concerts
barcelona
2020-02-27 20:00
(SANDY) ALEX G
When nobody was even talking about bedroom pop yet, Alexander Giannascoli’s room had already served as a recording studio for several albums. He would record them and, without any great ceremony, upload them on that Bandcamp profile that ended up being his own personal Boyhood. There we watched him grow from album to album, without him even knowing if anybody out there was listening. First as Alex G; then as (Sandy) Alex G the alias that this premature veteran still uses today. He has already released eight! albums during his career that started in this decade that is nearing its end: the first, Race, was released on January 1st 2010. Afterwards, there came the almost accidental turning point in his career, starting with DSU (2014), with his signing to Domino records and not forgetting a surprising invitation from Frank Ocean to participate on the incredible Blonde. These are all valid reasons to believe that this indie-is-dead-and-buried stuff is great as long as it resuscitates every now and again to be reincarnated in characters like (Sandy) Alex G, the penultimate link in the invisible chain that could connect Elliott Smith, Jason Molina, Mark Linkous, Stephen Malkmus, Conor Oberst and Bradford Cox and, whilst we are at it, jangle guitars, country beats, psychedelic whirlpools, the gentleness of folk and a hint or two of grunge. On September 13th he will extend his own chain with the release of House of Sugar, his new album.
madrid
2020-02-28 21:00
(SANDY) ALEX G
When nobody was even talking about bedroom pop yet, Alexander Giannascoli’s room had already served as a recording studio for several albums. He would record them and, without any great ceremony, upload them on that Bandcamp profile that ended up being his own personal Boyhood. There we watched him grow from album to album, without him even knowing if anybody out there was listening. First as Alex G; then as (Sandy) Alex G the alias that this premature veteran still uses today. He has already released eight! albums during his career that started in this decade that is nearing its end: the first, Race, was released on January 1st 2010. Afterwards, there came the almost accidental turning point in his career, starting with DSU (2014), with his signing to Domino records and not forgetting a surprising invitation from Frank Ocean to participate on the incredible Blonde. These are all valid reasons to believe that this indie-is-dead-and-buried stuff is great as long as it resuscitates every now and again to be reincarnated in characters like (Sandy) Alex G, the penultimate link in the invisible chain that could connect Elliott Smith, Jason Molina, Mark Linkous, Stephen Malkmus, Conor Oberst and Bradford Cox and, whilst we are at it, jangle guitars, country beats, psychedelic whirlpools, the gentleness of folk and a hint or two of grunge. On September 13th he will extend his own chain with the release of House of Sugar, his new album.
barcelona
2020-02-29 20:00
ALGIERS
The quotation from Bertolt Brecht used by Algiers in 2017, when they released their second album The Underside of Power, is still valid today in 2019: if with two albums the Atlanta band has still not managed to change the world, let’s go for third time lucky. If in 2019 the planet is even more fucked up than it was in 2017, we have to keep fighting.Franklin James Fisher, Ryan Mahan, Lee Tesche and the former Bloc Party member Matt Tong are absolutely clear about that and it is in this context that they are releasing Can the Sub_Bass Speak?, audio-visual track in collaboration with the duo of producers Randall Dunn and Ben Greenberg (Jóhann Jóhannsson, Sunn O))), Uniform) that expands on their collage of free jazz, post-punk and dystopian soul with anti-racist and anti-fascist messages. It is part of the artistic web and installation thereisnoyear.com and anticipates the reactivation of Algiers’ battle and will be followed very soon by new music that will take them on a European tour with dates in Razzmatazz 3 in Barcelona (on such a unique date as February 29th) and in Café Berlín in Madrid (March 1st). In dark times, songs to light the way.
barcelona
2020-03-01 19:00
TYCHO
+ Poolside Scott Hansen aka Tycho says in the text that accompanies the single Easy, which he released in April, that ”music can transport us to other realities”. What he doesn’t mention, because our friend Scott is a cool guy, is that not all music has that virtue and that it cannot be measured according to the charts, even if it is worth millions. Another thing he doesn’t explain, because cool guys don’t do that, is that his music does have it. With the emotional electronic music by the Californian artist that aims at both the head and the feet, made to move people both emotionally and physically, it is easy to travel from one place to another without even leaving your home. Sometimes, it takes us to places that we have already been to; and at others to destinations that we have never set foot in. Sometimes, it can even mix everything up: who says that you cannot feel nostalgia for a place that you don’t know yet, for an era that you haven’t lived? In 2006 it was made very clear to us that you can when he released Past Is Prologue, his first album, full of songs that seemed to imagine Instagram filters ages before they were even invented. Since then, over the next three albums, reality has passed through Tycho’s hands making it right on target.
madrid
2020-03-19 19:00
METRONOMY
Joe Mount and his;Metronomy;have spoiled us. It would be good if once in a while they made a bad album, even if it was on purpose, so that we could assess everything they have done for us fairly: they have been polishing up the vintage side of synth-pop, that already came with a shine, for over a decade now. They are the outstanding pupils from the school of The Human League, Visage and late Roxy Music, but Mount and company have swotted up on the book of technified, sophisticated pop style so well that they have ended up patenting their very own. Elegant and refined; they could almost pass for French rather than British. They make hits quite literally without turning a hair. Six records later, Metronomy now only focus on themselves: it is the advantage of being a contemporary classic.
barcelona
2020-03-20 19:00
METRONOMY
Joe Mount and his;Metronomy;have spoiled us. It would be good if once in a while they made a bad album, even if it was on purpose, so that we could assess everything they have done for us fairly: they have been polishing up the vintage side of synth-pop, that already came with a shine, for over a decade now. They are the outstanding pupils from the school of The Human League, Visage and late Roxy Music, but Mount and company have swotted up on the book of technified, sophisticated pop style so well that they have ended up patenting their very own. Elegant and refined; they could almost pass for French rather than British. They make hits quite literally without turning a hair. Six records later, Metronomy now only focus on themselves: it is the advantage of being a contemporary classic.