I met the female quartet Melenas somewhere in the hazy 2020, when they had just released their second album, Rare days. It was love at first audition, and I immediately went after the eponymous debut of the Spanish women that came out in 2017 and served to consolidate my feelings towards Oihana, Maria, Leire and Laura; that accelerated and noisy jangle inherited from the C-86 and surrounding areas grabbed my heart, but like so many other passions of the time, this one was also swallowed by the pandemic chaos. And so time passed.
Until at the end of last year the algorithm acted in favor of rescuing this love and so I discovered Now, the girls' third album released in September on the Chicago label Trouble in My Mind. And as big a surprise as the album itself was, listening to it.
Apparently, during the break between one job and another, Melenas delved deeply into the less experimental trips of the Stereolabof their offspring (of Broadcast a Dummy) – and who knows kraut that influenced them all – with these and other influences to bring to life the 10 songs that make up Now.
The guitars are still here, but they are no longer the same (laughs) and are accompanied by synthesized textures and other electronic blips and bloins coming straight from new wave/post-punk (on the album there is a song called “1986” and in 2021 they made a cover of “Eisbaer”1981 classic by the Swedes Gray area). This 80s revival is what I mentioned in the previous paragraph as 'other influences' (laughs).
This change in sound could have turned out really shit, but Melenas has the borogodó and judging by this album they know how to make good music regardless of which path they follow. On a virtual/imaginary PCP shelf Now would be alongside another house favorite also sung in Spanish, the debut of the former duo Pegasvs.
May we also not be afraid to change in 2024.
Listen to the stalk!
Source: https://pequenosclassicosperdidos.com.br/2024/01/02/melenas-ahora-2023/
