Barcelona Record Label Showcase

Especially for Barcelona where the music and art scenes can be elusive, it always helps to check out record labels in order to discover new bands and to find interesting places and venues to go to. Barcelona has numerous independent record labels that also manage international artists, as well as some collective labels managed by musicians, or just smaller-run operations. Spain doesn’t really have a massive national indie label, because there isn’t much of an audience for it in the country, but what you will find are groups of cool, like-minded people who are trying to make something happen. THE BOMBER JACKET has been lucky enough to meet and talk to many of these folks this year.

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Bcore Disc

Bcore has been around since 1990 and they claim the title of one of the most influential labels in Spain. They have a variety of different types of bands such as the sludgy ’90s rock of Betunitzer, the melodic folk of Maria Rodés, the yelping and astral guitar of Margarita, the piano storytelling of Fanny Roz, or the astrological acoustic and tape project of Aries. The label grew out of hardcore punk at the end of the ‘80s, passing around handmade records, t-shirts and posters, and the D.I.Y. mentality is still with them. It’s also one of the few in Spain that still have a physical location. In Gràcia, carrer Montamy 25 houses the record shop, full of new and old records and CDs for purchase. The collection is also available online.

bcoredisc.com

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Maragitas for Eskimos on the Atoll

Photo By Marian Campoy

Album Cover for Explota El Cuerpo

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After the drums kick in at the beginning of the album Explota El Cuerpo (Blow Up the Body) by the Madrid-based band Margarita, the guitar melody shoots out quickly over a dark night sky with prismatic colors streaming down to Earth from its tail. Stray notes twinkle here and there, passing through stars’ phosphorescence as the shooting song splits into alternate dimensions of inverted colors where Eskimos build sand igloos volcano-side. All the way through to the last track, every single tune is laced with whooping non-verbal melodies that crescendo and dive into quick, pleasantly chaotic succession.

At times it can sound like someone stripped the vocals from Sung Tongs, translated them into Spanish, and layered them over The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place after boosting the tempo. THE BOMBER JACKET spoke with vocalist and guitarist Hugo Sierra and he says, “we weren’t trying to sound like Animal Collective, which is a very cool band, but we tried to go further with our vocal harmonies in our own way. We started with ideas from Parque Mágico (their first record) and went deeper into the melodies to find an outer-space feeling.” The two albums are distinct, becauseParque Mágico is a lot heavier in comparison to the playful Explota El Cuerpo. In response to the latter Explosions in the Sky reference, the band shot back, “No way! Are you kidding? We don’t like that band at all.” They prefer psychedelic bands from the ‘60s, saying, “We wanted to have a sparkle going on all the time, full of colors and with spaces for listeners to fill themselves.”

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The Real Fairy Tales of Fanny Roz

Photo by Konstantina Tomoska

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Once upon a time there was a musician named Fanny Roz. Her story involved snail races, tree houses, smokey French jazz bars, magical beaches in Chile, and a tale of two cities. It was the best of times…yeah, okay, it all really sounded like it was pretty much the best of times…

The whole story of how a French musician that studied in Toulouse ended up on a label in Barcelona (Bcore) is one that Roz has nicely divided into four chapters and posted to her websites. She has just released Prend Son Souffle et Saute!! (“take a breath and jump”) and just as her tale has many parts, each track tells a different story. She sings them while plunking a piano or plucking a guitar with a myriad of tempos, shifts, and vocal oddities tht make it hard not to think of Regina Spektor. The influences of the two places are evident all over her record, as it’s sung in French with a few dashes of Spanish.

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Reading Horoscopes with Aries

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The sheer giddy pop force of Aries is undeniable, regardless of whether or not you can understand Spanish. For a band that’s as mystical as their astrological name might imply, the music is less of a psychedelic trance and more of a meditative celebration captivated by main songwriter Isabel Fernández’s fresh and colorful melodies and harmonies. The overall sound is so immediately contemporary, with subtle samples and just the right amount of echo creating a bright ambient aura, that you hardly notice the classical Spanish guitar and castanets backing it all up. It’s pretty impressive how Fernández is able to reinvent a traditional style and make it her own. What’s also impressive is how, along with her sister Virginia, just two people are able to make so many sounds, to incorporate so many instruments and effects.

Fernández’ last act was called Charades and she played with a full band. The music had a few more decorations and experiments, but Aries shows her progress as a songwriter, as she more tightly conducts pop and synthesizing styles. The Charades records, particularly Revolución Solar, are fun to explore if you like Aries.

THE BOMBER JACKET spoke with Aries about astrology, Spain and the band’s latest record, La Magia Bruta.

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