Yesterday the Spanish Independent Music Awards were announced. Here’s a run through the main winners, who will be featuring later in the series.
Best Album (and video) of the Year: Los Niños Mutatntes for “Naufragos”
Author Archives: maki
Alondra Bentley – Spanish Indie
Alondra Bentley was born in Lancaster – her mum is English and her dad is Spanish – but was brought up in Murcia. Along with Anni B Sweet and Russian Red she makes up the “Holy Trinity” of folk-tinged independent female singers currently leading the scene over here.
The Bright – Spanish Indie
The Bright are from Zaragoza. They are also wonderful.
Anímic – Spanish Indie
Not all Spanish Indie groups sing in English (all the time), thankfully. Some even sing in Catalan. Anímic are from Esparreguera and are definitely from the folk end of the spectrum.
Anni B Sweet – a Spanish Indie A to Z
I like Spanish Indie. It doesn’t get a wide audience even here. I’ll try to do a post every week or so, with a few clips from artists that have caught my attention. Some good, some awful (no doubt) – but all worth a listen. Here’s Anni B Sweet. She’s from Malaga and I think she’s great. I’ll run through in vaguely alphabetical order, if that’s OK. (Note: record racks over here have traditionally been done by first name rather than surname). Some letters will no doubt be better represented than others.
Ska-P
Not had a lot to say recently. Been a bit fed up with what’s going on here in Spain where things just seem to go from bad to worse. We work hard at making it work but the pricks who run the place don’t seem to have the same interest in actually sorting things out, preferring to pay lip service to Merkel and her ilk and then wink back at their corrupt bedfellows. We seem to be stuck between the vultures who will swoop down to pick our bones clean and the ineffectual doorkeepers who will do no more than claim their commission as they let them in. Thank god, therefore, for angry music. ¡Viva Ska-P!
Angry with the kill-joys. Who isn’t? More chance of going to prison for possession of an eighth than for embezzling eight million €uros.
Bebo Valdés – 1918 – 2013
Ramón Emilio Valdés Amaro, the Cuban jazz pianist, better known as Bebo Valdés, died yesterday at the age of 94. Here is a selection of reasons why he will be missed.
Surprised? I was….
As Director of Studies at the school I work for I’m quite used to interviewing people who include phrases such as “Play bass in a blues band at the weekends” or “Have released a couple of self-produced songs via the internet” and will admit to having a predisposition to listen to these candidates because I think the “front” it takes to do this sort of thing marries well with the type of work we do and is an indicator of the sort of confident and outgoing character I am looking for in potential colleagues. So when I met with Aaron Thomas a few weeks ago and invited him to work with us his “Professional musician: about to release my third album” on is CV was a pretty good clue as to how the interview would end. My colleague, Javier, who handles pay roll and contracts and was a concert promoter (still is part time) mentioned that Aaron’s name rang a bell but we didn’t investigate further.
Turns out that Aaron was being just a tad modest. He’s just released his third album and spends most weekends out of town on tour. He’s well known and well respected on a live music scene that unfortunately I just never seem to find time to investigate these days. He’s from Australia but has been living here in Madrid for a number of years now. He’d like his music to reach an English speaking audience and that’s why I’m posting this here. Let him know what you think in the comments. I hope he’ll have the chance to get back to you.
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Reina Republicana vs Is
Another from the maki files. This is from last year, maki faves Reina Republicana vs Is on a neat coloured vinyl 7″. 3 tracks from Reina Republicana and 4 from Is. Here’s two from each.
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Los Fresones Rebeldes – ¡Es Que No Hay Manera!
A little more 90′s Spanish female fronted indie from the maki archives. This week we’re with the rebellious strawberries or Los Fresones Rebeldes. The girliest and probably most fun of the bands I’ve posted recently. This is pop music. Nothing more or less than that. I love them to bits. It’s the sort of messy, we’re having fun and you can have it with us too attitude that I like most about this group.
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Don’t like nested comments?
Thanks to DaddyPig for bringing this to my attention. CiF commenter “Kale” has come up with an add-on for Guardian comments that can be used to view the comments in different ways. You may find it useful if the nesting is doing your head in.
Here are links (supplied by DaddyPig)
i’ve been playing with it for a few minutes and it looks useful. Here are some screen shots.
This option allows us to see the comments, still using the nested form, but collapsing the nests. Easier on the eye. The blog is more manageable and you can open up individual nests if you want to.
If you click on the blue + sign (top right – under the options) you get the view that we are becoming used to. All the nests are open. You can collapse individual nests if you want to.
Finally you can choose to view the comments by time stamp (in chronological order). This would be my preferred option if everyone were using the add-on. But they aren’t yet and as a result the comments don’t make much sense because the Guardian doesn’t time stamp replies and it’s hard to work out who people are replying to. If you use the add on, when you reply the comment contains a link to the original comment you have replied to – much like they used to in the olden days. If you look at my second comment in this screen shot you will see that it links to DaddyPig’s comment about the add-ons.
Kudos to Kale for this and thanks to DP for bringing it to my attention.
Nena Daconte – He Perdido Los Zapatos
Popping a few more cds into i-tunes, I must have reached the twee indie section of my collection. I like this a lot. You may or may not, but here it is. There’s a nice back story to this one: Mai Meneses, the vocalist, was unceremoniously kicked out at the end of the first program of the first series of Operación Triunfo (a sort of Spanish X Factor) and told in no uncertain terms not to give up the day job. When she released this, her first album, most of her erstwhile peers had been long forgotten.
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Dover – Sister
Good to have a slow topic from time to time. Been filling up i-tunes with cds from my collection and had forgotten how much I loved this album when I bought it. 16 songs. Not one over 3 minutes long. Guitars, simple bass lines and a ballsy female vocalists, who are sisters hence the name of the album. The name of the group comes from the brand of jeans their mum used to sell in her shop. Spanish group from Majadahonda (a town just up the road from Maki Towers) – they sing in English so shouldn’t be too hard to relate to. Here from 1995 are half a dozen tracks from their début album.
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Not Flamenco – A few links to follow
Just a few links to videos by non-flamenco artists that have caught my eye this year. Youtube sidebar may turn up other stuff you’d like.
Reina Republicana
Great Indie band from Pamplona whose La Reina should have made the Queen’s list.
Luis Brea
Weary, post indie electro diddler whose Hypotenusa was one of my favourite albums of the year
Nadadora
Erstwhile a-listers brought out Luz Oscuridad Luz to my delight and general indifference. From 2011, but I only got to it this year.
Electric Nana
Went almost mainstream with an awful Carlos Jean remix. Thankfully kept doing her own, much better, thing
Hands on over Xmas
Mario and Pop pushing cars over a bridge
Just a quick post to thank everyone for providing the soundtrack to the Maki family’s Xmas. Not much to report Guru-wise that my predecessors in the role haven’t already said. The listening sessions were mammoth and the delights uncovered were many. The hardest part – deciding what to leave out. Far too much great music to be resumed in a single list. I have enjoyed the experience and am glad it came at a time that I was able to pay attention and, hopefully, do the thread justice.
Happy New Year Everyone.
Duquende – Rompecabezas
Duquende is a cantaor from Barcelona who made his début at the age of eight with none other than Camarón de la Isla on guitar duties. Camarón had heard him sing and was adamant that he should reach a wider audience. He has since worked with all the leading guitarists and Paco de Lucía has invited him on innumerable occasions to take part in his shows. His recording career is not exactly prolific but everything he has done has been well received. His new album Rompecabezas, produced by Pepe de Lucía, is no exception.
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Rocío Márquez – Claridad
Rocío Márquez needs no introduction, we waxed lyrical about her in FNF and her album Aquí Y Ahora was one of our favourites last year. This year she released Claridad in June and it’s better than her début. An album for flamenco connoisseurs made by a true connoisseur.
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Niño Josele – El Mar de Mi Ventana
Niño Josele comes from a long line of Flamenco guitarists and has played with the best of them. His accompaniment on Diego “El Cigala”‘s Teatro Real live album from 2002 is quite sublime. Like many Flamenco artists of late, he has broadened his horizons and has played in recent years with artists as diverse as Lenny Kravitz, Alicia Keys or even Elton John. He started out many years ago accompanying the great Enrique Morente but had spent some time away from the strictly Flamenco. Questions were being asked. “When are you coming back, Josele?” Well, he came back in June this year. And how!
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José Mercé – Mi Única Llave
A true embarrassment of riches in the Flamenco world this month! Still getting my breath back after Estrella’s having broken her six year silence and José Mercé comes along with a new album.
There was me thinking that 2012 was shaping up to be something of a fallow year – how wrong can a man be? Dorantes, the Flamenco pianist, has also come up with the goods. I was too busy to share it with you but keep an ear out in this year’s Festive ‘Spill – there’s at least one on that album that is going to take a lot to be relegated out of my top three for the year. But back to the matter in hand.
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Estrella Morente – Autorretrato
Almost two years after Enrique Morente’s untimely death and a whole six years after the last release, Estrella Morente has released her third album, Autorretrato. There is no way I can be objective about this album: I love her music and I was lucky enough to get tickets to the show in Madrid where many of the tracks were showcased.
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El Aperitivo in Madrid – Part 2
The second in this very intermittent series (wouldn’t even be intermittent if this hadn’t appeared – ed).
Last Sunday we had a big family day out and ended up in a garden centre just off the Plaza Santa Ana that had a Flamenco show on in the patio. Managed to grab a short video of the last bit. It isn’t brilliant but the whole show was a lot of fun and it was great to see the kids enjoying the music and dance too. This is shared in the spirit of “things ‘Spillers enjoy and the music that makes them happy”. We had a great time and hope some of you will enjoy seeing the sort of thing we get up to on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Pájaro – Santa Leone (A lazy, lazy recommendation).
Was down at Quique’s the other day. He said why not check out this guy, Pájaro, he’s brought an album called Santa Leone out and it’s meant to be dead good. I did and it is. I’m really enjoying listening to it. Pájaro is a long time member of the rock, blues and general good time music scene in Seville who’s finally made a record of his own. World weary blues, Morricone tributes, Flamenco tinged surf music (is that possible?) and music that sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. Here’s a link to the bandcamp page. Listen, enjoy, praise or diss in the comments if that is your wont. Sorry not to write a review and so on but it’s the beginning of the academic year and I’m rushed off my feet. I just wanted to share it with you.
Spill Challenge – Quality Control 1: Bad / Corny Rhymes
No challenge up yet I see. Here’s one from me then. Think of a song that you like but that includes a rhyming couplet that really grates. Something that makes you think: oh, come on you could have done better than that! I love the Stranglers but it’s no secret that some of their lyrics are terribly facile and some of the forced rhymes they have come up with over the years are just excruciating.
For some reason the following really grated:
If only he could write a sonnet
He’d place his life upon it
It’s from their last Hugh period album, 10.
Can you do worse?
Webcore on Japanese TV
Webcore was kind enough to send Mrs Maki and me the DVD of his family’s appearance on a Japanese TV programme. We thought the rest of you would like to see it. Here it is with an introduction from the man himself:
Back in April this year a Japanese TV company asked me if I would play a Beatles’ song by the River Mersey, discuss Irish immigration to Liverpool, including any Beatles Irish connections, and indulge them in several other other sketches and vignettes, including going to my house, meeting my family, and singing Galway Bay for the population of Japan.
They turned out to be fantastic people; the lovely and extremely personable presenter, Yuuke, whom I hadn’t met before she approached me on camera; the director and crew; and especially Jim, the fighting-fit 66-year-old Oxbridge gent co-ordinator who got me the gig, fluent in Japanese, looking like a movie star, wowing the women like a clean-shaven Robert Redford.
I don’t play Beatles’ songs, I told them, and I’m certainly not going to play Galway Bay – my grandmother sang that one.
Then they told me how much I would be paid. Erm, I’m prepared to compromise, I said: I choose the Beatles’ song, and you film me reading Galway Bay off my laptop so that it’s obvious I wouldn’t normally play it.
As part of a 90-minute programme, a fourteen-hour day’s filming was edited down to 10 minutes.
As the day went on I was attempting to edit the filming in my mind, knowing that they couldn’t fit it all in to a TV programme, and I knew that it was the director’s job to create a coherent cut from a mass of material.I was sorta unsurprised at what was included in our ten minutes. Leza had written the song only the week before, and Kevin had learned the guitar part only the night before.
I’d just like to say that MAKINAVAJA volunteered to organise and arrange this post for me. I couldn’t have managed it. So a big public thank you to him for being a gentleman and a scholar.
¡Cerveza!
It’s not all Flamenco at Maki Towers. This week’s topic has had me looking back at the punkier end of my Spanish music collection. Last couple of tracks are a little more mellow but this is a playlist to spill beer to.
