Free Music Archive - Estándar Blog

FESTIVAL NRMAL, ESCENARIO NEGRO ¿No que no?

2013-02-27T21:01:00-05:00

Festival Nrmal 2013: Sonic Harshness Welcome

2013-03-04T18:59:35-05:00

In 2012 Festival Nrmal tried to diversify its pop outfit by including bands such as Liturgy or Los Monjo. This year they've made it clear that you cannot speak widely about the Mexican independent music scene without bringing in the most agressive of genres. This year's lineup includes metal, punk, hardcore, noise and other sounds that appeal to lovers of sonic brutality in its past and present forms.

With respresentants of harshness such as Brujería and Mortuary, Festival Nrmal is taking a new stab at the ancient art of concealing the beautiful with the grotesque. This is the black stage, and is in the total absence of color that anything can happen.

Murcielago: midsts of yearnings

2012-04-18T09:42:25-04:00

"Old weed & whiskey driven compositions in midsts of yearnings about
language/location decontextualization.
Nostalgic and pretentious about provoking thoughts on performance & the origins of improvisation.

Personifications of boozed-up, timeless 'rock'n'roll' subconscious evacuations portraited by a search for an authentic sound. The sounds of a Mexican illusion about the dream of getting better".

Murcielago are Fabriccio De la Mora y Marsilio M. Kunst, from Guadalajara, México.

Hawaii en Marte: Delirio sin esperanza EP

2012-01-12T12:27:33-05:00

It happened in just one weekend. Three musicians, three crazy musicians, got isolated in a studio in Guadalajara –the legendary 9Corners. For hours they just jammed and recorded. Two guitars and an arsenal of electronic noisy junk. One sunday night, as they had nothing else to record, Delirio sin esperanza (Hopeless delirium), was born.

Who are they? You may ask, and you won't be surprised finding out: Arturo Ortega (aka Piscis, aka .RR, head of the AMP Recs netlabel) in electronics, Lalo Padilla (once a guitar wizard by the name of Molloy & his Bike, director of the extinct Dog Eared Recors netlabel, founding member of Umor Rex, and still an aloof poet and videogame adict) and Andrés Orozco, another great guitarist now playing fulltime with Sutra, his band for more than a decade.

This tracks got lost in time. They were recorded some years back (maybe 2007?) and now they came to you from a lost dimention. They still feel fresh, great music never gets dusty. Here are for you to wear them out play after play until you get lost in space and, maybe, just maybe, wake up in Mars, with your own personal paradise. And, just as the name of the EP dictates, this music was born as a delirium with no hopes of ever geting played live or, even, get its three creators together as Hawaii en Marte again.

More about the musicians of Hawaii en Marte:

Arturo Ortega http://rr.amp-recs.com/
Molloy and his bike http://www.myspace.com/pingpongpavel
Andrés Orozco http://www.facebook.com/Sutramx

THIS IS NOT A YEAR END LIST: Estándar Compilado 003

2012-01-04T15:10:52-05:00

There are no magic tricks behind this one: just great musical endeavors that made 2011 a hell of a great year plus another set to give your fuzzy 2012 a good shake so.... DO NOT GET CONFUSED: THIS IS NOT A YEAR END LIST.

Actually, this is more like our bets for the future. We don’t see beyound our eyes and definitely we did not consult any type of swami or spiritual guide. Why are we so sure? Just listen...

A drop of all the good stuff you need to get through every year emotion that’s to come: euphoria, tenderness, pure anger, temperance, sunshiny happiness, careless joy and yes if you want your immutable musical tags: punk, pop, synth-pop, minimal electronic, hard rock, psych, folk and what not, the posibilities turn in to thousands when you decide to keep an open radar and... to share and cooparate. You know, that sweet old epiphany: Do It Yourself. Thats how this bands get through.

"Siempre-en-mi-mente" is inspired by one of the most beloved and popular mexican singers, Juan Gabriel, in a premiere and preview of a promising EP to come by SWAL. The track by Par Ásito 5000 is also one of their first recordings in a new EP they are working on. Lorelle Meets the Obsolete hand us a recording of "This Plain City" at one of the concerts that marked their 2011 at MUAC in México City, recorded by Yo Garage! The rest of the songs have been published on the bands' websites such as Bandcamp or Soundcloud.

So, then again, listen carfully: this is your future in a mixtape. And, proudly, ALL MADE IN MEXICO.

San Pedro el Cortez - El Vals Mefisto

2011-09-25T14:18:27-04:00

San Pedro el Cortez is a new band emerging from the raw sounds of Tijuana, formed by guitar, bass, drums and vocals creating a crude desperate atmosphere, we recently had the chance to see the powerful and literally incendiary live performance in their nest city. They describe themselves like this:

“Simultaneously giving harmony and pronounced movements with influences from blues, punk rock, garage and psych rock with rhythmic landscapes. Coming from the absurd, chaotic and dirty things of the daily life that creates a state of mental sickness that influence the sound we transmit. Raucous noisy primitive sounds is what you gonna get when you listen to San Pedro's Magical Pandemonium! That encapsulates the trashiness of the 60s garage psych and punk from Los Saicos to The Spits”

We will follow closely and keep you updated with new from San Pedro el Cortez and other bands from Tijuana like Santos Balcones Durango that are not to be missed.

'Gasoline' & 'Meaningmore' by Mentira Mentira

2011-09-04T14:59:08-04:00

Mentira Mentira is a Mexican band from Monterrey. Formed in 2009, they’re known for their “never know whats going to happen” live shows, described as “the most intense performances the city of Mountains has ever seen…” (Nene Records fanzine, 2010). Mentira’s frontman and only member Gaby (born in ‘88 in the border city of Tijuana) has been called “a true force of nature” and a “Rock Music Showman” (Club Fonograma, 2010, 2011). They currently operate from Mexico City.

MM has played all across Mexico in most of the landmark D.I.Y. venues across the country, in cities such as Guadalajara, Monterrey, Mexico City, Tijuana,(where the crowd actually punched and bottled Gaby after a long rant about how he was glad to leave his hometown), even in Saltillo. In the summers of 2010 and 2011 Mentira also rocked U.S. audiences, playing in front of drug fueled kids in cities such as Boston, New York, San Diego, L.A…. and all of this without a record online!

Finally, in late June 2011, after almost two years of failed recording sessions, Mentira Mentira released two debut albums, which can be downloaded at the bands website (mentiramentira.com). "GASOLINE" was released by Mexico City’s only vinyl label Vale Vergas Discos (Tron, Juan Ciderol) and "MEANINGMORE" by Monterrey’s now legendary Nene Records netlabel (Bam Bam, Ratas del Vaticano). To support these records, Mentira released videos for both “Turnaway” (directed by Jaime Martinez – Neet Records) and “Time Time”, a montage of Charles Manson’s clips put together by Gaby himself. Both videos can be seen after the jump or at the band's website.

Gasoline published this summer by http://valevergasdiscos.com

Meaningmore published this summer by http://www.nenerecords.net/

SLZR - DEMON LAIN EP

2012-10-13T21:28:07-04:00

In a new phase in our collaboration with the Free Music Archive we are going to be presenting Mexican bands, but not only through compilations like we did until now (001, 002), we are constantly going to upload home and live recordings, samples of records previously released on Mexican labels, and un published tracks, so stay tuned on new content from Estándar. Visit us on www.estandar.org

To start we present this Guadalajara based band.

SLZR.

One of the rock solid bands to emerge in 2010 in Guadalajara, SLZR, just released this mini proof of the power of its first phase. Even though the attitude is the one of a power trio –León Barragán, Sinclair Castro & Eduardo Martínez-, in the live dynamic they manage to make loud noise from more than three instruments and some digital manipulation in real time here and there. All of this derivates in a thick rock sound that gets its forces from undulations, rhythms and riffs that evokes sounds from motorik and drum & bass to dub and space rock in the service of loud volume. In recent date, the band has continued its activity with guest musicians so lets be aware of new sound directions. But for now, here you have Demon Lain.

Demon Lain was published in April of 2011 on http://indiangoldrecords.blogspot.com/

APLASTADOS POR LA FE TOUR 2011

2011-07-27T17:17:40-04:00

This concert was held on July 15 of 2011 on La Casa Suspendida in Guadalajara México, this was made possible by V.I.C.I.O, LABORATORIO SENSORIAL, WARE & ESTÁNDAR. Special thanks to Cristian Franco who was the main producer and all the bands that played this night.

From mexican corridos to acid punk to psycodelic cumbia an evening full of surprises, mosh pits and lots of dancing.

These are just a few selected tracks and are not presented in the real order they were played. We hope you enjoy it.

COMPILADO 002

2012-10-13T21:28:07-04:00

From a mystical and moody begining to a coma like ending, the journey of these eleven songs comes through a very strange but steady quest. Here we discover the sound of obscure and intimate exploration of otherworldliness coming from Mexico, an equally diverse and strange country.

More than a compilation, Compilado 002 is a collection of rarities dashed out from memory and urban mythology (kind of like the picture from the cover art) of music made in the last lustrum or so. From jams conceived for one-night-only (that, luckily, were recorded) to musical projects that sprawl in a bedroom lost in a tiny city somewhere, we are guided to a night roadtrip with no maps and a few lights; sometimes we see a ghost, sometimes we spot a wild animal; sometimes we can’t explain what we see. This is a slow burner, and be aware of the depths you might reach from hearing this from beginning to end with no stops or pauses: you might find yourself turning into a nahual, into a machine, into a tiny particle of energy, into a werewolf or just into yourself but darker. This music finds its way back into your ears. That cannot be a coincidence. A spell, maybe.

The following tracks were previuosly published on mexican independent labels.
*Monstruos del Dolor (Extos de la mañana - Isotonic Records, 2011)
*Estructura II (Mandorla 2009 Estructuras de la Tarde / Bleur - CD 001 )
*The Order Aam Arkestra Mix (Chez noboby - Static Discos 2009)
*Quirk Quark (Umor Rex: Relaunch Compilation)
*Down! Ondeado (Down! - Nene records 2008)

Estándar: Guadalajara Compilado 001

2012-10-13T22:18:06-04:00

Estándar (estandar.org) is an online platform for contemporary culture from Mexico. It's a new project, but from a group of people who have long been active in the underground music community, curating for local events as well as global/online distribution.

COMPILADO 001, the first in a series of samplers from Estándar, shines a light on the vibrant Guadalajara music scene. One of these artists -- the avant plunderphonicollagist .RR (né Arturo Ortega) -- may already be familiar to FMA listeners as a Classwar Karaoke participant whose work has been curated by suRRism-Phonoethics. The rest range from to shimmering pop (Hey Chica!), to dark-wave minimalism (Tzohto y la mente paisajista), to flavored folk (Cyané & Dorotheo) and revolutionary punk (El Sagrado). A shoegaze haze looms large throughout, and that's a good thing; nod along with "Waitin' for the Orange Sunshine".

This mix flows together seamlessly, so I encourage you to listen to all ten tracks as a whole, and keep an eye on what's next from Estándar!