My friend Eric from Belgium pointed me out to a new batch of Peruvian bands I had no clue they existed. They are to be playing a sort of festival called Transmisión Emocional on Saturday April 21st in Lima. In total there are 8 bands playing, two of them, Animal Desenfocado and Levi Japhet, don’t have a website, but the other 6 does.

Two of those 6 I have already featured on the blog, Niños Vudú and Blackthony Startano. But what about the other 4? They are a mystery to me. I should have a listen!

Aeropod: dreampop band from Lima formed in 2017. That’s how they present themselves. They are formed by Alexander Correa, Gian Franco Perez, Luis Reginaldo, Alberto de la Fuente and Luis Arévalo. There are two releases on their Bandcamp, “Los Jardines/Vuelas” and “Obsequio”. I’ll have a listen then. Wow, the guitars chime beautifully! Who are these people? I think if there is a new Lima Popfest they should be invited. Pretty good stuff. Definitely check them out. I’ve made myself already a fan on Facebook.

Dormir en Luces: 4 demo songs, lofi style, also from Lima. These are not as good as the previous band, definitely not. I can’t say I hate them, but can’t say I love them. I just wish they are better recorded and I’ll try to judge then.

Adrían Vacío: What is this? Their best song, “Juntos”, sounds kind a bit like Dar Ful Ful or Family, in a lofi way, or something like that. Very interesting. Who is it? Is it really just one person behind it called Adrían? There are two releases on Bandcamp, “Sin Título” which is just one song and “Naufragio Inconcluso” EP with four songs of lo-fi indiepop, “Juntos”, “Mutatio”, “Días Tristes” and “Ego Te Requiret”.

Rü: this must be the most eclectic band of the lot. I’m listening to their album “Terodesu” that was uploaded to Bandcamp on January. It starts a bit blah for me, but then track number three, “Ruido”, picks up with some superb guitarwork. Then again, slows down and becomes a bit boring. It is actually a mix of genres and styles this album. You could find some good guitar pop songs but you need to skip a bunch of songs. Would be nicer to just make an EP proper with the better songs and scrap the rest.

So that’s 4 bands, and I like featuring at least 5 on every post. Let’s check out some more of the Wales Goes Pop that we are missing then?

—-  Discovering Wales Goes Pop 2018 bands reviews —–

Perfect Body: found two songs by this Cardiff band on SoundCloud: “Round the Bend” and “Getting Cold”. They are more indierock than indiepop I believe. They are not bad by any means. But I start to wonder, after three bands reviewed where is the pop from Wales Goes Pop? I hope I find it on the next band I check out! There are many many more!! Wonder if I’ll ever be able to feature them all!

Goat Girl: they have a SoundCloud but you can barely hear any songs if you don’t pay for a pro subscription. No fun. Well, the band does have some videos on Youtube. It seems they are signed to Rough Trade, so that might be a big deal for many. Anyways, I’m linking to a video for a song called “The Man”. It is ok I suppose. But not for me. Rock-ish, and I don’t see anything special in them. Sure the lyrics might be interesting, singing about these topics, but the music sound like any other band out there.

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Been a while since I did some archaeology work on a Spanish band. It may be a surprise to you, but for me Spanish bands were my entry to the world of indiepop back in the early 2000s. I have a good memory of many small bands from that time period, bands that only released demos, CD-Rs in very limited quantities. Many of these bands’ recordings I have lost. Some others I never managed to get their proper releases. It was a time when there was no Discogs, and eBay for these sort of bands wasn’t common. I suppose you had to go to the gigs to buy the records or a record store in Spain. Then, I wasn’t in Spain. My first time in Spain was more than a decade later, in 2012.

Galáctica was one of these bands from the early 2000s that made an impact on me. I loved their style then, a mix of classic indiepop and electronic arrangements. Kind of looking to have a “futuristic” kind of sound. Makes sense then why they named the band Galáctica. During the years I have been able to find records by some of the bands from that period, it hasn’t been easy mind you. But one of the bands I still don’t own any of their recordings happens to be Galáctica. So their story to me is kind of untold. You know, when you own the record you kind of understand the band better. Right? Without it is hard even though back in the day I remember playing time and time again their album, mini-album and CD single that I burned altogether on a CDR and had it on my discman. Those were the days!

Galáctica was originally formed in the city of León, in the northwest of Spain. I have the feeling that before releasing their first mini-album “Lujo Estelar”, they had already recorded some demos that used to be available on Soulseek. Or maybe not. Someone remembers that? Anyhow, “Lujo Estelar” came out in 2001 on the then small label Mushroom Pillow (MP005). Now this label is quite big in Spain, but back then it was just starting and wasn’t making much of a noise. The songs on this mini-album were “Lujo en la Riviera”, “Vida en un Cometa”, “Chica Invisible”, “Anticanción de Verano”, “Ya Sales en Rockdelux” and “Gracita en el Espacio”. The sound of the band at this time was more guitar based and reminds me quite a bit to Juniper Moon with its punky attitude.

The year after the band released their debut album, “El Fotógrafo del Más Allá”, on Mushroom Pillow (MP017) again. The sound now had added an electronic flavour. There were 12 songs all recorded at Estudios Feedback: “Vampiras”, “Electrónica”, “Superdisco”, “Pasados Encuentros”, “#5”, “Mejor Berlín”, “Sin Estrellas”, “Dinastía”, “Bela Lugosi Affaire”, “Novela Rosa”, “Fiesta Contra Ti” and “Suspiria”. On Discogs the band is listed finally:
Roberto Castán – guitars
Sergio Calvo – bass
Amado Pellitero – drums
Eva López – keyboards
Lucía Pérez – vocals

Lastly, to promote the album there was a CD single in 2002. The chosen song was the most electronic one of all, the aptly named “Electrónica”. The accompanying songs on the single were “Mi Verdad” and “Electrónica (… En Una Tarde Otoñal)”. This was released by Mushroom Pillow (MP013) again and El Diablo! Important to mention that there was a promo video made for this song which you can watch on Youtube.

Thanks to that Youtube link I learn that this was actually the 2nd video by the band. Which one was the first? It was actually Superdisco, which I was able to find also on Youtube. Both videos were directed by Juan Marigorta.

I find an interview with the band on the website Indyrock.es dating from November 2002. From it I learn that Alex Díez from Los Flechazos and Cooper collaborated with them on the song “Pasados Encuentros” Then that “Mi Verdad” from the CD single is actually a cover of the Spanish band Luna from the 80s. And that live they used to do covers of Los Flechazos, Magnapop, Le Mans and The Ramones. They hoped to release something new by 2003 and they were part of a festival called Purple Weekend in 2002. Originally the band was formed by Lucía, Eva and Roberto and later Chinea and Amado joined them. I suppose Chinea is Sergio?

El Diario de León has an article about the Purple Weekend but the one from 2003. It mentions that the band was to headline a bunch of bands at the disco Oh! León, were the gig was to be held. Later Eva Galáctica was to DJ too.

Calzada News also mentions them. We learn that Roberto had a label called Miss Lucifer Records. With this label it seems that Galáctica released probably in 2004 a remixes CD. The band also played Madrid on July 3rd, 2004, at the legendary Siroco venue.

Murcia Rock also has an interview with the band, where they say Galactica is B-52s meets the Revillos. Could be? Also we learn that the band used to do a fanzine called Galaxina. I would love to see that! Maybe it should be released as a book as they did with the Stamp! or Tremolina fanzines? It is not a bad idea I would say. This interview was mostly done to promote a gig in that city, Murcia, on April 5th, 2002, where they had the support of Vacaciones at the Garaje Tía María venue.

Another gig I found by the band was one that happened on March 25th, 2003, in the Centro Cultural Provincial of the city of Málaga. Also they played in León’s Layla club on November 9th, 2002.

Then I come to notice that Roberto and Eva organized a festival called Otros Mundos Pop for many years in León. This festival was born thanks to a radio show both of them had in León’s 40 Principales station. They were indeed very involved with the music scene!

My last find dates from 2008 on the 20Minutos.es website. Here they talk about a reunion gig. It also mentions “RMX”, which was the remixes CD. For the reunion, only the three core members were part of it. They played on February 28th of that year at La Pequeña Betty in Madrid and it was said that the band was working on a new EP that was supposed to be released on vinyl that year. I don’t think that ever happened.

I don’t know much about what the band members are doing now, but it seems that if you were in León on April 5th you could have seen Eva Galáctica perform, supporting Taiacore. It doesn’t say much about her on the Facebook event page. But at least it is nice to know she is still making music.

I don’t know in which other bands they were involved with, if there were many or not at all. I do know that at least Roberto Castán was part of a band called Lofi that released an album on Elefant called “Low Fidelity Sound Systems”. Another band he was part of was called Trigger.

Then of course there is a Facebook page, that was last updated in 2013 (!). A quick look tells me the band was active in 2009, playing at a venue called La Pequeña Betty on February of that year. That’s not all, also they played Madrid at the Suite Festival in May of that same year. Here we know that the band continued playing live in 2010, in their hometown at Sala Studio 54 in January or at the Costello in June for example. Again a new mention of new songs. Now for an EP to be recorded in 2010.  It was to have 3 songs. Whatever happened to them? Not released, were they? We see many DJ gigs by the girls as well. Keep scrolling. I find some photos of them recording in 2013. More songs? Where are these songs? I would love to listen to them. And lastly a link of Lucía’s other passion, art. She showcases some of her pieces in the Kapu gallery in Linz, Austria.

At the time they were said to be one of the important bands of the new pop scene in Spain. I wonder what happened with them. Why they never got to release a second album. Or whatever happened to those songs they were working on in 2008-2009. If the girls end up playing in any other bands afterwards? It is for me very strange how this band kind of fizzled down. I really enjoyed their music, and now many years after not listening it, playing it again, I’m enjoying it once again.

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Listen
Galáctica – Mejor Berlín