The sadness of El Faro

«The album describes the moment of catharsis of something that comes from much, much earlier. And, among many other things, it is written from the disappointment of taking the first stumbles against the walls of adult life,” Carlos reinforces. The intention for it to have that narrative component of fed up-fear-surrender-acceptance in its four cuts has two sides: «We made the songs in the order in which they appear on the tracklist. I wrote the first verses of Something Good at the beginning of 2020, but we really sat down to make the demo at the end of that same year. That’s when I realized where my head was going. So we started shaping the whole EP around that idea.”

El Faro began with a teenage Carlos. Almost a decade and a half later, apart from that reflection on the complications of adult life, Carlos is not very nostalgic: «It is true that sometimes I look back and remember what it was like to form El Faro when we were so young and all the things that “They passed and I hallucinated.”

The group has gone through stages of silence but only apparent: «Although the frequency has varied, I have never stopped writing songs. So, in one way or another, I have always felt El Faro as part of my present, even if it was only in my privacy,” he details.

What Carlos is clear about is that he started this in the simplest way: «I don’t think I ever considered a musical dream like being the headliner of a big festival. I mean, I was 16 years old. At no time did I think that writing a song and uploading it to the internet was going to have any kind of repercussion, because I didn’t even know what repercussions it could have. What I certainly didn’t imagine at that time is that 12 years later I would be releasing new music.

New music that has important support. Lisandro (Dorian) and Sergio (Zoé) are in charge of the production of the EP: «Working with them has been incredible, because of the privilege of creating with two such important figures in music and because of the involvement they have had with the songs. since we sent them the models. They helped us shape, organize and structure them. And later, both in the studio and in the subsequent production, they have put everything into giving life and meaning to the sound of the EP.

Ruts, with his La Isla Music, found the key at a given moment in his career: a form of self-expression and sincere, clear and sometimes even exposed. He shows it in his new album Miss Lava, the fourth full-length in his career. Set in a very well-crafted melodious reggae, it is in the lyrics where Ruts appears increasingly confident and close, sentimental and feisty. On the album he takes a more pop vision (as in Cuarenta y tantas) and also lets himself be carried away by dub in several moments, especially in the powerful homonymous piece, which also closes the album with a delay-laden review.

Vicente Martín has been active for 33 years with his On a Silver Platter, many of them with the support of Lola Atienza. Los 80 Pasan Factura, always on the lookout for what tastes like history, publishes this small CD that brings together the tunes of the program, with a striking collection full of finds. It starts with none other than Coffin Vacante at a gallop, to continue with the vibrant lofi of Soviet Love. Three more cuts with Víctor Aftershave, Diminuto Cielo and Redkan. The album is completed with The basement tapes, by Enrique Mateu, a tune from the parallel program they maintained in the second half of the nineties.