poppedmusic

Los Niños Sin Miedo

Released: 26th August 2016

Words: Gary Lambert

There are certain record labels that not necessarily guarantee your enjoyment of their releases as they span a variety of genre, but always guarantee a level of quality. One such is Heavenly Recordings. A record label run by music lovers that provides music for similar. The latest star in the Heavenly skies is Spanish three-piece The Parrots. Whilst they have been gathered under the all-encompassing field of psych, this debut album has as little to do with knob-twiddling and drone than it has grime or punk pop.

Los Niños Sin Miedo is a twenty five minute blast of early sixties style garage rock. With tracks averaging less than three minutes long, this is not a slow burning record. If you listen and like it, you love it straight away. With such musical brevity there is no room for discussion and uncertainty. From 1-10 and back again, The Parrots do not move far from the formula of rough guitars, incomprehensible lyrics (like early Super Furry Animals outings I wasn’t sure if it was in English or not) and a pop structure which would not have The Byrds and The Beach Boys feeling out of place.

Only midway through the album do we see anything hinting at something a bit different with the delightfully, spacey Jame Gumb. But even then it is more indulgent of a song the band favour rather a hint at the legacy from this debut. But The Parrots have their world at their feet at this point as their ability to make something so uncomfortable and uncompromising sound so soft and accessible suggests a lifespan of Coronation Street potential. You can fall in love with this sound now and follow this band until you decide you’re too old for gigs – and then still come out for one last hurrah every couple of years for the new album.

The only criticism of this album is that at times, it feels that the band are desperate to stick to the formula of play fast and don’t last. There are moments in every song on the album which you could imagine any other band would take an a bit of a journey to build up suspense and tension. Instead it is breathless and even takes it out of you as a listener. Opening track Too High To Die comes in at fewer than 120 seconds long, yet even after double figured listening I’m still not prepared for the song to finish even if it does not quite end with an abrupt emergency stop like another debut opener it reminds me of, the sublime fury of White Riot.

For me, this album is going to be up there when it comes to December and the flurry of Best Albums of 2016 lists. It is powerful, interesting and pulsates with enjoyment at every turn. If this is the kind of music that you go for you need to grasp it immediately. And it is great to see a band taking inspiration from MC5 rather than Jackson Five when it comes to the latest releases.

Listen to Los Niños Sin Miedo  here: