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Kev, Colin, Jamie and Noel spend a tremendous amount of time crafting their songs to perfection. With ten years of meticulous pop songcraft behind ATTIC LIGHTS, we now hold in our hands their third album, “Love In The Time Of Shark Attacks”. The band prove that even though time passes for everyone else, they maintain the same pop inspiration, killer melodies and heavenly harmonies that have seen them compared to THE LEMONHEADS, TEENAGE FANCLUB and R.E.M. With the rest of the world turning upside down and getting crazier with each passing day, ATTIC LIGHTS still hold tightly to their core values of love and imagination.

Who could argue as you place the needle in the groove and hear those opening notes of “Never By Myself”categoría This song was the advance Single for the album and has it’s own peculiar story behind it. It was written by Colin when he got lost and left behind after a concert in Inverness (Scotland). The band were so tired that night that no one realized Colin wasn’t in the tour bus and they left for the next city. Colin’s phone was out of battery and he spent the whole night wandering around the town, ultimately sleeping on a bench by Loch Ness. The next day, he caught a bus to meet up with his band mates in the next town on the tour, and on the way he wrote this marvelous song that captures the spirit of THE HOLLIES and THE KINKS. If it was an unfortunate experience for Colin, he’ll be happy to know [ Read more ]

It has been close to four years since her first album, “You’re The One” and about six since that unforgettable version of “Pineapple Princess” that got Cristina Quesada’s career at Elefant Records started, with that 7” Single for our “New Adventures In Pop” collection. But time doesn’t pass in vain, and Cristina is back, more mature, with something radically different than that ukulele that so identified her. This time, synth-pop, italo-disco, euro-pop and techno-pop are the parameters that guide her new songs, which this time have a collaborator/producer/arranger/composer to die for: nothing more and nothing less than Joe Moore himself (THE YEARNING, THE PERFECT KISS, Lia Pamina), who is in the process of making the adjective “prolific” sound insufficient.

With this, amidst synthesizers, keyboards and eighties drum machines, we have “Hero”, the first advance Single of her second album “Think I Heard A Rumour”, and a good simple of the focus of the album – disco hits from the end of the 80s and beginning of the nineties, with complex harmonic developments and impossible turns that, according to Moore, “push the choruses even higher”. It’s an instant classic included among SAINT ETIENNE at their most danceable, the Japanese pop of Tommy February6, the earliest recordings of THE SOUND OF ARROWS or PET SHOP BOYS’ poppiest songs. The A side of the S [ Read more ]

We couldn’t be more excited to have news about LOS BONSÁIS and to hear their new songs. Helena and Nel gave us almost four years’ worth of silence after reaching such a huge impact with their Singles and Mini-LP’s, even beyond our borders, in the United States and Japan. It has been four years since their last collection of their own songs and three years since that 7” of covers of four of their favorite bands: TV PERSONALITIES, THE VASELINES, BLACK TAMBOURINE and THE PASTELS. But now they are back with that same freshness and with those same delicious and immediate melodies. The bass comes in first, the drums come trotting in a moment later, the guitar lets out a few arpeggios and then the chorus comes and everything falls marvelously into place. “¡No Quiero Salir!” is a hymn to laziness made with astonishing sweetness. The video that illustrates it is good proof of that: books, comics, dresses and a sense of humor, in a garden full of flowers. Attitude, it’s called. We cannot wait to be able to share “Hinoki”, their first LP, with you. We are so close to getting our hands on the album, and on it they don’t hide, more than ever, their passion for AVENTURAS DE KIRLIAN and LE MANS. [ Read more ]

While we are patiently waiting for the release of the debut of album (“Meadow Lane Park”) by the French group LE SUPERHOMARD on Elefant Records, and after that lysergic kraut-pop attraction that was their first advance Single – the 7”, pink vinyl, “Springtime EP” – we are advancing you another little appetizer for the album. “Paper Girl” offers us the poppiest and most immediate side of a group that is capable of bringing together the melodic effectiveness of ABBA, the rhythmic martial tones of STEREOLAB and the cosmic vision of BROADCAST, all in the same song. The sonic fantasy they unleash in their compositions is shown off well in this song, and also in the video that goes with it. We are amazed at the overwhelming imagination represented in images that this video gives us – a digital cut/paste with surprising results that even goes beyond the amazing work Pooley (Woom Studio) did in the video for “Springtime”, which was marvelous. And for the exclusive B side of this Digital Single, we have a remix by CUCUMBER (musical project from the multifaceted Pooley) who share LE SUPERHOMARD’sdevotion to all things vintage, and to organic and hallucinogenic sounds from the 60s and the 70s. The result is the other side of the same coin: more martial and hypnotic, maintaining its accessible spirit, playing with other cards from a similar deck, which in this case take “Paper Girl” to a spacey [ Read more ]

NOVEMBER 2018 

*TRONCO "Tralará" LP + Comic [30-11-2018]   

*LE SUPERHOMARD "SpringTime EP" Single 7" [23-11-2018]   

 *GIORGIO TUMA "My Vocalese Fun Fair" LP [16-11-2018]Elefant Records 25th Anniversary Collection      

*FUGU "Pardon My French (Singles 1996-1998)" Mini-LP 10" [16-11-2018

Elefant Records 25th Anniversary Collection     

*FITNESS FOREVER "Personal Train" LP [16-11-2018]Elefant Records 25th Anniversary Collection 

*CARIÑO "Movidas" Mini LP 10" [9-11-2018] 

*THE LAST DETAIL "The Last Detail"  LP/CD [2-11-2018]   

OCTOBER 2018 

*ATTIC LIGHTS "Never By Myself" Single Digital [26-10-2018]   

*NELEONARD "Un Lugar Imaginado"  LP/CD [19-10-2018]

*ALPACA SPORTS "I'll Do Anything You Want" Single Digital [16-10-2018]

*NOS MIRAN "Contigo" Single Digital [11-10-2018]

*COOPER "Retrovisor" LP [5-10-2018]

Elefant Records 25th Anniversary Collection

*COOPER " [ Read more ]

Immediately after listening to “Tralará”, the first thought that comes to mind is that TRONCO is a like a group from a story. And now you’ll answer that with this kind of title the play on words is too easy. No. We hope nobody stops at the simplest reading. Not even because Conxitais an illustrator and has created such a special packaging for this album, comic included. No. Their songs are a journey to fantasia, with that mix of imagination and ingenuity, unpredictability and craziness, with just the right amount of irreverence and a certain punk spirit. Something like a Spanish YOUNG MARBEL GIANTS. Folk, pop, bedroom techno-pop, psychedelia, and, we already said it, punk. Yeah, you guessed it. They are unclassifiable. But for real.

Their first album already made it clear that their thing was breaking away, a sense of humor, feelings made out of scratches. “Tralará” maintains its dose of freshness, but grows significantly in musical terms. The musical diversity, very special arrangements and a long list of collaborators, including, obviously, Eloy Bernal (NELEONARD, GÚDAR) who recorded and produced the album, Anna Fredriksson (DIE KATAPULT), Laura Antolín (DOBLE PLETINA, GÚDAR), Elisa Bernal (HIBERNALES), Javi G. Lerín,Marc Ribera (DOBLE PLETINA) and Alberto Rodríguez (GÚDAR, TIRANA).

The thing is that these 15 new songs written by Conxita and Fermí Herrero make a sense of urge [ Read more ]

We are very proud to be able to announce a new group signed to Elefant Records. LE SUPERHOMARD are a french quintent led by Christophe Vaillant, a musician with a history of mod-styled formations, like the band THE STRAWBERRY SMELL and PONY TAYLOR, and who in 2015 began a solitary project that his brother Olivier later joined and which has continued taking shape to become what it is today (Christophe Vaillant,Julie Big,Benoit Pithon,Laurent Elfassy andThomas Rivello), named in honor of a scene from the movie “Let’s Not Get Angry” by Georges Lautner. Throughout 2017 and 2018 they released a few EPs for the Japanese label Rallye Records and the British label Megadodo. Their music has been played on the BBC by Gideon Coe, Amy Lamé or Stuart Maconie with some very nice columns in the press. At Elefant, we are excited to give you an advance of the imminent arrival of an LP coming at the beginning of 2019, with this Single that will be the perfect appetizer and introduction to the group.

“Springtime EP” includes two songs from the album and two previously unreleased songs, on a 500-copy numbered-limited-edition pink 7” vinyl. “Springtime”, one of the songs from the album, opens the Single: it’s martial, spacey synth-pop, between Étienne Dahoand THE HUMAN LEAGUE, with Julie Big’s precious voice. But don’t be fooled – “Springtime” is a great single that showcases the band’s [ Read more ]

Sometimes, looking back can bring us a tremendous surprise. Time passes and plays with our memory. If we think about the more recent releases from the Italian group FITNESS FOREVER – super danceable albums like “Cosmos” and “Tonight”, marvelous hits like “Canadian Ranger”, “Tonight” and “Lui” – and suddenly we start to sift through the memories, we are suddenly hit with the freshness and immediacy of that debut called “Personal Train” that won us over so completely back in 2009, with its fresh, sunny, Mediterranean airs, far from the nocturnal, urban spirit of some of their more recent songs.

That’s why, among other reasons, we wanted to bring back such an incredible album as a part of our collection of reissues in honor of Elefant Records’ 25th anniversary. To be able to enjoy again the perfect pop bull’s eyes that “Probabilmente”, “Bacharach” and “L’anarchica Pugliese” are, because “Vacanze A Settembre” breathes Italy with a vitality that raises even the lowest spirits, because “Je Je Jeox” and “Quando Ho Tempo” make clear all the marvelous lounge music albums Carlos Valderrama’s crew could have made, because “Se Come Te” gave us a peak at what path the group was going to take (ah, how clearly we can see things with hindsight), and for a million reasons more, many of which are ti [ Read more ]

We are really enjoying this process of looking back and recovering some of the albums that we have released at Elefant during our first 25 years as an independent label. Giorgio Tuma has been one of those artists that we have handled with special care. His music, so far from the stereotypes of the latest music trends, hides a true genius who is inspired, evocative, and has a psychedelic, melancholic, elegant pop spirit. A musical goldsmith.

That’s why we are so happy to be able to re-release, for the first time on vinyl, his first album with Elefant (second in his discography), “My Vocalese Fun Fair”. It is a delicious album, exquisitely arranged, where the psychedelia, the lounge music and the Brazilian samba all join hands to make up a banquet of an album. It’s because of all of those influences, that let us catch a glimpse of other small ingredients that make the final result richer, like the soul on “Coney Island Memories”, the funk-pop on “Marsico”, the baroque folk of “Musical Express” or the northern soul of “Saltamontes”. That is the definition of banquet that Giorgio Tuma proposed on that album: dishes full of all the ingredients imaginable, mixed with elegance, color, sometimes exoticism, sophistication, sometimes seriousness, but always achieving excellent results. Like “…And Three Parasol Stars”, “Let’s Make The Stevens Cake!!!”, “Astroland By [ Read more ]

One of the most sought-after Singles from Elefant Records was that one that Mehdi Zannad released in 1998. Bob Stanley (SAINT ETIENNE) named it Single of the year, after a Split Single with STEREOLAB and before a Split with SAINT ETIENNE themselves. This release helped place FUGU among the names of reference for lovers of cult pop, and veteran collectors.

Because of all of this, and because of the recent appearance of his marvelous album as THE LAST DETAIL with Erin Moran of A GIRL CALLED EDDY, we wanted one of the last releases that we included in our collection of reissues in honor of Elefant Records’ 25th anniversary to be this Single, which we are releasing with all kinds of incredible extras. And, the Single has become a Mini-LP with 12 songs including, in addition to the ones that were originally on the famous Single (“F31”, “Interlude 3” and “F1”),  we are adding the ones that were on the Split Single with STEREOLAB (“F30” and “F24 (Instrumental)”), named one of the 50 best Singles that year by Les Inrockuptibles, as well as the songs from the EP he released on Semantic in 1996: “F24 (Dipodomys)”, “F4 (Coypou)”, “F15 (Alactaga Sauteur)”, “Interlude 1”, “Interlude 2”, “F22 (Géorhyque De Zech)” and “F26 (Antéchinomys)”.

It’s a delicious journey through sixties sounds, psychedelic folk, [ Read more ]

We are almost finished with the series of re-releases we have been putting out for many months now, in honor of our 25th anniversary in 2014. The series has included such distinguished names as FAMILY, LE MANS, LA CASA AZUL, CAMERA OBSCURA, NIZA, TREMBLING BLUE STARS, THE SCHOOL, JUNIPER MOON, LOS FLECHAZOS, COOPER and LA BIEN QUERIDA, among others. To almost bring things to a close, we are simultaneously releasing a series of exquisite rereleases.

To start with, we are going to release that FUGU Single again that we originally released in 1998, and it is especially relevant because Mehdi Zannad has just released a marvelous album on Elefant in collaboration with Erin Moran (A GIRL CALLED EDDY) under the name THE LAST DETAIL. This Single has been a collector’s item for a long time now, and we are releasing it this time as a 300-copy numbered-limited-edition white 10” vinyl, and it will include the songs that were on the Split that FUGU released in 1997 with STEREOLAB as well as their first EP from 1996. There are 12 songs rereleased for the occasion. It’s wonderful.

What’s more, the first album, now out of print, from the Italians, FITNESS FOREVER, will also be re-released – where we will remember their orchestral pop and Mediterranean airs – on a transparent red vinyl, 300-copy numbered-limited-edition, which will also include the two songs that appeared on that also out of print “Mondo Fitness EP”.

Another of the simultaneous [ Read more ]

NEW ADVENTURES IN POP 044

This is what they call love at first sight. The instant we heard the two songs that made up what in the end was the introductory Single by this trio from Madrid, we knew right away that a fruitful relationship was just beginning and that we were going to be totally won over by their songs. And they haven’t taken long at all to give us new fruit. “Movidas” is a numbered, (500 copy) numbered-limited-edition, pink-vinyl 10” Mini-LP that, obviously, is being included on our “New Adventures In Pop” collection, dedicated to pop music’s new names and emerging groups. CARIÑO are freshness, ease, and unstoppablefun. Somewhere between LOS ROMEOS and HELEN LOVE, between PAPA TOPO at their most punk and AEROLÍNEAS FEDERALES. It’s impossible to hold back your smile.

Because their songs overflow with cynicism, with craziness, with the unexpected flourish, but at the same time with naturalness, with awakening, with the most innocent feelings. That’s why, after hearingMaría, Paola and Alicia’s songs, you have the feeling that what lies beneath is an instantaneous, urgent and immediate need to shout out the love they feel in a way that no one else has ever done before: simply and straightforwardly, with its whole brutal spirit and hazy feelings, with all its sweetness and bitterness. The pristine, adolescent honesty of “Canción De Pop De Amor&rdq [ Read more ]

We can’t contain our excitement. That Harvey Williams (ANOTHER SUNNY DAY, BLUEBOY, THE FIELD MICE, TREMBLING BLUE STARS) wanted to contribute to the press release about THE LAST DETAIL’s debut album (the name of the band comes from the 1973 movie starring Jack Nicholson) already says a lot about how special this group and this album are: 

“So how should one react when one’s two favourite contemporary singer-songwriters decide to record an album togethercategoría Mehdi Zannad has a peerless collection of long-players & one-off 45’s behind him, under both his own name and as FUGU, while Erin Moran (A GIRL CALLED EDDY) released one of this century’s great lost albums back in 2004. The stakes were high, as were my expectations. Thankfully THE LAST DETAIL doesn’t disappoint. Breezy yet reflective. Melancholic but never maudlin, and always resolutely upbeat. 

While there are occasional signals indicating the artists’ individual creative pasts, the album has a personality all its own, as all great collaborations do (Nancy &Lee, Gainsbourg &Birkin, PET SHOP BOYS & Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw & THE SMITHS…). Of course, there are nods to pop’s rich tapestry echoing through the record; such references are inevitable for a duo so knowledgeable and passionate about music. But the songs are far too emotional and honest to be dismissed as mere [ Read more ]

Such is the magic of music that sometimes it is capable of changing the meaning of images. And sometimes the images themselves are capable of changing the perspective we might have about a song. Something like the chicken or the egg dilemma, but expressed in the relationship between two arts that multiply themselves when they meet. We have talked several times about the cinematic and evocative qualities of the music of Italy’s Giorgio Tuma. But the video that the Spanish artist Raquel Calvo made for his song “Foxes Don’t Lie” (previously, she had made the video for “Mountain Elia K”), included on his most recent album, “This Life Denied Me Your Love”, has made our heads explode and let us see that the creative limits of Giorgio (and Raquel) are atmospheres above what we thought they could reach. 

The Association for Professional Illustrators in Madrid (APIM, in Spanish), has confirmed this, awarding Raquel (who uses the alias DondeEstaMiPollo) in their annual awards with the New Talent award for making this video. It is full of tenderness and fantasy, transcending the song by our beloved Italian composer and turning it into one of those stories that makes your heart tremble, between autumnal chromatic palettes and textile textures (please forgive our playing with phonetics but the way the video plays with wools and other fabrics is sublime) that would undoubtedly have enamored Karel Zeman (the father of stop-motion) for his [ Read more ]

It is not every day that there are new songs from ATTIC LIGHTS. That’s why it is a special pleasure to announce that very soon we will have a new album from the Scottish group, called “Love In The Time Of Shark Attacks”. And get ready everyone, because this album is full of pure melodic inspiration condensed into three-minute indie-pop songs. “Never By Myself” is the first advance release, in Digital Single format, for this upcoming album. The song is perfect pop with a solid verse, an impeccable chorus, fantastic vocal harmonies and which has its own rather peculiar story behind it. Colin wrote the song on a bus when he got lost and left behind after a concert in Inverness (Scotland). The rest of the band were so tired that they didn’t realize Colin wasn’t in the tour bus with them and they left for their next stop. Colin’s phone was out of battery and he spent the whole night wandering around the town, ultimately ending up sleeping on a bench by Loch Ness. The next day, he caught a bus to meet up with his band mates in the next town on the tour, and on the way,  he wrote this marvelous song that captures something of the youthful bounce of THE HOLLIES and the knowing lyricism of THE KINKS. It was an unfortunate experience for Colin but he’ll be happy to know that it resulted in one of the band’s best songs. The video for “Never By Myself” was directed by Iain Mutch, who has made other videos at Ele [ Read more ]