News

When we can still hear the echoes of the enormous success achieved by LA CASA AZUL in their recent visit to Korea, new and spectacular news come over from that side of the world. Between the 14th and the 18th of May, Guille Milkyway performed along with Elefant Records fellow artists CORAZÓN in a bunch of largely-attended shows for the Korean crowd (as you can check in the attached pictures and press clipping from the Korea Times, where Guille is departing with his Korean fans).

Just back from Korea, we learn about some fresh news that show the level of popularity LA CASA AZUL has achieved in this country: cosmetics brand DHC Korea has chosen the song "Galletas" by LA CASA AZUL for their latest TV ad! LA CASA AZUL is being played in all Korean TV sets, its catchy melody entering all the Korean houses on a daily basis!

You can watch the ad by clicking on the this link.

+ info:Elefant – WebLA CASA AZUL – Myspace

La Casa Azul [Times Korea]picture: Archivo Elefant

La Casa Azul [Publicity Korea TV]picture: Archivo Elefant

[ Read more ]

Juan Carlos Bracho is a young, upcoming artist from Andalusia. He’s won several prizes, and his work has been shown in ARCO 2006, the important art fair in Madrid. His relation with Elefant and LE MANS comes from the title of one of his most celebrated pieces: "Catástrofe nº17", inspired in the song which also gave title to the singles compilation by LE MANS. With this piece he won in 2005 the Purificación García photography contest. [ Read more ]

It’s been four long years since Spanish band MIRAFIORI released "Cinco minutos", their debut EP on Spanish indie label Annika, and with it they seduced indie-pop fans everywhere with beautiful songs as the title track (fifth best song from 2002 in the readers’ poll on influential Spanish mag Rockdelux) or "Cosas que es mejor no hacer", chosen by Radio 3’s DJ Julio Ruiz as his June 2002 song on his "Disco Grande" show. Now, after a long period of recording due to his residence outside Spain, we are glad to annouce the release of "No podemos volver a casa", the long-player debut by Nacho Fernández‘s project. A record that is formed by delicious songs that move along our own Donosti Sound from Spain (the golden age of Spanish indie-pop) and the best of alltime British indie sound, or to be more accurate, between FAMILY and THE FIELD MICE o BRIAN.

The record has been recorded in Madrid with the help of Guille Mostaza (a member of the pop band ELLOS and producer of PORTONOVO, among others), and after the demise of the Annika record label it will be released through Autopop this next summer. On it we will find songs which belong to different moments in the group’s history, from the first demos (a new version of "Estamos desafinados"), the months following the first EP in Madrid ("Recuerdos del lago artificial", "Luciérnagas", "Nosotros y nuestros abrigos", &q [ Read more ]

At least we have launched our very own myspace.com website (just as many of our friends and, very soon, all the Elefant recording artists), and we do it with a very special present: four excellent forthcoming releases that you will only hear on this site. To start with, when visiting http://www.myspace.com/elefantrecords you’ll be able to listen to: – CAMERA OBSCURA – "Let’s get out of this country"A track taken from the album of the same title by the Glaswegian band, out next June 6.– LA CASA AZUL – "Una cosa o dos"Exclusive advance track from the forthcoming album by the project lead by Guille Milkyway, due to be released after the summer.– SINGLE – "Algo raro"Another exclusive advance track, this time from the project by Teresa Iturrioz, due to be released after the summer.– MY LITTLE AIRPORT – "Edward, had you ever thought that the end of the world would come on 20.9.01categoría"Official introduction to our latest international signing, a new band from Hong Kong which will surely seduce all the label’s fans.

Elefant – Myspace [ Read more ]

After the videoclip of the song "Padova", "Jugando con el corazón" is the new song chosen for the second videoclip taken from "Melodrama", debut album by Spanish pop duo CORAZÓN. The videoclip has been directed by Nacho Martín, from Spanish visual collective User T38 (responsible too of the videoclips by LE MANS and SINGLE), and it’s inspired in the life of British painter Francis Bacon (1909-1991), a crucial name in the English art from the 20th century.

Especially, the new video by CORAZÓN is inspired in Bacon‘s relationship with his couple, George Dyer, as told in John Maybury‘s movie "Love is the devil" (1998). Bacon met Dyer when the latter entered his atelier aiming to steal anything worth in it, and instead of this he ended up sharing a bed with the painter. From then on they started a cruel, winding, stormy relationship which is dreamily, simbolically mirrored in the images on "Jugando con el corazón", a new videoclip that goes further than being just a visual vehicle to go along with a beautiful pop song. [ Read more ]

Suzette‘s band toured Spain recently with that legend of indiepop that is the WOULD-BE-GOODS. Both bands shared the bill during three shows in Spain. Elefant and Fortuna Pop!, their respective record labels, took advantage of the tour to release an exclusive CD -"Que Viva Le Pop!"- featuring the best of both catalogues, which was given away to everyone who bought a ticket for the shows.

And now is the moment to return the visit and repeat the same joint action in the UK. WOULD-BE-GOODS and LES TRÈS BIEN ENSEMBLE will play together in late June in London, Nottingham and Oxford, and the tour line-up will be complete with the names of THE CUT-OUTS and THE CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT. And, of course, with the ticket the crowd will receive their free copy of the "Que Viva Le Pop!" compilation.These are not the only shows of LES TRÈS BIEN ENSEMBLE outside Spain though, because next May 13th they will perform at the Fairfield Café in Toulouse (France), supported by local band MOMOTTE.

Fortuna POP! presents Friday, 23rd June 8pm 2am Would-Be-Goods + Les Tres Bien Ensemble + The Cut-Outs plus Guest DJs…Lupe Nunez-Fernandez (Pipas) playing Spanish indiepopMiss Velvette (The Actionettes) playing French Pop, 60s and SoulBuffalo Bar, 259 Upper Street, London N1 Nearest tube : Highbury & Islington Tel : 020 7359 6191 www.buffalobar.co.uk Advance: £5 / Door £6

Tasty Fanzine (www.tastyfanzine.org.uk) presents Saturday 24 [ Read more ]

The new single by CAMERA OBSCURA has its own videoclip. "Lloyd, I’m ready to be heartbroken" is the first song taken from "Let’s get out of this country", third album by the Scottish band, and the subsequent videoclip is a colourful delight, full of fantasy, dynamism and pop frenzy.

The video has been directed by Domingo González, the director behind the videos by Elefant Records’ act LA CASA AZUL, as well as director of the celebrated short film "Las Superamigas contra el Profesor Vinilo" (you can know more about it on its website www.lassuperamigas.com). Apart from this, Domingo has filmed one of the downloading sensations this year in Spain, the clip for a fake band called LOS HAPPINESS and their instant hit "Amo a Laura": thousands of people downloaded the video from the website www.nomiresmtv.com, and due to this huge success the images were shown on all the prime time TV programs and newscasts (the video, the song and the group were in fact part of a marketing campaign for the Spanish MTV!).

For this new video of CAMERA OBSCURA, Domingo González has paid a tribute to the choreographies we can find in the best classic cinema, and he has joined it with a constant bombing of retrofuturistic pop images: from the neons in Shibuya to the fabrics, dresses and furniture that reflect the glossy universe that all pop music lovers dream about, the same universe we endorse at Elefant Records.

The video will soo [ Read more ]

The albums by NIZA and JUNIPER MOON, in spite of being so different, have run parallel paths: two unique albums that achieved international recognition outside the Spanish speaking market, that didn’t have a follow up due to both bands breaking up soon afterwards, but keep giving great moments and spectacular news years after they were released.Both records were released in 2002, both have been out of print for a long time and now, at least, both will be available again from next May 22nd on, due to the big demand we have received at Elefant Records to put them out on sale again."Canciones de temporada", debut album by NIZA, was released in November 2002. "El resto de mi vida", debut album by JUNIPER MOON, was released in October the same year. Both were recorded in Granada’s Refugio Antiaéreo studios, and both were engineered by Carlos Hernández. Both received critical acclaim and good sales in and outside Spain.

And here the parallel paths come to an end, because from here every record had a life of its own and got unique achievements. "Canciones de temporada", a perfect record for fans of Astrud Gilberto or Claudine Longet, produced by Ian Catt (ST ETIENNE, TREMBLING BLUE STARS), took NIZA to play in Japan (at the ExpoAichi 2005’s festivities) and to release the album in Japan, Taiwan and Korea. On the other hand, "El resto de mi vida", a punk-pop album full of teenage angst, got repeated BBC airplay ( [ Read more ]

After that delicious appetizer that was the single "I love my Jean", where they showed once more how easy it is for them to write unfogettable melodies, the moment has arrived when we can at least announce the comeback of CAMERA OBSCURA with a good few new songs forming what will undoubtedly become for all of you their best record to date. It already is for us.

"Let’s get out of this country" -title of the third album by the band from Glasgow- was recorded and mixed in several studios in Sweden (studios that have been previously used for recordings by THE MAGIC NUMBERS, Neneh Cherry or even Per Gessle from ROXETTE), and produced by Jari Haapalainen, producer behind such gems as THE CONCRETES or Ed Harcourt. On this album, which will finally come out in June, CAMERA OBSCURA will teach us all a lesson on classic, timeless pop with drops of country and soul here and there, featuring ten instant classics where Tracyanne Campbell‘s beautiful voice is wrapped in majestic and exquisitely arranged string arrangements (for which they had string musicians that have been in recent tours with Brian Wilson or Arthur Lee & LOVE).

The first single, coming out in May, will be "Lloyd, I’m ready to be heartbroken": a country soul stomper with an unstoppable beat and a perfect ending, where Tracyanne manages to sing the chorus up to six times! And in fact, you don’t want her to stop singing it, but you’d rather make her keep on si [ Read more ]

Many fans of bubblegum pop music, in and out of Spanish borders, have been looking for a long time for a copy of the debut album by LA CASA AZUL (“El sonido efervescente de LA CASA AZUL”, Elefant Records 2000). The album, a favourite of the label’s catalogue from its initial release, has been sold out for many months now, and we keep on receiving requests every day to put it back in print.

But we wanted to do it well, with love (as we do everything in Elefant Records), and at least has arrived the moment many were waiting for. Before the end of the year we will reissue the debut album by LA CASA AZUL with a lot of extra tracks. We mean a lot, really: the original album featured eight songs, and the featured tracks on this reissue will rise to twenty-one! Besides the eight original songs, this new reissue includes the band’s first three demos: the first one, “Te invito a mi fiesta” (recorded between 1998 and 1999), which features the first version of their classic tune “Cerca de Shibuya” and several previously unreleased songs; the second one, “Canciones ligeras” (1999), which features Jeanette’s version “Si no voy a esperar” among others; and the third one, “Galletas” (1999). Besides of this, the album features three bonus tracks: the cover version of the 80’s hit by MECANO “Quiero vivir en la ciudad”; the revised version of their classic song “Chicle Cosmos&rdquo [ Read more ]

As one could expect due to their success there, the recent reissue of "El sonido efervescente de LA CASA AZUL" (debut mini-album by the Guille Milkyway-produced band, in a luxurious re-release that also includes their three first demos and other rarities) is achieving an enormous success in the Asian countries. Japanese record shops keep sending new orders for the record, and now Korean label Happy Robot is going to release it in Korea.

Happy Robot had already released "Tan simple como el amor", LA CASA AZUL’s first long-player, and this new Korean release will coincide with three live shows that will be offered by both CORAZÓN y LA CASA AZUL in Korean land, between May 14th and 18th.To begin with, both bands will play on May 14th at the Naini Island Festival, a free entrance open air festival that goes on during two months in an amphitheatre in Nami Island. The next show will take place on May 16th as a part of the Latin Music Festival, coorganized by the Spanish Embassy in Seoul and the Spanish Department at the University of Korea: a benefit show for orphan children and teenagers. LA CASA AZUL and CORAZÓN will be the special guests at this festival to be held at Inchon Memorial Hall, a thousand people capacity pavilion in Koryo (University of Korea). On this festival, which will be hosted by two renown TV presenters from public broadcasting channel KBS, and which will be recorded and broadcasted by nationwide public channels KBS and [ Read more ]