Being a music blogger is in a certain way a little like being a futbol fan: surfing through the anarchy of social media and blogs during countless hours just to find that one track that turns your world upside down is at times so similar to watching 22 players tumultuously chasing a ball for hours just to catch a glimpse of some stroke of genius. Those glimmers of brilliance (musical or footballistical) are few and far between, but once they materialize in front of you, they are the one reminder of why you really dedicate your time to it. Which is to say coming across BFlecha, moniker of Belén Vidal, electronic musician from Vigo, Spain, felt like one of those glorious moments.
Her latest single, “B33,” is a romantic slice of retrofuturism that speaks volumes about the breadth of BFlecha's musical and lyrical spectrum: 808 percussion, synth pop, and auto-tuned R&B vocals getting together for an interstellar tale of finding lost love in the fourth dimension. With a video that’s remarkably shot by Tomás Peña, space exploration is given the retro treatment, while the loneliness of BFlecha’s character feels both liberating and claustrophobic amidst a scenery of grandiloquent nature and alienating technology.
But even more intriguing than that was discovering BFlecha’s pair of previous releases on Galician electronic label Arkestra. Her 2010 debut, Ceja de Carnival/Kosmic Lovers, juxtaposed Dirty South, Rustie-like maximal electronica, and purple wow, while last year’s Qvasi Naves was the sort of rare release that settled any struggle between pop and avant-garde, where Chicago house, Spanish pop, crunk, and contemporary R&B could happily hold hands. This is the kind of project that effectively embodies the internet-era eclectic music fandom, and for that reason her upcoming debut full-length βeta, from which “B33” is taken, has to be among our most awaited releases of the year.