A Veces Ciclón - "Cumbayá"

If the trail in between the trees portrayed in Codeine’s The White Birch cover connected two cities, it could be plausible that these were Lugo and Valencia, or at least that’s what A Veces Ciclon’s debut in 2013 confirmed. Faint and enigmatic, it would be futile to stay just in the metaphore, even more with the release of their second record, Cumbayá, regional crossroads  of feelings and influences in which we find 8 dense, rural and strangely addictive songs.

In between the state of coma and light sleep, Cumbayá progresses feeding itself from the costumbrist nihilism of lyrics full of pauses, ellipsis and silences, sentences that sketch the last flashes of a hamlet’s feast in which the crowd left once the music is over, but they continued dancing. Pasture notebooks in which the landscape is more than the background (“I prefer the trees / they never make me suffer” Óscar sings in Spanish in “Silencio”) and which end up shaping a sort of prudent and northern but equally unfriendly, intense and cutting Arab Straps’ Philophobia.

They are able to bring together Codeine and cult Spanish indie band La Jr, Tortoise and new wave Spanish stars Golpes Bajos in their music. Óscar Vilariño (Musel, ex-Triángulo de Amor Bizarro), Marcos Junquera (Betunizer, Dorian Wood) and Xavi Muñoz (Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble, Dorian Wood) tie up the loose ends of an intuitive, soil based slowcore in these 8 tracks which appear half-naked or half-dressed depending on the time or mood.

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Rafael Martínez del Pozo (La JR) in his studio in Castro de Cepeda (León), the album features José Luis García y Fany Álvarez (Elle Belga), Rubén Abad (Cró!, Trilitrate, Peña), Marc Clos (Nueva Vulcano, The New Raemon, entre otros), Ibán Pérez (Torso, Fee Reega) y and Fernando Junquera "Negro".

The California-based musician and illustrator Dorian Wood made the astonishing illustration that appears in the cover of what is probably of the roughest record the year.