Elefant Records of Madrid have long been purveyors of fine indie-pop, one of a sadly dying breed of labels that still holds dear to its heart the notion of independence, bespoke vinyl releases and a love of music over commerce. As well as releasing great albums by the likes of Helen Love, Juniper Moon, The School, and the recently reformed Primitives, the label are also responsible for putting out desirable slices of 7" vinyl. Maybe not so good for the environment we're told, but when they're lovely coloured vinyl they sure as hell look nice rotating on your Dansette!
With that in mind let's cast our eyes and ears over the label's latest three 7" EPs. Click over the jump to read about singles by YouDoMeToo, Wild Balbina and El Palacio De Linares. There's also videos from all three bands so go on, hit the jump!
YouDoMeToo - Heart Skips A Beat (Numbered & limited clear vinyl)
The days of forming a band by putting up a hand written flyer in your local music shop may not quite be over, but these days an equally viable alternative is to hook up via social networking sites. So it is for Brazilian duo YouDoMeToo. Nat De Abreu and Luna May's shared creative pursuits over the internet resulted in them finally meeting and forming YouDoMeToo. Their debut EP contains four tracks of twee, colourful, lo-fi yet day-glo indie-pop. Made on homemade instruments and cheap casios, with a unique other-wordly charm, you could call their music car-boot-tronica. Check out the video below for Heart Skips A Beat and you'll see what I mean.
Wild Balbina - Eat Tacos (Numbered & limited blue vinyl)
Wild Balbina hail from Vigo in Spain, they make simple yet affecting catchy guitar pop-punk somewhere between the C86 shambling sound and Riot Grrrl, with an undercurrent of '60s girl group spookiness. They sound like The Ronettes would have done if Phil Spector had been more into garage rock than building his wall of sound. Factor in some English-as-a-foreign language charm with the good advice of lead track 'Eat Tacos' and you'll get some idea of how they sound. Better still check out the video for 'Spit Your Love' below.
El Palacio De Linares - Himalaya (Numbered & limited red vinyl)
Unlike Wild Babino's EP, El Palacio De Linares' four song 7" is the only one of the latest Elefant singles to feature vocals in the band's native Spanish. Musically it's an energetic take on mid '80s indie guitar bands. Three and four chord songs that straddle the line between happy and sad, at times underpinned with some super organ work. The press release mentions The Go Betweens and that's not far off the mark. My Spanish is non-existent so I couldn't begin to tell you what any of the songs are about. Of the three EPs this is my own personal favourite. Check out the video for the lead track below.
All these singles and more are available from the Elefant Records website.
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