So in two weeks I am heading for holidays in Vietnam. I have never met a Vietnamese indiepop fan, but as I am going there, and if there is anyone interested in some record (maybe you have some friends there?), get in touch with me and I can bring some records to you and save on postage.
Last Saturday I attended the Robert Forster gig here in NY, in The Bell House, in Brooklyn. I had bought tickets the minute they were released and it seems those tickets were seated tickets. Not that it mattered really, seats were first come first serve, but still, that already gave the gig a different atmosphere than what I am used to. I don’t think I’ve ever sat in a concert. Okay, maybe at Indietracks at the church venue. But it is not common. So I was curious.
In the end I think it worked well, as it was just Robert and his guitar, a very personal gig, where the audience also played an important role, responding, singing, and cheering at different points throughout it. I was hypnotized, enjoying the little stories behind the songs he’d play. His guitar playing, his control of the stage. For me of course highlights were when he’d play Go-Betweens classics like “Spring Rain” or “Head Full of Steam”, and or his own “Baby Stones” or his latest single “Inferno (Brisbane in Summer)”. I can’t thank enough for being able to hear all of them in a single night.
Then afterwards, meeting him just for a brief moment. Getting my two books signed and chit-chatting for about 5 minutes or so, though it felt like it was just too small time. Could have talked much more. But there was a long line of people also eager to meet him so…
I left the venue happy. It was early still. I hadn’t had many beers either. It felt a bit different. Not part of my routine when it comes to gig. But I was totally thrilled, engaged, and really hoping I get to experience another Robert Forster gig in the near future. He said the last time he was in the U.S. was 11 years ago. I hope it doesn’t take that long again.
Now I look at future gigs in NY and they are happening while I am away on holidays. I will miss Say Sue Me for example. Oh well, you can’t win all the time.
Now, here are a few good finds of course from over the weekend.
Dronjo Kept by 4: our friends from Japan are back with a tape EP on the very fine Galaxy Train label. The EP is titled “School Festival” and has 4 lovely lo-fi indiepop songs. My favourite of the 4 is “Umbrellas”, a bouncy and feel-good poppy track. Very nice.
En Attendant: the Parisian quintet will be releasing an album called “Juillet” on January 4th on the Chicago label Trouble in Mind Records. The album has 10 tracks and will be released on CD and vinyl. At the moment we can just preview one track, “Words”, and that’s ok, it sounds great!
The Giraffe Told Me in My Dream: it has been a while since I heard a Taiwanese band. I am glad I am doing so as everytime I have heard something coming from there has always been good. Te Giraffe Told Me in My Dream is no exception. They seem brand new, they only have three songs on Bandcamp, “Relapse”, “Where We are Going” and “Slow”, and they make up the EP “Slowfall”, a pretty pretty noisy, dreamy, shoegaze effort.
Pure Moods: this Melbourne, Australia, band is also releasing an album. It is called “Upward Spiral” and will be available on vinyl LP and cassette on November 29. Again just one song is available to preview, the opening track “Tide”. I’ve been wondering what to do with Bandcamp and my CD retrospectives. This might make sense. Song sounds good too!
Lemondaze: the debut single by this London trio is a terrific shoegaze track called “Neon Ballroom”. Surprisingly the bio tells us that the band was formed in 2016, so I wonder what took them so long to release this first track. It is not a complaint, the wait was totally worth it. It is a lovely single, intense and powerful. Good stuff!
—————————————————————–
Elefant Records is perhaps the most important indiepop label from Spain. It is true that lately I think it is kind of a hit and miss label, but when we look at their back catalogue we find out their greatness. Because they discovered many bands and released so many classic records.
Back in 1992 it wasn’t common for Spanish bands to sing in English, even less to make jingle jangly indiepop in the vein of what was going on in the UK. La Sintesis was one of the first bands to do so and it was no surprise then that Elefant would release their debut 7″.
The band hailed from Pamplona in Navarra, a land that has given us lots of great talent, just lately we can think of Los Ginkas and Melenas for example. The band was formed by Joako Ezpeleta on vocals, and Patxi Garro on guitar and backing vocals. On the 7″ they had the help of Javier Lizarazu on drums, Javier Marco on bass, Ricardo Aguilar on guitar, Iñigo de Etxarri on backing vocals and Alberto Tabernero on sax.
The 7″ was among the first on Elefant, with the catalog ER-105. It came out in 1992 and included four songs, two on each side. The A side had “Shouting Out” and “September” while the B side had “Time to Move” and “It’s You”. All songs were recorded at Estudio Arion in 1990 in Pamplona with Roberto Elizalde and Jesús de los Arcos as engineers. All songs are credited to Ezpeleta and Garro. The record is dedicated to Toño Reber.
It looks like in 1986 the band had put together a tape with three songs called “Al Mérito Postumo”. This one is listed on Discogs and is quite a surprise. I wonder that back then, 6 years earlier, the band sounded the same. This demo had all songs on the A side, “La Última Vez”, “Llegada la Noche” and “Puro Estrés” which seems to be an original from Paul McCartney. These songs were recorded at Zeta Soluciones Audiovisuales in Pamplona between the 1st and 4th of September of 1986. Something interesting I notice is that this time around the band was singing in Spanish. It may have to do that at this time Toño Reber was the vocalist and lyricist, the same Toño who passed away in 1989 and which the 7″ is dedicated to. Joako doesn’t appear listed in this release but we do see that Patxi Garro played the bass, Joaquín López the drums, Iñigo Echarri the guitar, Alberto Tabernero the sax and Pablo Duque the synth.
There are more songs by the band of course scattered among many compilations. In 1991 their song “Shouting Out” appears on a tape called “Spying on the Blue Sky” released in Spain. I wonder who put this one out. It has quite a good collection of bands!
In 1992 the band appears first on “La Línea del Arco – La Banda Sonora 3” which has the first ever Elefant catalog number (ER.1). This was a tape comp where the band had the songs “I Want Your Love” and “Sin Titulo”. I guess it came together with a La Línea del Arco fanzine? Then they appear on the compilation 7″ “La Línea del Arco” released by Elefant (ER-102) with the song “Violently Pretty Face”, covering The Close Lobsters! . This 7″ came together with the 3rd issue of the fanzine of the same name. That same year they contribute to another Elefant tape release, “Around the World” (ER-106) with the song “You Can Love a Woman” and their song “September” appears on the first ever Aliénor Records release “Garden Party” (ALIEN α), a compilation tape with many great bands from all over in it.
“I Want Your Love” appears on the Glidge Records (Glidge 002) tape “Astral Plane” in 1993. This was a UK tape that featured bands like The Cat’s Miaow, The Ampersands, Musical Chairs and more.
In 1996 the Spanish magazine Zona de Obras puts together a sampler CD called “Elefant Air Lines” (ZdeO 007) where they showcase the label’s catalog. La Sintesis contributes the song “You Can Love a Woman”.
Lastly, sometime in the early 90s the band contributed the song “It’s You” to “Foreign Intervention” a tape comp released by the UK label Fluff Records.
But there were more songs. I know that because I’ve stumbled upon a Bandcamp set up by Elefant Records with the 4 songs of the 7″ plus 5 more songs. These been “You Can Love a Woman”, “I Want Your Love”, “La Balsa”, “Beautiful Lies” and “Violently Pretty Face”. Some of these appeared on the comps I mentioned, but “La Balsa” or “Beautiful Lies” didn’t. Do they come from some demo?
I check for the band members and find that Alberto Tabernero had been in Cherokees and Refugiados. javier Marco on Ohiana. Javier Lizarazu on Tahúres Zurdos. And of course Joako Ezpeleta has been involved with the band Sult! and with many things pop, like being radio host on “Viaje a los Sueños Polares”, founder of the “Spiral” music fanzine with Elefant’s Luis Calvo and even founding the “Festival Independiente de Benicàssim”!
And of course my friend Alex had written about them back in 2008 in his always recommendable blog 7iete Pulgadas. According to him Joako had been in a band before La Síntesis and it was called You, Me and the Others. They didn’t release anything, but I have to wonder if there are any recordings of that. Alex also mentions a early demo of La Síntesis which he loves but doesn’t give any other details.
Another interesting fact he mentions is that Joako worked with the Moving Pictures and also played gigs alongside Elefan’ts Luis Calvo as The Chapelfieds, an acoustic duo.
Not much more written about them, but it seems clear that the band had more songs, from the first period without Joako and from the second, with Joako already in their ranks. Would definitely like to listen to them. And of course find out more about the story of this Pamplona band!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Listen
La Sintesis – Shouting Out
