While the rest of us are busy parsing Frank Ocean’s latest opus for meaning, in Spain the dial is firmly tuned to garage rock. Or at least, that’s the impression you get from the country’s two recent musical exports, all-female group Hinds, and fellow Madrid-based outfit the Parrots.
While the former muddy their sound with the college rock of Throwing Muses and the Breeders, the Parrots are very much garage rock purists: the only real clue that this, their debut album, was recorded some time in the past 30 years is that one song is titled Windows 98. Otherwise, Los Niños Sin Miedo feels very much in thrall to that period in the mid- to late-60s when the 13th Floor Elevators and the Troggs briefly ruled the airwaves. As a simulacrum it’s skilfully done: the production is agreeably hissy, while Diego Garcia’s vocals are pitched perfectly between jaded slur and Iggy-style howl on tracks such as the thudding James Gumb and sunburnt singalong No me Gustas, te Quiero (I Don’t Like You, I Love You).
The end result is something that feels retrograde and entirely inessential, but enjoyable enough on its own terms.
