concertplace named 'culture bar VInyllaSky'. So he ivited me to visit his place which is situated in Saint Petersburg as well. I decided to reach both aims in one time, so my story should be divided into two (or even three) sub-plots almost fully separated.

The plan was as follows:

1. Early in the morning of 17/05 me and my mujer Tanya should leave Moscow by plane to land in Saint Petersburg airport at 11 am. 

2. Right after landing we should go to Andrey's bar and spend some time there with the master.

3. At 8 pm we should get to Vassilievski Island to find where SKIF XVIII would be taking place and see the show of GAF.

4. To return to the bar.

5. To drink with Andrey.

6. To fly back to Moscow early (really early) Sunday morning.

Additionally, not to take this life too easily, in the very beginning of the last week I fell ill with the flu but all the tickets were already bought and all the pacts were confirmed so I had no right to step back.

The first sub-story is about Andrey's bar.

I felt like I should present something to Andrey. And the truth is that I had something to pesent him. Back in 2013 I had purchased two EPs by Pumuky issued within the singles collection of Jabalina Musica records: 'Jabalina Love Songs' and 'Dedicatessen'. But later I consequently bought the full editions of both of these collections which led to the fact that I became the owner of two copies of the same Pumuky EPs. 

The EPs were not ever used and look fine...

From the street

Inside

Yes, these two EPs

Tanya points it out

In the smoking room (just posing)

...much as the place where they now live. VinyllaSky is such the nice place for every music lover who's on  the music of intelligent kind.

Later that night when all the stuff walked home and Andrey closed the door, we opened a bottle of scotch and started listening to these EPs. The reaction was really positive so Pumuky became one step closer to the show in Russia, I suppose ))

BCore Disc

From now on I'm one of the authorized BCore Disc bloggers.
It's cool because they have really nice roster.

Las Resenas Casuales. Baden Bah! "Aleph"

Baden Bah! "Aleph" (p)2012 self-released

The members of this Salamancan four-piece are not that young chicos, but you could say they're 20-something guys because their music is young, upbeat, and vital. The entity called Baden Bah! sporadically exists for almost 30 years (at least the band members confirm so in their press kit bio) but the first album was produced only in 2009. Then it took three more years to record the sophomore release called "א". The cover art may disturb the moralfags (in fact, it's a variation on a painting "L'origine du monde" by Gustave Courbet).

The band is indie to the core wearing DYI aesthetics on their sleeves, but despite the fact their music is not crust or noise or anything like that. It's very clearly played and smartly produced power pop. The voice the band's primary vocalist Juan Carlos Lopez Encinas "Jimmy" reminds me of the 22-Pistepirrko's P.K Keranen. The songs are intelligent and catchy, and they are mostly free from the excessive mood changes and nervous breakdowns. In such cases they usually say something like 'every song from this album could be a hit'. But the Baden Bah!'s lack of careerism and the vow for independence would not make it possible.

The best tracks: Dichosos, Hace Falta Poco, 75 Pesetas, A 3am Del Suelo

Las Canciones Ocasionales. Eric Fuentes "Amb L'Algua Al Coll"

A couple of months ago Eric Fuentes, the ex-leader of the band The Unfinished Sympathy has produced a triple (!) album "Barcelona" via Barcelona-based cult indie label BCore Disc. The song "Amb L'Algua Al Soll" I consider the best song of 2014 so far.

Las Resenas Casuales. Neuman "If"

Neuman "If" (p)2014 Subterfuge

The Murcian band speraheaded by Paco Roman came to recognition in the beginning of the current decade, after two respective albums "Plastic Heaven" & "The Family Plot" were issued in 2010 and 2011. It was not a quick rise to fame due to the fact that Paco was writing the songs all the 2000's through without bringing them to the light of day.

"If" is the Neuman's fourth album in last 5 years. In fact, every album of Neuman makes me curious of what kind of music the band really makes. All the songs are in the 'good-to-great' range, the Paco's English is great - but what they really play, eh?  There are too much directions, too much stylistical approaches, too much courses taken. And "If" is not an exclusion. Just take a look what we have here: quasi-neo-psychedelia? Yep - "Battle Starship". Mid-western folksy roots-rock? You're welcome - "A Branch In The Forest Full Of Stars". Old-school Tom Petty-like choruses? Of course - "Oh No". Pro-britannic jangle-pop with retro touches? The opening "Turn It". Quiet acoustic guitar/voice pairing? The album's namesake "If" is for you... And we are far from approaching the terminal station of this train!

Neuman are well-known for their penchant for writing the long slowly evolving songs like "Plastic Heaven" or "Wandoword" from the previous albums - and the new album also has one. It is called "Kids" and it is just in one step from being a gospel. And it is preceded on the album by - what? - a lullaby!

You see the scheme, do you? Almost every - oh no, really 'every' without any 'almost' - song has its own mood and its own breath, and despite the overall quality of writing and production the album doesn't seem to be cohesive. I think it is just too eclectic. As this story repeats for the fourth time, it makes me think of maybe this is the band's aim - to be as eclectic as possible.

But there's something what you can't take away from the band: the great songs of Neuman are really great.

The best tracks: Tell You, Too Pretty, Kids

Neuman on Subterfuge

Las Resenas Casuales. Rufus T. Firefly "Grunge"

Rufus T. Firefly "Grunge" (p)2014 Origami

Rufus T. Firefly has the long ongoing liaisons with Manuel Cabezali, the captain of much more renowned band Havalina, and last year Rufus has found himself in the nest of Origami Records - the same place where Havalina's albums are coming from. So, there's something about the facts. Rufus is really not the one person. It is Madrid-born quintet (formerly quartet). And despite English name of the album it is not in English. And, eventually, there's nothing here about the grunge.

"Grunge" is neither longplay nor EP, it is something in between. Being almost 30 minutes long, it contains 6 songs and 2 interludes. The music is perfectly orchestrated and has a melancholic mood. Even if the songs have the standard timing of 3-5 minutes, they seem to be more lenghty - and it's really good because you have enough time to be embraced by them. Sometimes it's almost post-rock - but to name the album "Post-Rock" instead of "Grunge" would be considered silly.

The standout track is "Tengo Una Pistola". This is the only song on the album which makes kinda 'pop relief' in this un-pop album with its simple and distinct melody along with the fuzzed-out bass lines and electornica sounds in the background.

For the rest of the album, this music is definitely not for clubs, it is for theatres and/or halls.

The best tracks: Tengo Una Pistola, Subir A Por Aire, Error Lento