Computer Age

Bandini
The Sunny Album
Junk Records 2007

Decalogue of a great debut

1. Who has Bandini mask? A quartet of rock guitars capable of covering Madrid dirty realism and the stark intimacy. Bandini put the perfect soundtrack for those in complete solitude are devoured by his inner ghosts.

2. The cover of "The Sunny Album" (Junk Records, 2007) is designed by Pepe Hernández (Grupo Salvaje). I do not know if she is pretty or ugly. It is disturbing. This inward-looking blonde girl. Introspection. Something that defines Bandini. The booklet ends with a photo of the smiling girl in question. As the disc. Or almost.

3. Double album. Triple somersault to debut art. It takes great courage to stand before the world with such torrential speech. One thinks of large double disks and will come to mind "The White Album" by the Beatles, "Exile on Main Street" by The Rolling Stones, the "Blonde on Blonde" by Bob Dylan, "Quadrophenia" by The Who, " The River "Bruce Springsteen," London Calling "the Clash," Being There "by Wilco, the first two discs of Tindersticks, the second of Red House Painters ... There is nothing. The fact is that is quite difficult to maintain a qualitative level without swings on a double cd. Bandini graceful exit. They have made a genius of the caliber of the White Album of the "Fab Four", but in her debut cracks are not observed. That is because this band from Madrid has had ample time to watch every single detail, to chisel each arrangement with the loving care of a sculptor forward to transcend the first attempt.

4. What defines Bandini musically? Emotion. The songs written by Ricardo Ruiz are written with heart and guts (as noted Bukowski John Fante's writing, the creator of the literary myth is Arturo Bandini). Within this emotional high voltage rock fit all genres and nuances. This group likes to dig Madrid in the folk rock of a clear American. But they also find room to explore dark terrains (rock at idle, melancholic chamber pop) or directly black (blues, soul and even gospel).

5. Each CD contains two songs-river. These four compositions beyond the seven minutes are the backbone of "The Sunny Album." In the first disc are "Shooting Stars" and "Depression." That is, the assumption that no one wants to ask these shooting stars and falling into depression when your whole world falls apart. This tension is neutralized in the second cd. "Autumn Song" and "Wait Until Spring" claim that there is still the bastion of hope. The icy cold of Norway (where he lived for some time Ricardo Ruiz) is not eternal. Life can lead you along paths of distress or frustration, but there will always be a loophole through which light brew. Just wait for the warm breath of spring. That exception to the rule that is happiness comes and sparks justifies its banality, unmitigated defeat, the painful isolation. On the other hand, it is worth noting that three of the four songs are decorated with string arrangements and all of them grow up to the end of the ended a cathartic climax.

6. The theme of the album ranges from the frustration ("Did You Ever Have A Dream Like Mine?"), Through the heartbreak ("Together"), sex without love ("How Is Your Mind") the chagrin of the "outsider" ("Something Goes Wrong"), the ambivalence of you hate yourself, but at the same time proudly proclaims that he is happy to be like ("Happy To Be Me"), nostalgia obscures those windows that call eyes ("Missing", "The Sheet That Dreams Are Made Of"), the anguish of "loser" ("All The Pain"), dressed in hopes of remorse ("One Day") and the question of living in expected darkness and light to light the dark night of the soul ("Shine"). The route is clear. One barely surviving. Looking for love. He takes refuge in sex. Dying in the desert. Look around you and society oppresses them. Is alienated. Write to empty, to flee, to find meaning. And Bandini ends up finding redemption in the healing power of music.

7. John Fante is the most obvious literary reference, but there are hints throughout "The Sunny Album." If you dig, you find citations to Paul Auster, Emily Bronte, Nietzsche and Kant. Also an explicit homage to seminal Western "The Searchers" (John Ford) in "Missing."

8. The expressiveness of the voice of Ricardo Ruiz is vital. But also arrangements of a group mainly of guitars. The keyboard not only serves as a cushion, but some passages leading towards the vision of beautiful landscapes. And the rhythmic foundation majestically holds all the scaffolding. Just hope that in subsequent deliveries Bandini expand horizons at the time of making the songs.

9. Brainy beyond analysis, what remains is the truth of a handful of songs born to last. Bandini require an effort of the listener. His songs do not come to the first. Although it is true that they have something like a "hit" (the pop song is "Happy To Be Me," his song with more commercial potential). They have the endorsement of any of the subjects tough ("All The Pain") and, above all, they know hit the target when they explode their lyrical (set an example "The Sheet That Dreams Are Made Of", "Autumn song, "One Day" or "Together").

10. And now the thorny issue of influences. First of all it seems difficult to locate somewhere in the national scene. His references are others. Quench your thirst at the waterhole in which other alchemists refreshed the likes of Nick Drake, John Lennon, Elliott Smith, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Mark Eitzel, Mark Kozelek, Stuart Staples, Jeff Tweedy and Nick Cave. But be sure, Bandini is not a revisionist group. They are inspired as those in times of crisis and have the courage to do a "striptease" disarming emotional. They defeat the courage of one who has lost everything, but still struggling.