News

Ana and David have done it again: “Fuego” has been a new reinvention of LA BIEN QUERIDA, and it has proven to be another success for critics and fans alike. Tremendous singles like “7 Días Juntos”, “El Lado Bueno” or this “Recompensarte” have made media like Jenesaispop already put it on the year’s “best of” lists, which are about to be released. And while their tour to promote the album with the band’s new line-up is getting ready to start, we are releasing a new Digital Single, which is a new version that the Madrid-based US artist, Aaron Rux, has made of “Recompensarte”. This version is different, with production that moves between ambience and shoegaze, between echoes and reverb that explode in a final rhythmic burst. This passionate mutation with new vocals lets us enjoy one of our favorite songs from the album from a totally different point of view.

LA BIEN QUERIDA will be presenting “Fuego” live on December 15 in Madrid (OchoyMedio Club) and December 16 in Barcelona (Sala Apolo). These will be their first concerts with the new line-up: Nieves Lázaro: Synthesizers and backing vocals, Manuel Cabezalí: Bass and guitar, David Rodríguez: Keyboards and guitar,Juan Manuel Padilla: Drums, and Ana Fernández-Villaverde: Lead vocals and acoustic guitar. [ Read more ]

We have already said so many things about Ibon Errazkin… A musician who has been a fundamental part of groups like AVENTURAS DE KIRLIAN, LE MANS and SINGLE, who has worked as a producer on albums for ANA D, NOSOTRÄSH (that inimitable “Popemas”), CORAZÓN, Carlos Berlanga… And who has developed, in parallel, his own unique path, incomparable, free from any constriction or prejudice… A MUSICIAN like this, in all caps, who is bigger than every adjective. That’s why having new material of his own making is a cause for celebration for all music lovers, in all its shapes and forms. Because those of us who know him know that each new thing that comes from this Basque musician can come from the most unpredictable place.

In this case, this Double Single comprising the songs “Foto Aérea” and “Las Descripciones” (dedicated to Josetxo Anitua, the singer from CANCER MOON) takes us to a peculiar place that is almost unexplored by Ibon: music without defined rhythmic patterns, composed of melodies that appear and disappear, repeating themselves even in different songs, the same way you can find in the dub world, and above all, in music for movies. But you can also find this in art, like when a painter decides to use the same theme over and over again, maybe at different times of the day or of the year. That is what is so peculiar about what this Single is doing, and what it is revealing about what wil [ Read more ]

In the late 90’s, a Japanese visual artist called Chop Pop fell in love with Scottish pop music. She listened to John Peel’s program sometimes online, where he frequently played Glasgow groups like BELLE & SEBASTIAN, CAMERA OBSCURA, THE DELGADOS, ARAB STRAP and BMX BANDITS. When Chop Pop heard CAMERA OBSCURA’s “Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi”, it changed her life completely and she decided that she had to go to Glasgow. In 2003, she spent 6 months in the city, going to see her favorite groups perform live, and in 2005 she went back to spend a full year learning english and enjoying the city and its music scene.

She started making videos for her favorite songs, using her specialty – papercutting. With this material, combined with the stop-motion technique, Chop Pop has created incredible, colorful videos. All of this culminated with the artistic project “Love Letters To Glasgow”.

A few years ago, she carried out the complex work of recreating CAMERA OBSCURA’s video for “Let’s Get Out Of This Country” in her papercutting technique, which you can see on our YouTube channel:

  <br />

To make the video, she used 196 pieces of A4 posterboard, which will now be displayed at the Hillhead Library in Glasgow. These pieces of poster board can be purchased by visitors, in exchange for a donation to Sarcoma UK, in memory of Carey Lander, the group’s keyboard [ Read more ]

Inspiración, Creación, Composición, Deseos, Influencias, Ana FernándezVillaverde …

Una producción de El Laboratorio De Band À Part

Ana lo explica muy bien: “La melancolía que desprenden mis canciones siempre tienen una cara positiva que me ha permitido tirar fuerte de la vida y en este disco más que en ninguno se vislumbra ese lado positivo. He intentado ver el lado bueno, el vaso lleno. Es un disco que habla mucho del deseo que reivindica la vida, el placer, la autorrealización, la libertad. El proceso de vivir establecido por el deseo. Un deseo que no es oscuro ni confuso sino luminoso y claro”.

[ Read more ]

We are releasing, together on one digital album, the soundtracks for “La Maldita Primavera” and “Nos Parecía Importante”, the two movies directed by Marc Ferrer withmusic written by PAPA TOPO's Adrià Arbona.

If in “Nos Parecía Importante”, Marc’s first work, the group made a stellar appearance playing a disco version of LOS FRESONES REBELES’ “Medio Drogados”, in “La Maldita Primavera”, PAPA TOPO are the absolute stars, playing themselves in a crazy plot full of reptiles, surprising characters, pop music, adolescent freshness and heartbreak. The album was conceived by Producciones Inmundas, the collective through which Adrià and Marc have collaborated closely these last few years. Marc was in charge of PAPA TOPO’s more recent videos, of the visuals in their concerts, and the promotional photos. Adrià has been involved in two of Marc’s full length films, taking care of the music, and helping with the production of and starring in – along with the rest of the group –“La Maldita Primavera”.

On the musical side, the majority of the songs on the album were produced by Adrià and Marc. Marc also participated on the arrangements of some songs and is co-author of “La Llamada” and wrote the words for “Me Besaste”, the Pegamoide-style version of Debbie Harry’sson [ Read more ]

Every time we begin to listen to a new LA BIEN QUERIDA album, we are faced with the question of what we are going to find this time, because we know that it’s going to be something completely new and different from what we have heard up to now. The title of this new release is “Fuego” (fire, in Spanish), which corresponds to the south, to red, to summer, to the heart – the fire of passion, of love and hate, the fire of the spirit and intuition.

It was difficult to think about this album after the masterpiece that was “Premeditación, Nocturnidad Y Alevosía”. But the creative universe of LA BIEN QUERIDA is immense and is used to having to outdo itself, handling a wide range of references and enjoying the process of erasing musical and lyrical limits. And “Fuego” is a kind of self-reconfiguration, a rediscovery, because musically there is a bit of everything we already know, but transgressed: the purity and insolence of “Romancero”, the Latin and tropical fusion of “Fiesta”, the electronic force of “Ceremonia” and the mournful darkness of “Premeditación, Nocturnidad Y Alevosía”. This is all represented on the incredible album cover photo by Pablo Zamora,with the artistic direction of Pepe Leal and most of all an idea from Ana herself based on the “Things Organized Neatly” movement. The photo shows her surrounded by instruments, pencils, paintbru [ Read more ]

Calling an album full of Italian-disco “Tonight” is a total declaration of intent. Without mercy. Carlos Valderramaand company’s third album doesn’t let you rest for even a second. Blood, sweat, and tears on the dance floor. Syncopated rhythms, instrumental exuberance, unforgettable melodies. It’s a fine line between those minutes of wakefulness and drifting off into a light sleep, in that undefined space where dreams begin. And all of this is floating around the epicenter of a triangle formed by, on one side, great composers, both Italian and classic, who nourished FITNESS FOREVER’s first album in 2009, “Personal Train” (Ennio Morricone,Nico Fidenco,Gino Paoli, Piero Umiliani and Burt Bacharach). The second side of the triangle is the soft-pop inspiration of the second album, “Cosmos” from 2013 (Paul Williams, Marcos Valle, Serge Gainsbourg and Lucio Battisti), and the third side is the dark, classical names from the Italian-disco tradition scratched from the shelves of the most intrepid music lovers (NUMBER ONE ENSEMBLE, KANO, LE STREGHE, EVA EVA EVA, Alberto Radius,Adriano Pappalardo,Enzo Carella,Franco Califano,Filipponio). And the triangle is wrapped in a dose of the current and contemporary, and the ambiance you can find in bands like JUSTICE, THE GO! TEAM, METRONOMY and DAFT PUNK. 

We already gave you the advance single of the title track, “Tonight”, with the participation of Vincent Mougel, K [ Read more ]

This Single closes a small circle. It is clear that Joe Moore will continue moving forward with his overflowing creativity, but this Digital Single is the last song from the debut albumof Lia Pamina, which is one of his most important song-writing associations so far. The sweet, silky voice of the artist from Castellon has strengthened the romantic facet of Joe’s songs, bringing them closer to the muses of the French chanson and making “Love Is Enough” one of the most beautiful, precious albums released in recent months.

The final proof is this “The Boy I Used To Know”, included on the album and which breaks our hearts, reminding us of some of the most melancholic moments in Jacques Demy’smovies. Delicateness, emotions rising to the surface, unforgettable arrangements, out of this world chamber pop. For the cherry on top, we have a previously unreleased track, “Cards On The Table”, which maintains the elegant, baroque spirit with a light touch of bossa and lounge. 

TRACKLIST: 01 The Boy I Used To Know  02 Cards On The Table  [ Read more ]

We will never get tired of talking about the special expectations we have for each new release from LA BIEN QUERIDA. Everyone who has followed Ana Fernández-Villaverde’s and David Rodríguez’s trajectory knows that the unexpected is not uncommon. That is what happened with the first two singles (three songs) taken from their new album, “Fuego”, which will be released this coming October 6th: “7 Días Juntos”, “Dinamita” and “El Lado Bueno” gave us three equally addictive and surprising aspects of what’s to come. We said then that it is hard to give a clear vision of what one of their albums can include with only three songs, and that’s why this fourth song and its corresponding video clip, directed once again by Juanma Carrillo, perfectly balances out the equation.

The thing is that “Recompensarte” is one of the biggest surprises on the album. It is totally different from the other songs from “Fuego” that we have already introduced. We are talking about a precious rumba presented as a duet between Ana and J from LOS PLANETAS, with clapping and fanning the flames from Muchachito. And the magic that seeps out of each listen is made evident in the fascinating video recorded for the occasion, which includes the presence of all the stars, and which once again includes a specific, exotic, beautiful concept of mestizaje. This is a real gem, which raises spirits t [ Read more ]

A few months ago, we started “Reworked By Series”, Elefant’s new collection of singles, based on the idea that some artists could offer their own vision of songs by other artists on our label. So far, “Reworked By Series” includes revisions of ATTIC LIGHTS by LA CASA AZUL, and THE PRIMITIVES by MODULAR. But what APENINO has just done with LINDA GUILALA transcends our initial idea and has opened the boundaries of the concept of this collection. It’s a more conceptual project that Marco Maril went about obsessively like a personal challenge: reformulate “Psiconáutica”, the most recent album by his Galician friends. That’s why the third release in this series is a full-length format.

We would dare to say that this digital album reminds us at moments more of DAR FUL FUL (the deeply missed project that Marco fronted with Xavi Font) than of APENINO, though in the end, oddly enough, we’re sticking with the fact that the album that reformulated LINDA GUILALA gives us the most complete creative profile of Marco Maril that we’ve ever heard. The patterns we have come to know over the length of his career are there – the ultra-melodic electronic pop (“Cosas Nuevas”) and the electronic landscapes (“Ansiedad” and “Monstruo”) – but new qualities are added here – the epic synth-pop of “Fobia Social I”, the DNTEL- esque clicks’n’pops and [ Read more ]

Release Date "Fuego": 6-10-2017

“El Lado Bueno” opens the final side of the album, raising the pop spirit to the highest levels again, but with a surprising break from a synthesizer that reminds us of STROMAE, and arrangements that would delight Peter Hook. Another fascinating, euphoric, slippery, stroke of genius.  

[ Read more ]

Even the most out-of-it people have to know that “BMX Bandits Forever” is one of the best albums in Duglas T Stewart’s 30 year career and that “It’s In Her Eyes” is one of his best songs. The duet between Duglas and Chloe Philip evokes sunny, lively, fun images that could perfectly illustrate a musical starring Dick Van Dyke. That and so much more is why this song is the group’s new single and also their new video.

But more than just the title track, this new digital single also includes two previously unreleased songs. This is proof of Duglas’s current state of grace. “You’re So Fine” is a song by Alex Chilton that has never been released before. Duglas heard it for the first time in the early 90s in a rehearsal space, in a live recording Chilton made with TEENAGE FANCLUB. Giving a studio format to this incredible song with Stuart Kidd and Jamie Gash is one of the greatest tributes to Alex Chilton imaginable.

“Ferdinand’s Cathedral” is a song that imagines the life of the artist (and mailman) Ferdinand Cheval. As Duglas himself says about the creation of this song: “My friend Jowe Head suggested I write a song about an artist and I chose Cheval. Every day, Cheval would walk kilometers and kilometers, delivering mail, and then he would go home to work on the incredible structure that he was building in his garden – Le Palais Ideal. So I took a long walk, as if I was C [ Read more ]

If we broke the big news about FITNESS FOREVER’s new album “Tonight” a few weeks ago, now we have “Canadian Ranger” in our hands, the second single from what will be their third and highly anticipated album. We already told you this super numbered-limited-edition, 250-copy, 7” vinyl release would quickly become a gem on the shelves of corresponding music lovers.

The first time we heard “Canadian Ranger” our jaws dropped. Stupefied. Amazed. There are very few songs like this one, these days. Because “Canadian Ranger” is an eternal song. Universal. The syncopated rhythm, the lyricism of the strings, the melodic play between major and minor chords. This would definitely be included on an ABBA greatest hits album, on a list of the best Diana Ross songs, in the BEE GEES’ pantheon, and in all of Guille Milkyway’s majestic nocturnal DJ sessions. Nicoletta Battelli’s voice here is inspiring like never before. The Italian-disco touch with the synthesizers gives it a captivating personality, like a dream. An instant classic.

And to top things off, the B-side of this single is another stroke of genius, this time with Italian roots. It is a previously unreleased track that will not appear on the album. “Nico” goes back to the more cinematographic music of FITNESS FOREVER, reminding us in equal parts of the movies of Jacques Demi and Blake Edwards, of Truffaut and Godard. The clavichord, the v [ Read more ]

Releasing an advance of LA BIEN QUERIDA’s new album, apart from being big news, is a huge challenge. And especially for this album, where one song can’t possibly give a good idea of the variety included on the album. So we chose two… And it isn’t nearly enough: “Fuego” (the new album by LA BIEN QUERIDA) is full of great songs marking special moments in a high point of the group’s trajectory. They are at their best.

Ana explains it so well: “The melancholy that seeps out of my songs always includes a positive side that has allowed me to rely heavily on life, and this album more than ever shows that positive side. This album talks about the desire that defends life, pleasure self-fulfillment, freedom. The process of living through our desires, which are not dark or confusing but light and clear.”

“Fuego” is another self-reconfiguration that lets us rediscover LA BIEN QUERIDA. Musically, there is a bit of everything we already know but transgressed: the purity and insolence of “Romancero”, the Latin and tropical fusion of “Fiesta”, the electronic force of “Ceremonia” and the mournful darkness of “Premeditación, Nocturnidad Y Alevosía”. But let’s talk about the two songs of this first single. “7 Días Juntos” tells the story of a brief, burning love that is star-crossed and pleasant, between cumbia and dub, to the beat [ Read more ]

From Asturias to Japan, back and forth with stops in Madrid, the new single from AXOLOTES MEXICANOS has all the elements that make them unique: synthesizers taken from one of CAPSULE’s songs, harmonies and arpeggios that would make TOFUBEATS’ heads explode, super high speed pulled from PLUS-TECH SQUEEZE BOX and punk guitars that give shape to a new collection of perfect pop songs. Olaya, Juan and Stephen are all grown up, and if they wrote love lyrics about space monsters, zombies and wiener dogs before, now we can hear Olaya singingabout failedrelationships, love (a little) and losing love (a lot more).

“Trececatorce” opens with keyboards that we could hear at the end of any anime, and without realizing it you have been carried away by two minutes of melodies drawn by runaway synthesizers that culminate in that ending that lets us know once again that AXOLOTES MEXICANOS are experts at building fresh, frenetic, contagious songs. “Hazañas Bélicas” is a cover of a song that in 1981 was the title track of the also-Asturian group, STUKAS’ first album. It’s a re-visioning of a classic totally taken to the Axolote-universe – accelerated, exorbitant, and full of rage and energy in an impossible mix somewhere between AIRBAG, HELEN LOVE, EEL, JUNIPER MOON and POLYSICS. They close this love triangle with “XXX”, where they show, once again, their ability to compose songs overf [ Read more ]