Mid-tempo punk out of Seville, Spain that tensely keeps the right amount of lyrical and musical attitude through the eight quick tracks. This could have been something the JAM recorded in the short time between their first two albums, if only Paul Weller sang in Spanish.
Another egg-punk act, however this one has the clear distinction of sounding like the MUMMIES on meth—much more sinister vibes as the EP progresses, though. This has a gothy shoegaze quality to it that’s really amplified by the chorus effect the guitarist is running their axe through. It is absolutely drenched with chorus, mate. Of course, there’s a surfy element to it as well, but that’s to be expected with these poultry punks at this point. The whole thing wraps up with a very cool noise piece that ties everything together in a barbed-wire bow. A solid addition to the nerdy phenomenon that’s gripped the mid 2020s.
Straight from Triana and Nice (Spain/France), TENTÁCULO is a punk band that treads a fine line between mid-tempo melodic punk and hard rock, or NWOBHM and post-punk, with the chops and attitude of those great working class heavy metal Spanish bands from the ’80s. Whatever, we don’t need to pinpoint TENTÁCULO down anywhere: these eight songs give no-frills rock’n’roll with existential dread-themed lyrics and hook after hook after hook. “Extrañas Luces” shines with an old-school hard rock riff in contrast with the bleak pessimism in the lyrics and the energetic singalong of the chorus. Have to highlight the guitar work on this record: simple at times, but extremely melodic in a HÜSKER DÜ kind of way. The three last songs on the B-side are some serious bangers: you can imagine yourself singing with your pals in a sweat-drenched embrace at a dark small club or spitting this street poetry into a hot and humid night after a really bad day at work. Beautiful cover and design work.
In celebration of its twentieth anniversary, a reissue of TOTÄLICKERS inaugural LP has been released. It seems like just a little bit ago that these Barcelonian punks were hitting the scene with their street-level punk crudo, but here we are twenty years on. Honestly, nothing much has changed in the past two decades of punk, as the LP still sounds fresh if you’re uninitiated. A barrage of D-beat, lyrics en español, buzzsaw guitars grinding out lightspeed melodies, a punk classic and yours to be had.
Hailing from Catalonia, TRONERS come crashing outta the gates on this self-titled debut LP. Speeding, whirlwind chaos with plenty of attitude, inspired by the likes of D.R.I. (there’s a cover of “A Coffin” sung in their native language), HERESY, and HHH. This record is super solid and I’m sure it would make their influences proud. This one is at its best when it’s at its speediest, which luckily is very often. Full of aggression and spirit, I really enjoyed this one!
I’ll say it again. It’s funny as hell to me that I got assigned records from ZERO AZÚCAR and NO SUGAR in the same month. It’s gold. Unlike the NO SUGAR record, this one and I are getting off to a fantastic start. It’s punk, but it’s a little poppy. That said, I would not call it pop punk. Mid-tempo and super catchy, it’s got some sort of organ or synthesizer that they use enough that you notice it, but not so much that it’s a distraction. It gives it a little bit of an early new wave feel. It’s all in Spanish and I speak some Spanish, but not at the level that I understand much of this. But I can say that the vocals are strong and perfect for the music here. Really nicely put together. A complete package. At its core, this is punk rock.
