If you are familiar with the blog, you might have noticed that there are like two or three album reviews. That’s not many. I don’t usually like to review albums. It requires me to become a bit more scientific when listening to music, use stupid words, and get myself in the same league as a lot of morons out there that write a lot of bullshit. I prefer to avoid that, I don’t want to be an album reviewer. But, sometimes, some albums come by, and they are just fascinating, and those times, which are few, I think, “most people” need to hear this. I’ll try then to convince you that Los Directivos only release ever is worth your time.

“Por amor y jerarquía” can be translated as “For love and class” or maybe as “Because of love and class”. Either or, it works. That’s how Los Directivos only album, and only release so far, is named. The terrible part is that it was released in 2010 and it has slipped from everyone’s best of lists since then.

Well, here I am, not trying to make justice, because the CD makes itself justice by painting the Spanish society with such honest music. I can’t remember the last time I felt a record expressed so clearly, so sincerely, the whole idiosyncrasy of a generation. A generation of Spanish people, that we know, are not having it easy in their own country. We read about that in the news all the time. But there’s something intrinsically interesting about it, about the Spanish culture, that even in the worst times they are able to laugh about their misery. And I think this is where the record excels, in their lyrics. And of course, it’s no surprise that that is the case. I’ll tell you why.

I wasn’t aware of this record until earlier this year. It all happened while I was visiting Madrid Popfest. One of the bands playing and that I was actually looking forward to see after a lot of correspondence and after working together, was Los Lagos de Hinault. Those who aren’t familiar with this fantastic Spanish band would know that they released a split mini-CD with Cloudberry, and then an album and a split 7″ with El Faro on Fikasound. As I’ve written before on the blog, their show was among the best of the festival. I love every bit of it. It was even great to see people singing along to some of their songs. Because their lyrics are fantastic as well.

Make the connection. Carlos Ynduráin, is part of both bands. But of course I haven’t heard of Los Directivos yet. I didn’t  have a clue they existed. I did know about Portonovo, Carlos’ previous band, who released a soon-to-be-classic album on Jabalina many years ago. That record I did buy on the time it came out. But as most of the times I find about things through friends, through recommendations. It’s funny though that some people say silly things that they can’t recommend me anything, that I will probably know it or that I would hate it. You can’t imagine how I love good recommendations and even better when they have people that make music with class and love. It was like that that I learned of the existence of Los Lagos de Hinault, through one of the most passionate fanzines in recent history, Aplasta tus Gafas de Pasta. How did I learn from Los Directivos? From the one and only, the incomparable, the most interesting (as well as the loudest!) person in the Madrid pop scene: Miguel Stamp.

Next year I admit I will miss seeing him at Madrid Popfest -because I’m not going, he most probably is- but the thing is if you meet Miguel you better listen carefully to everything he recommends. Because it will be a lot. Also, he will dislike every single band you have released on Cloudberry. Well not all. But a bunch. And also many of the ones playing at the festival. Fair enough. I’m the same. I like people that are not afraid of calling things by their name. And Miguel is like that. And Carlos is like that. I can tell. Funny thing, I was telling Miguel after Los Lagos de Hinault show that I really loved their show, and he immediately asked me: “Have you heard Los Directivos, Carlos’ other band? son la ostia“. I had no clue. He said that I had to listen to their album, that it was by far one of the best records released in Spain in the last decade. So, let’s find Carlos in the Sala Siroco and ask about it.

Sadly Carlos didn’t have any copies with him during the festival. But he promised me to mail me one soon. That was March and I still had some time left in Europe, visiting after Spain, Estonia and Sweden. Good times. Celebrating my birthday. So I kind of forgot for a bit. One day though, when I was already back in the big apple, I received a yellow envelope stamped by Correos de España, and it doesn’t require much effort to guess, it was Los Directivos album.

Of course on the album his name is not listed. On the band photo his face is covered. The same as his bandmate. Their names are listed as Claudio McKinsey and Iñaki Andersen. Clearly those are not their original names. I still don’t know the name of the other half of Los Directivos. There is some interesting facts on the credits. The album was recorded and mixed during the months of January and March in 2010 at three studios: GDM, Vilanova and La Geltrú, in Barcelona. It was produced by David Rodríguez. Mixed and mastered by Pere Serrano.

The credits are as follow:
Claudio McKinsey: vocals
Iñaki Andersen – bass, drums, keyboards, synths, and backing vocals
Ana Fernández Villaverde – backing vocals
David Rodríguez – guitars, backing vocals and some keyboards
Don Pimpón – drums and percussion

Of course, for those who follow the Spanish indie scene will find Ana Fernández Villaverde a familiar name, that’s because she is kind of famous under the moniker La Bien Querida, releasing a bunch of albums on the Elefant label.

From the day I received the album and on, for at least two weeks I listened to it non-stop on my cd player. Maybe for you two weeks is nothing. But for me, that I’m listening new albums ever single day, and changing the CD from the portable player after 3 days after it’s first play in average, two weeks is a very long time. I’m 100% sure that I haven’t listened a record this year more than this one. It would definitely go to the end of year list if it wouldn’t have been released 3 years ago!

It’s a big shame that a lot of people will get turned off because the album is in Spanish. Not understanding the lyrics is not the best situation, I agree. But for all the other people, that do get the charm and the intelligence behind them, well, we only can feel the awe for such great penmanship. It may also  have to do that it is a record done by 30 year old guys telling their experience as 30 year olds. And I’m reaching that age, and I feel it talks to me. I happen to identify myself with so many of the situations that appear as little vignettes on the 12 tracks of this album released by Islam Records.

I’m fast forwarding to song number 7, “La Tortura” (the torture). This song could be a hymn against the hipsters perhaps, claiming with a line that says “in my times, this didn’t happen, indie was indie and the rest was the rest”. This is the torture about bands like Beach Fossils or Craft Spells, who I would clearly put them in the “Rest” pile. But of course, not every one out there is wise enough.

Rewind to track 5, “Rojo y Nieve”. This is the straight jab to Spain’s face. With another fantastic line, “love in Spain doesn’t shine in red and yellow, it shines in reds (communists) and bitches” (of course in Spanish it rhymes with brilliance!), they claim a new decadence in Spanish society even mentioning that in places like Switzerland and Austria are civilized countries, unlike their own Spain.

For me, the beauty of the album is discovering and rediscovering the lyrics. They are captivating. They are smart.

You’ll ask me then, what about the music. The music is great! It’s a mix of guitars and drum machines. Some effects here and there. Nicely produced. It’s a beautiful marriage of brilliant songwriting and musicianship! There’s black humor, there’s bright ideas, there’s this thing that not many albums give you. It leaves you thinking. It leaves you trying to solve and understand what inspired the band to write it. You know this is just not play entertainment, this is not music to go out dancing. There’s a commentary here. This is deeper than your regular ukulele indiepop album. This has guts. It has passion of course too.

One can also wonder if this album is just full of cynicism . And the answer for many will be probably yes. There’s this defeatist sort of vibe in the songs. But for me it works in the opposite way. It points out what’s wrong, it makes fun of it, and tries to open our eyes to what’s happening out there. It doesn’t ask anyone to change, because that’s not what it is about, that’s not their job. It is for us to understand, to make the change.

If you want to laugh, if you want to wonder, if you want to have a record on repeat, I urge you to discover Los Directivos. I’m not sure where to buy their record, but they do have a Bandcamp. You can of course stream the album there, but way better is to really own it, don’t you agree?

This is the proper Spanish indiepop, the one that has taken the cue from the La Movida in the 80s, mixed with the C86 vibe. The real indiepop, the one that sadly Elefant has obscured with all their 60s happy-go-lucky stuff (aside from some exceptions of course!). I wish there were more bands like Los Directivos. In the meantime, we can look forward to Los Lagos de Hinault next album.

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Listen
Los Directivos – Rojo y Nieve