Melenas

Melenas announce new album, Ahora (translated as “Now”), set to be released on 29th September 2023 by Trouble in Mind. Pulling the trigger is “Bang“, a powerful declaration of will wrapped in oscillating synthesizers at a motorik beat: “el tiempo es nuestro” (“time is ours”).

Ahora is the exact opposite of “that difficult third album”. While other bands might be suffering from a lack of inspiration typical of that delicate creative moment, our Spanish quartet reappears more invincible than ever, reassembled with a collection of dazzling songs, and revitalised with a splendid new palette of sounds that raises the following question: can you make jangle pop and garage rock with synthesizers? Listening to songs like ‘K2‘ or ‘Bang’ the answer is a resounding yes, because the glorious throb of the analogue keyboards that dominate Ahora does not betray Melenas’ sound, that bubbling vibration that the guitars provided until now, propelling their songs to the pop heaven.

The new textures that vintage synths like the Korg Delta or the Yamaha PSR-36 provide maintain that immediacy, and also imprint fascinating new shades of colour by stretching the band’s sonic identity, transforming it with new nuances, from the crystalline pop of ‘1986’ to the somber but moving undertones of ‘Flor de la Frontera’.