By José Gandue @spinning zone

This is a very personal story. Please excuse me. Much of what I will write in this chronicle is a collection of memories between Bogotá and Buenos Aires, in the mid-nineties. I begin this note after seeing that the Argentine group Juana La Loca, led by Rodrigo Martín, continues his tour celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of his first full-length album called Electronaut. The truth is that this album was released at the end of 1993, and at the insistence of a couple of friends, Iván and Felipe, who had their own group called Yuri Gagarin and the Roadrunners, I managed to get a copy of this album. At that time, I was glued to my headphones, listening to a lot of sound recordings. Madchester, The one that spread to the west of England from the late eighties, con notable productions such as the first publication of The Stone Roses, Some Friendly of The Charlatans, and with cassettes a few years older, noisier, and from Scotland, like Psychocandy, of The Jesus and Mary Chain. Everything we knew about that kind of music came from what we listened to in Barbie, the bar in the north of the city owned by Héctor Buitrago, from Aterciopelados, and from what each of us saw in the magazines (physical, nothing virtual) that came our way and forced us to learn more English than expected, like Raygun, Spin and NME (By the way, Rolling Stone was too "American" for our tastes.) We were nerdy, too much so. nerds In terms of sound, we detested many things that were happening in the Bogota rock scene, which, in general, It was too formal, too purist and conservative. But was it possible for someone on this side of the pond to sustain projects similar to that English movement without dying in the attempt?

To our delight, the first to arrive Holy Colors, of Cerati-Melero, And then came Dynamo, of Soda Stereo. In 1992, we already gave those tapes a hard time, but that was Cerati, that was Soda Stereo., It was a different league; they had everything they needed to do whatever they wanted, and we thought that couldn't be achieved here., And even less so in an environment where radio stations detested local musicians, and especially those who wanted to be different and dressed up as oddballs. Of course, Record labels didn't even go near that place; it was like giving meringue to a donkey. Hope was far away, But I think things changed when we heard Electronaut. The pleasure found was closer; there could be a point of reference more closely aligned with our interests. In 1996, curiosity, boredom, and confusion with everything I was experiencing in Bogotá..., They made me go back to school at the age of 31, and get into TMA La Escuelita, at Gascón and Corrientes, right in the heart of Buenos Aires, to study audio recording techniques. And one of the albums that made me decide all this, along with Trance Zomba, of the Babasónicos, was Electronaut. 

By a happy coincidence, two days after my arrival I met the friend of the person who was receiving me, who turned out to be the wife of one of the members of the classic band Virus. She, who drove me to school that afternoon, wanted to know why I was in Argentina. I told her a little about my story, and then she asked me what I knew about the music of the moment., And when I mentioned Juana La Loca, she told me that she knew the drummer and that she could introduce me to him. Aitor Graña, who also played with Virus, then called me and invited me for some beers to find out what this lost Bogota character was doing in those parts, and then we talked for many hours about everything. During the following week I met the others, including Rodrigo Martín. 

They were promoting their second album at that time, Revolution, and foolishly, after much beer and other spiritual drinks, I agreed to act as sound engineer, without having the slightest idea about the trade. I had barely taken a few classes and, out of stubbornness, I sat down behind a console And between feedback and sweat, I completed that job four or five times., But after a horrible show in Mar del Plata, where I couldn't do anything right, I was justifiably fired from my position, and, because of that, I continued to get drunk without guilt during the rest of their concerts. Rodrigo and I invented several destructive cocktails, those we call, if I remember correctly, Flaming Nikki Lauda and the Valencia train. These were combinations that, I'm sure, erased several parts of my memory through intoxication.

I spent a year in Buenos Aires. After all that time and meeting incredible people through them, including Daniel Melero himself, his first producer, the one who directed the recording of Electronaut, I lost contact, and I was only able to regain it with Aitor and Gastón (the bassist at the time) because of the Facebook boom or something like that. I never spoke to Rodrigo again. One day, with the people from the District Institute of Culture and Tourism, We tried to contact him to come with his band to play at an alternative rock concert at the Media Torta Auditorium, where my friends from Yuri Gagarin were also going to perform. We sent emails, and even managed to call, but no one answered. Later I found out about Rodrigo's conflicts with the rest of the band, and the number of musicians who passed through there, enduring its peculiar lifestyle. On a trip back to Argentina, I wanted to go see him at a performance in Olivos and surprise him, but, as fate would have it, I ended up fifty kilometers from there, Watching one of my current favorite groups, Norma, in their hometown, La Plata.

Almost a thousand words already, and I haven't even talked about Electronaut as an album in itself. Sorry. But oh well, cLet's start with the obvious: The album consists of eleven incredibly noisy songs. But be warned, this wasn't the guitar virtuosity I've always avoided, Here, distortion walls are used with the ultimate goal of enveloping the audience in a particular psychedelic environment. Someone said of Psychocandy (Remember? The Jesus and Mary Chain) which was «a chainsaw in the middle of a hurricane.". Perhaps we could use this phrase to talk about Electronaut. This is an elegant pop album invaded by sharp feedback that contrasts with Rodrigo's exquisite vocal melodies. It is a deafening, astonishing audacity that tries to disguise its fervor with an innocent smile. The texts speak of love in many forms, both with ardent tenderness and by poetically resorting to crudeness. There is carnal desire and there is also illusion. And there's even a fascinating degree of irony, as can be seen in a tune like Cupid, which is an impeccable anthem about oral sex, one of the best moments of the compilation. Also noteworthy are A The Puerta del Sol, The most tender thing today, and the most popular one on this plate, Self-execution. Here are 40 minutes of music that, after three decades, It's still something to enjoy.

Anyway, I'm happy to see that Rodrigo Martín is still on the road, looking better than usual., showcasing the best of their talent on stage before their renewed audience, who still believes in the power of shoegaze (better known since that time as "sonic pop") and the redemption of past glories. That gives me a sincere reason to celebrate.