A third album is always a
milestone in a band's career. After having successfully achieved the
reputedly "difficult" second album (" Asi duele un verano", 1999), Madrid-based
combo MIGALA has managed to keep the same high level of quality on their
following output. Greeted by unanimous critical acclaim, « Arde » brilliantly
confirms what we already guessed right from the start : MIGALA is here
to stay !
Often compared to such artists
as WILL OLDHAM, LEONARD COHEN or THE TINDERSTICKS, this bunch of self-proclaimed
"non-musicians" blends together these well-assumed influences, adding
to them their personal touch to produce a music which is now definitely
their own : folk-rock ballads with a continental flavour built on a
rustic framework of guitars and accordion, the disgruntled tone and
words of Abel Hernández, not forgetting the band's trademark, those
well-chosen found sounds and samples closely mixed to the music ( a
particularly successful effect here on songs like Times of disaster
or The Guilt ).
Unfortunately, words fail
to properly render the impressionist music of MIGALA. It's much more
a question of sensations. Like when you haven't slept for a long time
and you enter this semi-conscious state : you're numbed with exhaustion,
yet you feel ultra-sensitive at the same time, with all your senses
wide-awake. A paradox among many others from these guys who play quietly
to make themselves heard, go slowly to reach farther places, and reveal
a sweet despair which, in the end, makes you feel better.
If "Asi duele un verano"
was more or less MIGALA's "maritime" album, "Arde", as its title ("On
fire") suggests, deals with combustion : a slow-burning fire that insidiously
reduces everything to ashes. It's not an end though, just a necessary
and radical cleaning before a new start. On these ashes MIGALA have
yet to grow their most beautiful flowers.
We'll wait, confidently.
acuarela@acuareladiscos.com
http://www.acuareladiscos.com
migalanet@yahoo.com
http://www.fast.to/migala