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Míriam LABORDE, the singer and guitar player from LISASINSON, continues at a frenetic rate of activity, collaborating with figures from the scene in Valencia who are leaders of the vanguard sound, who she lends her marvelous vocal lines to, and her unmistakable voice. This time she is working with NAWAN, who she wrote “Tranqui, No Llores Más” with, and where the producer plays with dense eighties-style and dark synth-pop sounds along the lines of CHROMATICS, CHVRCHES, GRIMES and KAVINSKY, which our star adds a catchy and agile vocal line to. The result is powerful and the barely two and a half minutes are not enough. You have to listen to it again. And again. Let’s see if anyone can resist a song like this.

Pépe, who took care of the mixing and mastering (as he has done on some of the more recent LABORDE songs) from his studios in Alboraia (Valencia), has to be given credit for an important part of the sound. The art on the cover and in the lyric video for the song were handled by NADA DABUTI.

This effervescent moment for LABORDE and her countless collaborations are starting to give shape to a multifaceted figure, capable of assimilating different sounds from different eras, but always with a significant modern filter, raising the flag of current sounds, although the most important thing is that she does it with a huge dose of excitement. Right now, it is impossible for us to predict what an artist in the midst of such a hi [ Read more ]

The album that the singer Rachel K. Haines and the producer James Benjamin Thomas gave us – several months ago already – was an example of style, good taste and elegance when it comes to mixing current sounds with esthetics closer to the eighties. It was an album full of hits, with silky songs that were at the same time highly danceable. A perfect example of this is this single from the very same album and that became the title track. “Past Lives” has a pristine, transparent, luminous voice, with clear and catchy choruses, solid and intimate bases, and a perfect dynamic that helps that strange incarnation between music and body that some songs manage to achieve.

That magical harmony is perfectly captured in the video that was made for the occasion by Jon Alcaide (who has collaborated on so many audiovisual projects, from the short horror film “Bury My Soul” that he directed in 2017, to several fashion films for the clothing designer Victor Von Schwarz in 2020. He was also in charge of art direction in LA CASA AZUL’s “El Colapso Gravitacional” video). Playing with the most evocative textures from the movies of their beloved Darío Argento, but at the same time introducing the sophistication of Lana Del Rey, the video shows the dancer Jaume Luque (who dances with the Danish companies Black Box Dance Company and IT Dansa) making his body and making the light from Josh Fenoy’s camera the key elements of the [ Read more ]

Whenever there is anything new from rebe it is a very exciting moment. Unpredictable, disturbing, unique… What she has to offer is so special that sometimes it is hard to think about how we will react to her new songs and videos, or anything else about her. From her Mini-LP “solo pasiones…” which is about to come out, we are bringing you the second advance that perfectly embodies what we were talking about before. Including the collaboration of pup puppy (@amor.amor.amor.a.m.o.r), “la mas wapa del bar” is a cumbia that is also a hymn for perversity, and at the same time is a strange mix of sweetness and sensuality. It is capable of combining and turning the bizarre into elegance, the outdated into sophistication, the uncouth into excitement. And it is all done with an exquisite taste in pop melodies and evanescent ambiances. It is like what you could get if you put José Luis Perales, Grimes and Peaches together; it is hard to describe, so it’s best to just listen to it for yourself.  But we are warning you – you will not be indifferent.

But with rebe, it’s the whole package. The esthetic, the cover art, the videos, they all form part of a way of looking at life, music and art. Specifically, the audiovisual that she has prepared for this song along with pup puppy herself, under the creative guidance of the twins Virginia and Victoria Martín Mateos, makes everything we were talking about before cle [ Read more ]

After the magnificent reception of their first primer Mini-LP, “Tu Foto En El Techo”, CHAVALES have kept up with their hyperactive songwriting activity, and without barely a moment’s rest, they already have the first advance for what will be their next album. “¿Por Qué A Mícategoría” stays within the fast, playful synth-pop parameters, and they are now seasoning them with nervous guitars that give the music a touch of punk that suit it perfectly. The result is a new triumph to dance out of control to, where Dani and Javi continue to live stories full of intense moments of coming together and falling out. A shot of overwhelming energy, a song that resuscitates the most fun spirit of the 80s, with a brilliant and catchy chorus and lyrics about love and desperation that are in perfect contrast.

And once again they have collaborated with Silvia Coca, who was in charge of the cover art and the video, where we can see our protagonists in constantly tense situations: kidnappings, chases… All with a truly outstanding VHS esthetic.

TRACKLIST: 01 ¿Por Qué A Mícategoría

  [ Read more ]

TRACKLIST: 01 Ultra Doomed  02 Last True Love  03 Spell  04 Drive All Night (Faster Than Light)

05 One More Kiss  06 Make Believe  07 Live With Excuse  08 2008

“New Adventures In Pop” collection [Issue 051]

We do not need to tell you that at Elefant Records we have a weakness for bands from far east Asia. The duo STILL DREAMS reaffirms our feelings about the marvelous music that comes to us from that region, and now they are included in our catalogue with a 12” pink vinyl Mini-LP that, of course, is being released as a part of our “New Adventures In Pop” collection, which we reserve for promising new bands.

Ryuta and Maaya were already playing in bands together, since their high school days. But after getting married, they decided to form STILL DREAMS. And after a couple of EP’s, they are here with Elefant with “Make Believe”, a purification of their musical conceptualization, reaching the sublime. These eight songs comprise a conglomeration of evocative, luminous emotions and an openly pop spirit, close to COCTEAU TWINS, Sarah Records, synth-pop and NEW ORDER.

The album opens with a song that we know as our introduction. “Ultra Doomed” is an exercise in evocative, synthesized pop, with huge melodies, that could fit in somewhere between SAINT ETIENNE and THE HUMAN LEAGUE. The song invites us to dance and get excited in equal parts. “Last True Love” remind [ Read more ]

TRACKLIST: 01 Atasco  02 Corazón  03 Todo Me Da Igual  04 Volverte A Enamorar  05 Tú Y Yo

06 Canción Para Mi Crush  07 Discoteca  08 Barakaldo  09 La Isla

“New Adventures In Pop” collection [Issue 052]

It is finally here. After many advances that have only made us hungry for more – with songs like “Barakaldo”, “Atasco”, “Volverte A Enamorar” and “Canción Para Mi Crush” – we finally get to enjoy this Valencian group on this limited-edition Mini-LP (as part of our New Adventures In Pop collection, of course). It has nine songs that make it clear they meant what they were saying and doing on all of those advances, with that attitude that has gotten us so hooked on their sound: youthfulness, spontaneity, rebelliousness and overflowing energy. The album liner notes say it too: “These songs are about us. Getting a group together has been one of the best decisions we ever made”.

To open the release, we have “Atasco”, their song with the clearest echoes of the sixties, and a chorus that is like an epic poem: “En esta negra ciudad no bailarán / Las chicas ya no volverán / No volverán a bailar jamás” (In this dark city they won’t dance again / The girls will never dance again / Will never dance again). An anthem. It is clear that they are incredibly capable of cre [ Read more ]

It doesn’t seem like distance has been a problem for COUR DE RÉCRÉ. The trio formed by Stan, Quentin and Chloé, based in France, is giving us a new advance single, while letting us know about the imminent arrival of their first LP as part of our new talent collection, “New Adventures In Pop”. And while we are waiting for that to come, we can enjoy this “Agathe, Agathe”, a new show of their fast-paced, lively, eclectic and unpredictable electronic pop. The song plays with catchy melodies and winds up giving us impossible developments. Metallic synthesizers and fast drum machines. Sonic parameters that are special and all their own but are also perfectly aligned with a new French scene that is full of vintage digital sounds put together with imagination and grace, like CLIO, ASCENDANT VIERGE, THE PIROUETTES, VIDEOCLUB and PÉPITE, among many others.

But the group’s pronounced personality is not only evident in their sound; it is also in their esthetic. We already saw this in their previous video “Vice Et Werther”, but here they take it up a notch. 3D animation with a vintage spirit, provocative, abounding in so many sensations that it can make you feel hopeful and bewildered, beauty and desperation, fragility and strength. It is a challenge in which the digital artist Antoine_Josset places the avatars for our musicians in a room where dancing gives way to imaginative, unpredict [ Read more ]

We need more groups like TRONCO. Fresh, personal, spontaneous, sincere, with a well-tuned sense of humor, who build a sense of the everyday out of the most incomprehensible fantasy, in a way that feels natural. They do things their way. And with their eloquence, their ingenuity, and their simplicity, they convince you they are right. Now, after “Tralará” we have “Nainonai”. Their sound made sublime, if we can say that about Fermí and Conxita, thanks in large part to the participation of Eloy Bernal (NELEONARD, DIE KATAPULT). This combination is the cocktail that makes “Nainonai” an authentic gem, the “Popemas” of this generation. It is a pop delicacy made with attitude, fantasy and imagination; an authentic work of art, the kind that just happens, without planning and without pretentions.

We are going to do a full-on unboxing here. Because the occasion requires nothing less. Off goes the plastic wrap. This beautiful vinyl, with evocative cover art by Andrea Ganuza (based on the Scorsese movie “The Age Of Innocence”, one of Conxita’s favorite movies) is the gateway to the marvelous 12-page liner notes!  With illustrations by Lucas Naranjo, and water color paintings by Conxita herself, based on the children’s book “Frog And Toad Together” by Arnold Lobel, the journey through the album’s lyrics begins. To enjoy them as if they were a children’s story (for all ages). [ Read more ]

Vinyl collectors have been searching desperately for copies of LA BIEN QUERIDA’s albums for a long time now, since they have been out of print for years. Here at Elefant, we are going to put an end to this situation, in reverse chronological order, in March, April and May, and with copies worthy of such a situation.

So, the first to come out, skipping over the recent “Brujería”, will be “Fuego”. Fire corresponds to the south, to the color red, to summer, to the heart. The fire of passion, of love and cholera, fire of the spirit and intuition. As Ana herself said: “It’s an album that talks a lot about a desire that reaffirms life, pleasure, self-realization, freedom. The process of living established by desire. A desire that is not dark or confusing but luminous and clear”. As with the original release, the album will be double black-color vinyl with a fold-out gatefold album cover. Songs like “Dinamita”, “7 Días Juntos”, “Recompensarte” and “Los Jardines De Marzo” make it clear just how great this album is.

This will be followed by “Premeditación, Nocturnidad y Alevosía”, which will be released for the first time all together on vinyl, as the last release in this format was limited to just three Maxi-Singles of four songs each, which later comprised the final CD. It is a major work of art – complex, multi-faceted, dark. The perfe [ Read more ]

STILL DREAMS’ music is like a journey. Each new song we have advanced from their imminent album, “Make Believe”, unites their capacity for the evocative and the dreamlike with exquisite pop melodies, danceable beats and all those characteristics that have made us such longstanding fans of pop music made in Japan. And “Last True Love” is no different. With that chorus that illuminates summer nights, Maaya’s sweet voice and Ryuta’s rhythms, they build one of those new hits that traces the connections between a physical movement and the feelings that hide behind it.

If on “Ultra Doomed” we enjoyed the intimate lights of Japanese cities and on “Live With Excuse” we were transported to more bucolic landscapes, the excellent video for “Last True Love” takes us (with Keita Muraki’s images) from the neon lights of Osaka, the crosswalks, the lights and billboards all over the city, to the sea. As a physical journey that reveals an internal one, magnificently represented by the dancer Kento Ebihara, who is truly magnificent partnering with the dancer Luna Mia Takagi, showing all the many aspects of the music of STILL DREAMS. Kodai Kitanobo’s chroma keying with Maaya’s dancing, the montage, the special effects, and Daniel Cuenca’s project coordination work all come together to make an absolutely exquisite audiovisual document.

And as a final gift within t [ Read more ]

With every step they take, LISASINSON stand out. Yes, they are all about furious guitars, the riot grrrl spirit. But their musical language transcends that formula. Their confidence and ease, how naturally they can incorporate details of the most current sounds, the youthful hurricane their songs unleash, all create an addiction that is hard to define. Something like the fountain of youth in the form of an audio drug. Their latest Digital Single, “Tú Y Yo”, is excellent proof of this. Catchy, hummable, radically contagious, with those Latin touches. “Me caes mal / No te puedo mirar / Me entran ganas de vomitar / Ya no puedo fingir que me haces reír” (I don’t like you / I can’t look at you / It makes me want to throw up / I can’t pretend you make me laugh).Visceral, immediate and direct.

What’s more, the audiovisual artifact thought up by the Videoclub collective (who have already made the latest LABORDE with CIBERCHICO and RARE) is just incredible. The four members take all their hatred out on a kind of pink bunny (Luisito Pleureur) and make a show of their attitude for the camera, making for a tremendously fun video. The artistic, photographic and stylistic work by Layecla, Lagreco, Jorge Esparza y Alfonso Gavilán stands out again, with Emma Sánchez’s directing. And to top things off, the B Side contains a previously unreleased song – a cover of AEROLÍNEAS FEDERALES&rsq [ Read more ]

Here at Elefant, we continue promoting new groups, the ones that send us their songs and make us feel like there is still so much left to discover and feel. And our latest discovery is TELECLUB, three friends who grew up together in Valdavida (León) and who have written really amazing and special songs like this “Xiki Yokse”. It is one of those perfect songs (that includes the technical work of Lorenzo Matellán), high voltaje electronic indie pop, with a classic structure but that really hits the bulls eye: verse, bridge in minor keys and that triumphant opening into a chorus that you need to sing all the time. A catchy line, that you identify with, that you quickly make your own. And the thing is, “Xiki Yokse” has the makings of getting stuck in our heads like the great generational songs written by artists like HELEN LOVE, LOS FRESONES REBELDES, JUNIPER MOON, THE PRIMITIVES and THE AISLERS SET. And what better than a video to introduce this Digital Single, that also introduces us to our three stars (and they directed the video themselves): Dani, Juanjo and Andrea, in the outskirts of their town, playing with the contrasts.  The snow-covered forest, a glittering stage with disco balls, a Mercedes skidding around, the group singing. In 3/4 format with super-8 textures. And to confirm the level that TELECLUB is playing at, that cover by Olaya from AXOLOTES MEXICANOS, carefree, colorful, irreverent. Listen to it, watch it, en [ Read more ]

We present you LLORAR, a duo from Barcelona formed by Ani and Luis, this is their first single, a preview of what will be their Mini-LP for our collection of new bands “New Adventures In Pop”. On this single, they give us two songs with very different tones, both arranged and produced by Luis Ryoga himself. “Te Dejo En Paz” is an exercise in a very sweet techno-punk-pop that hides a crazy, bitter, fun story. It is a song with one of those melodies that immediately gets stuck in your head, but that also offers some curve balls (that strange marimba solo) that give the group its defining personality. Jaume Fiol provides his blazing guitar on this delicious song and the video that accompanies it, adventurous and fantastic, has been directed by Oro y Plata and has the participation, in the role of kidnapper, of Evripidis Sabatis. Then, “Siempre Iwal” hooks us with its more melodic and melancholic parts: layers of keyboards, dub basses, and a melody that could be the perfect contemporary update of Jeanette or Claudine Longet. Delicacy, witty notions, personality, and harmonies.

Like with many groups, Luis and Ani met at a party that a mutual friend threw. Luis Ryoga had played keyboards in hotels and had written songs for audiovisuals, theater and advertising. He currently also is a part of bands like NADA SALDRÁ BIEN and MINERA. Ani h [ Read more ]

Over the last few months, we have finally been giving advances of the new AXOLOTES MEXICANOS album. The busy schedules of the band members (CAROLINA DURANTE, CONFETI DE ODIO, TEMERARIO MARIO, Stephen Please, NO FUCKS, etc) have made us have to wait, but we can now say that it was worth it. Because “:3” (colon three) takes on everything. It is a leap forward, an impulsive investigation in which everything deserves to be given a shot. Styles, sounds, stories. That is why the album from Olaya, Juan, Lucas, Mario and Stephen is an absolute musical whirlwind, a journey that is overflowing with energy, beyond our wildest imagination.

The “Opening” makes it very clear. Somewhere between fanfare and Japanese “openings”, between Hanna-Barbera and HAZEL NUTS CHOCOLATE, with a strong festive and choral spirit, with a shout of “La chapa que me das / No la puedo soportar / Me entran ganas de potar” (Your endless talking / I can’t take it / It makes me want to puke), opens the album. Irreverence, with no room for doubt. We had already heard “Cara De Idiota” and that pure pop spirit driven by a powerful and irrefutable rhythm section. And they also know how to be sweet when they want to be. In their own way, of course. “Vergüenza” is full of J-Pop, RnB, it sounds furiously contemporary, and it is one of the best pieces of evidence of the level Juan Pedrayes has reached as a producer. For [ Read more ]

This is the kind of news that fills us with joy, that gives us butterflies in our stomachs and that feeling of euphoria. It’s what happens every time we get a new song from LA CASA AZUL, and even more so if it is the advance of a new era and a new album (that will be released in 2022). The thing is, “Entra En Mi Vida” is the gateway to so many things. Like that cover that shows us the logo the used for the first time on “La Revolución Sexual” (designed by Gregorio Soria and an absolute trademark for the group) like a new sunrise, tridimensional, titanic, splendid. New nuances of sound that continue to confirm that Guille is an exceptional and unique composer, capable of incorporating new sounds from the current musical scene, without losing even a drop of his own personality, reaching unexplored spaces and heights. That syncopated verse, that agile phrasing, rushed, almost hard to catch, could be a refractory mirror of the last snapshots of very well-known artists like DUA LIPA, THE NEIGHBOURHOOD and Demi Lovato, but above all it is also close to that new generation of artists that we like so much here at Elefant – INTERROGACIÓN AMOR, Maria Blaya, THE PIROUETTES, Arlo Parks, CLAUD, WORLWIDE PRINCESS, WHITEROSEMOXIE, Olalla.lux… But little by little the harmony opens, it begins growing (yes, those surges and ascents that are so his, because nobody else does that like he does) and the chorus c [ Read more ]