VERACRUZ, VERACRUZYo-Yo Industrias, Spain ****
Rating: 82
By Carlos Reyes
The disoriented rock stacks of smoky rock & roll come into a course in the self-titled second LP by Barcelona’s wicked kids Veracruz. The band has no regret sounding plainly rude with their ambient rock, they’re pleasantly vulnerable to get rushed by the urgency of its core, and yet delicate while constructing the noisy patterns that make this sophomore production a success and one of the year’s best rock albums (the best so far). Two things to consider, all the tracks here in English, something very common in Spain’s rock where bands release an all-Spanish album and then one fully in English.
Veracruz walks around the vein of the radical European indie, which includes the likes of El Guincho, Extraperlo, Joe Crepusculo, Triangulo de Amor Bizarro and others. But in terms of actual discovery, the band is closer to Mexico’s Nos Llamamos; both bands keep melody at a distance, but contemplate the element as a precious musical stance to admire and guard. The clashing and dusty opener “Odetta Satan’s Rum” might scare off our popish costumed friends, but it’s nothing to worry about, in fact, the actual execution is like a luminous awakening of the devil himself or the mysterious guy from the album’s cover.
It gets a whole lot happier with the potent and exotic “Port of Havana”, it’s a persecution of sounds and a hunt of love. “Mao-de-Pilao” makes the listener an accomplice, its arousing intimacy is discomforting and along with the next song track, “The Breaking Knots”, set up a bridge of bleakness and flair for a second set of songs that are in their own way, profoundly blissful. It’s as if Veracruz assumes that an eternal bonding has been created between these songs and the listener, and from that affiliation is that tracks like “Ex-Boxer” or “Them Black Bones” not only overcome their desiccated mood but be the backbones of this subtle enchantment. The album has a very limited vinyl run, but don’t worry, Yoyo Industrias is offering it for free download, you shouldn’t mind rapidshare’s limitations.