Thursday 7 November 2013

Review: The Limiñanas – Costa Blanca


The Limiñanas – Costa Blanca (Trouble In Mind)
Lio Limiñana’s breathy, Gitane scorched voice-over and the sitar on ”Je Me Souviens Comme Si J'y Étais” instantly recalls the cool of Serge Gainsbourg, and serves as a guide to the remainder of The Limiñanas’ third album, “Costa Blanca”. The band - based around the duo of Lio and Mari Limiñana - has been making music since 2009, and they’ve plundered the past to inform their bohemian and psychedelic character – and hauntological references prevail.

The atonal drones of The Velvet Underground and the knowing easy, lounge exotica of Stereolab, as well as Gainsbourg, are easy cites, and further gems are derived from the cream of ‘60s French and Italian film soundtracks, avant-garde and alternative music history.

In a nouvelle chanson style they switch between French and English vocals. The playing is loose, lethargic and fragile, which only adds to their DIY nonchalant cool - no more so than on “La Mélancoli”. Sitars and ethnic strings are plentiful and invite comparisons to the ethno-folksters, Kaleidoscope.

A few tracks of note are: “Alicante” - a nugget-stained garage stomp with freaked out interlude, “Votre Coté Yéyé M'emmerde” which holds its vox-organ-led nerve like Wooden Shijps or Spacemen3. “Rosa” swaggers with Stone Roses bagginess, “My Black Sabbath” throws in a touch of film noir thrill and you can sing “Jesus Christ Superstar” along to “BB”!

I enjoyed this and if you have similar Francophile, ‘60s driven tastes then you probably will, too.
Willsk

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