COSA ASTRAL, COCONOTBCore Disc, Spain ****
Rating: 88
By Carlos Reyes
Ever since I was able to get my hands on this album, I seriously cannot stop playing it. Coconot is a three member band from Barcelona which includes El Guincho, one of our favorites and the most acclaimed new artist along with Mrs. Sariñana. Tropicalia had rarely been so transcendent on indie music blogs, I’m going to jump and say El Guincho is currently the most lauded Hispanic act in the global indie scene. Listening to Novo Tropicalismo Errado, their first album back in 2005, we knew this was something to keep an open ear for. Coconot's sophomore effort is not as vigorous as their debut or Alegranza!, it doesn’t stop it from being a triumph and having one of the coolest singles of the year. One could only describe “Conservad el rayo” as a neopsychedelic piece that is heavy on percussions. The intro recalls the shutdown of a mechanical subject, perhaps a car, perhaps the heart? Once the harmonies are ready to appear the downward sound serves as a base utilized throughout the entire song. Coconot sounds less like El Guincho a lot more like Animal Collective, there is less sampling technique and a lot more instrumentation which immediately make this album much more tribal. Jens Neumaier and Subira show plenty of revelation; they particularly adjoin their understanding of alteration as opposed to the repetition we heard in Alegranza!. Listen carefully to “Miles de Ojos” and notice the vividness in its production, the much improvised quietness in “Polen Muchaha!” and how it twists back an ford between the colorful harmonies to a hard and shadowy mood. Cosa Astral will be available in stores next month, for those of us who are yet to have El Guincho’s solo record in an actual package, it will finally be distributed next week. “I see thousands of eyes and flowers, I see thousands of eyes and trees.”