LVEUM dropped the Straw Man Army pre-order last Friday, and today they’re launching two MORE pre-orders from 80s Mexican post-punk group Las Ánimas and French synth-punk band Nuits Blanches. Both are out October 30, with preorders running now, including limited white vinyl for each. The whole Las Ánimas album is streaming on LVEUM’s Bandcamp and 3 tracks from Nuits Blanch are streaming there as well, so check them out and get your pre-order in now.
Las Ánimas del Cuarto Obscuro – Las Ánimas
Con un pie en el rock subterráneo mexicano y el otro en la música experimental y el tape-trading global, Las Ánimas del Cuarto Obscuro se encontraban frente a una encrucijada después de su primer LP.
México ya no era el mismo país que cuando recién se formó el grupo. A pesar de que el acceso a música no comercial seguía siendo difícil, los márgenes de la cultura se enriquecieron gracias a la necedad de héroes anónimos: parroquianos del tianguis cultural del Chopo, tiendas de discos especializadas, fiestas secretas y programas nocturnos en la radio chilanga.
El malestar social latente se expresó de todas las maneras posibles. Ya no sólo se trataba de las secuelas del terremoto del 85. Las protestas por el fraude electoral presidencial y una huelga en la universidad pública más importante del país se contraponían a los modos anquilosados y autoritarios de la dictadura perfecta priísta.
Si en el primer disco se hablaba de jóvenes autodestructivos y los fantasmas de los rincones de la noche DFectuosa, la segunda producción de LACO trata acerca del cambio como eje de la vida misma. Las Ánimas es el principio de la metamorfosis sonora a la que Toño Sánchez se ha sometido durante toda su carrera.
La partida de sus antiguos compañeros de banda marca un viraje hacia sonidos atmosféricos y de avanzada. Como miembro único del proyecto, Toño Sánchez emprendió un viaje de transmutación hacia el misterio. Todavía podemos encontrar canciones convencionales con melodías de pop oscuro y pegajoso pero por otro lado el disco descansa sobre paisajes auditivos cercanos tanto a Jorge Reyes como a Tuxedomoon o This Heat, sazonados con la falta de equipo y recursos característica del México de aquellos remotos ayeres.
Las Ánimas es una carta de despedida al underground pero no para lanzarse a las corrientes principales. Al contrario, se trata de un adiós al rocanrol tradicional con la intención de bajar aún más hacia las profundidades. De ahora en adelante Toño Sánchez dedicará sus esfuerzos musicales a extraños sonidos para públicos minoritarios en una búsqueda por lo arcano, por una manía de cambio constante que infecta el alma después de cruzar el umbral de la puerta negra. (Yecatl Peña)
MUS345 LAS ÁNIMAS - S/T LP
Las Ánimas del Cuarto Obscuro – Las Ánimas
With one foot in the Mexican underground rock scene and the other one in the global tape trading circuit, Las Ánimas del Cuarto Obscuro found themselves in the middle of a crossroad after their first LP. México wasn´t the same country as when the band first started. Even though access to non-commercial music still was a difficult task in the late eighties, the fringes of culture had way more resources thanks to the stubbornness of certain anonymous heroes: dwellers of El Tianguis Cultural del Chopo, niche record stores, illegal underground parties and hosts of late night Mexican public radio shows.
Ubiquitous social unrest expressed itself in every way possible. The aftermaths of the 1985 earthquake weren’t the only matters on the table. Protests erupted after a rigged presidential election and a student strike hit Mexico’s biggest public university. This was just the tip of the iceberg of issues PRI’s perfect dictatorship was or wasn’t addressing. The clash of the authoritarian regime against new and fresh ideas.
If the first record was about the loneliness of self-destructive youth and it’s urban phantasmagories, LACO’s second LP dealt with change as the axis of human existence. Las Ánimas is just the beginning of the sonic metamorphosis Toño Sánchez went through until this very moment.
The departure of former bandmembers set a different approach towards more experimental and atmospheric sounds. As the project’s only member, Toño Sanchez took an alchemical trip aiming for more mysterious horizons.
Despite the fact that we can still find conventional dark pop and catchy songwriting, the record rests on sound landscapes closer to Jorge Reyes or Tuxedomoon and This Heat than the orthodox ways of so called post-punk, seasoned of course with the lack of music gear and the economic reality prevalent in Mexico of those convulsed times.
Las Ánimas is a goodbye letter to underground but not because the next move is the mainstream. Far away from it, it’s a farewell to traditional rock and a the first steps down into the depths. From now on, Toño Sánchez will dedicate his musical efforts to weirder sounds and scarcer audiences in the search of the arcane, possessed by a mania of constant change that infects the soul after crossing the black door’s threshold. (Yecatl Peña)
Synth driven perpetual punk rock, darkened by atmospheric touches in its production and songwriting, yet uplifted by its intention to distill that darkness into light. Pop music from France on either side of the punk explosion has never shy’d away from electronic elements and on Nuits Blanche’s Helás LP there is plenty to remind us of that legacy. The sounds we are given rub against neither pop or dance, but instead absorbs the impact of quite tough sounding street punk. Four on the floor drums, like Disco’s ghost stamped across the face by the weight of the electric guitar run with songs not out of place if “A Country Fit For Heroes” got shoved inside the sleeve of “Wanna Buy A Bridge” and the two became one. Helás has the heft and the violence of boots treading across concrete en masse but within that is the lightness and the style of a dark smokey room filled with people wearing dark glasses and considering the inevitability of the pointlessness of existenceoff the dance floor anyway. (Jonah Falco)
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