Across The Atlantic #2
Presenting Across The Atlantic #2, a column written by Zach focusing on albums new and old from across the globe. In this addition, you'll find pop punk from Spain, hip hop from New Zealand, electronic from Japan, musique concrete from France, and the best kept secret from the Rhine.
New Releases
While any shade of punk you desire can be found stateside, the Internet age has trended towards international acts inspired by American sounds producing the best of a specific sub-genre (it helps to not produce sounds in a vacuum). Keegan Bradford, Camp Trash member and editor for The Alternative, believes this about most emo, as his excellent column Friendship International highlights the best coming out of the Eastern Sphere.
I personally believe that some of the best punk in the world is currently coming out of Spain. Just take Bellavista by Viva Belgrado, which was amongst last year’s post-hardcore and screamo highlights. But because I’m gettin’ all spessa-fa-siphic, I’ll say Spain lays claim to some of the world’s best pop punk.
I’ve got two bands to show you on this front. First, take a listen to the debut, self-titled full-length from Barcelona band Anabel Lee. I first heard them in 2020 with the release of their single “La Mejor Canción del Año” - Spanish for “The Best Song of the Year.” The track sounded somewhere between Bad Religion and All Time Low, lyrically meta and vocally anthemic. Two singles dropped later on through the year, each showcasing a knack for pop melody and maintaining grit within the gleaming production.
If there’s any one takeaway from this LP, it’s that Anabel Lee is consistent. Not in the way that’s blandly repetitive or streamlined to fade out of consciousness, but in the way that demonstrates command of pacing, tonal shift, tempo and rhythm. They’re excellent at delivering the right thrills through their own budding perspective.
“Deberías Estar Conmigo” opens the album the right way: in a major key with a galloping pace, a strawberry vape cloud concealing the bitter beliefs in the lyrics. The Spanish language atop the instrumental offers a kind of clanky alliteration that naturally tickles the ears, gracefully wisping through the melody as the words fall from the tongue.
But it’s the melody, on this song and throughout, that catapults this record over the wall of Spotify playlist filler. There’s a strong sense of investment into how each sentiment is conveyed, how each lyric is paired to each note, how each emotion moves through the deserving peaks and valleys. For further proof, check out “Cabezas de Cartel,” “Sobran Defectos” and “Un Monstruo Viene a Verme.”
“Teletecho” y “El Acecho” - Cala Vento
Moving up to the northeastern corner of Spain, Alt Empordà band Cala Vento recently dropped the Double A-Side single “Teletecho” and “El Acecho.” I’ve been aware of Cala Vento for a bit by now, having mentioned them in the first edition of this column - they actually also feature on my favorite song from Bellavista, “Ikebukuro Shakedown.”
The duo, composed of Aleix Turon and Joan Delgado, operate a la Japandroids or Origami Angel, aiming to achieve the most they can with their bare minimum of guitar and drums. But they also tend to be more versatile in song structure and dynamics, reminiscent of Long Island in guitar tone with vocals that take their time to breathe and settle.
“Teletecho'' is the shorter song of the two here, at a standard three and a half minutes. It’s also a collaboration with the legendary Spanish pop rock band Amaral - what I can only assume is the largest of cosigns in their homeland. What I love most about this song is how the vocals hang and fall into the melody, and how each groups’ respective vocalist makes the most out of it. The song’s riff even seems to allude to the fact that the group is at their zenith.
If that’s the case, then “El Acecho” proves the band still wants to develop. At seven minutes, the song takes time to transition into each of its phases, starting with a twangy edge that moves into a thick midsection - from here, the song fades and morphs into softer, slower, folk-tinged territory, ending in a section of reverberated guitar and cooling cymbals. It’s graceful, ambitious, and ultimately successful.
A Summer In Retrograde - Raiza Biza
Let’s take a quick detour to Oceania - specifically, Hamilton, New Zealand. Here lies the home of Raiza Biza, a rapper of Rwandan heritage who I am just recently getting to know. Over the course of five albums in his back catalogue, he’s worked with some of the most prominent names in the contemporary jazz rap sphere, from Oddisee and Black Milk to REMI and Melodownz. Such vibes are all present on his latest release, A Summer In Retrograde, but Biza places himself front and center atop the beats crafted to suit his strengths.
Biza has a multitude of flows and cadences, an arsenal that allows for versatility through the soulful, syrupy atmosphere conjured on this project. Lyrically, the album is a retrospective look at how he has endured through trials and tribulation - particularly, coping with the seismic toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on the globe. But instead of focusing on the negatives, there is optimism at the root of Biza's bars, especially on “Candles,” where the hook reminds the listener that what we’ve been through has made us better.
Old Finds
Unrest - Rei Harakami
At the beginning of the year I had a hankering for electronic music that was both phosphorescent and kinetic: something that was unrelentingly glitzy with its synth palette but bubbling with enough percussion to rival Immortan Joe’s motorcade. I got to perusin’ the interwebs, and upon the recommendation of a fellow Haroumi Hosono fan, found Kyoto-via-Hiroshima producer Rei Harakami’s 1998 debut Unrest.
The album cover evoked a Nintendo-like playfulness in me, and I knew that whatever the music sounded like would match that aesthetic. It most certainly does. While the album is firm in its downtempo roots, the synths create a sound between aquatic and ultraviolet, emulating the rays of sunshine that glisten off of ocean waves. Harakami’s control of texture is of equal note: sharp or hollow, pronounced or complimentary, the percussion throughout this album captures attention and directs groove.
Harakami unfortunately passed away a decade ago due to a brain hemorrhage - he was only 40. If looking for a new electronic producer to become familiar with, I recommend starting with this album: it will lead the way into the examination of a delicious musical catalogue.
Diasporas - Ghédalia Tazartès
Now, I hate promoting and endorsing the algorithms of invasive Big Tech as much as the next disillusioned leftist, but I must be fully transparent: YouTube recommended me a gem here.
Have you ever wondered what David Lynch’s Carmen would sound like? Look no further.
French musician Ghédalia Tazartès - who passed away February 9, 2021, age 73 - was a visionary, capable of producing art in ways I never could have conceived, even if I had infinite monkeys with typewriters. Diasporas, his debut record, falls into the lineage of avant-garde and musique concrete composers, utilizing the voice as the central instrument. The resulting tape manipulations and vocal affectations are twisted, haunting, and brazenly operatic. There’s a strong gothic atmosphere here, particularly on opener “Un Amour Si Grand Qu’il Nie Son Objet,” where the classically-tinged falsetto offers the yin to the yang of the muezzin-styled vibrato and proto-screamo death scowls.
Listening to his work instills in you the belief that Tazartès was an explorer. He audibly attempted to reach the extremities of his vocal chords. With grit and glamour, he unveils demons and angels held within. The vocals defy classification, but if I were to place this on a continuum, it falls between Tom Waits and Roomful of Teeth. Highly recommended for fans of the experimental and avant-garde.
A Young Person’s Guide To The Early Welttraumforscher - Die Welttraumforscher
We’ll end this edition of the column with an introduction into the universe of one of the most “hey, this was made for you, Zach” things I’ve come across.
I was searching through Bandcamp for new dream pop releases the other night when I was abducted by space ghosts and brought into the universe of Die Welttraumforscher - German for “The Dream World Explorers.” (If THAT doesn’t say David Lynch, I don’t know WHAT does.)
Founded in 1981, Die Welttraumforscher is the work of Swiss musician Christian Pfluger, who with his art has created an expansive lore akin to the worlds of P-Funk or Gorillaz. The music he creates is merely a component of the project’s greater mythos, one centered on the explorations of the "Welttraumforschers" in outer space. The story of this universe is told not only through the projects 30+ albums, but with additional films, short stories and drawings by Pfluger that feature a cast of characters both innocent and twee.
There’s a high level of obscurity and anonymity attached to the project, making a full dive into the uber-niche lore practically impossible (it also doesn’t help if you’re not fluent in German, as only some of the project’s canon is translated). But don’t let that disillusion you from listening to this music, an amalgamation of dream pop, synth-pop and krautrock that’s exemplary of the both Germanic new wave off-shoot NDW and DIY cassette culture at large.
A Young Person’s Guide is a compilation of previously unreleased recordings from the band, out now on Melbourne label A Colourful Storm. The resulting cuts present a band whose sound is sprite-like, psychedelic and oh-so techno-chocolate. Fans of Neu!, The Cleaners From Venus and even Sports Coach will find plenty to adore.
Just listen to “Kleiderschrank Auf Mütze,” and you’ll be rocketed to whatever planet the universe finds you’re destined for. The vocals convey the joy felt by children playing in the sandbox, the bass and piano soaring into the sky atop the chippy groove and star-dusted synths. Ultimately, the compilation shows that the band, despite their obscurity, are utterly timeless, a relic not of a bygone era, but of the earlier generations of cassette culture and bedroom pop that would influence those to come.
