atom rhumba

Three years without releasing a record does not mean three years out of work. These last three years have turned Atom Rhumba into the band they are now. In terms of concerts (with the remixes of “Backbone ritmo” and their live album with Josetxo Anitua) rather than in terms of recording. It's there, in their vibrating, shaking show, where the whole thing acquires supernatural power. If a while ago we defined them as the first 'artie' band from the Spanish peninsula ever to go beyond the 50m2 venue, this time and according to their unstoppable 2004 and 2005 tours, their sold out performances in some important halls, their appearance in the Japanese festival Fuji-Rock where they are treated as stars or their presence in magazines never thought of before, we are entitled to say that the success of the Biscayan sextet is the true reflection of the fact that the mass taste is undoubtedly improving. This statement would be called into question if "Amateur Universes" was not to be consolidated as their definitive work, even more so since their previous album "Backbone Ritmo" was already a successful one.

Apart from the songs, there are some aspects that have been made clear regarding our heroes' fate, being their attachment to their roots the most striking one. They have travelled and dived in different atmospheres which they could have used to climb up, but far from that, they insist in being related to what they consider to be their place: the Gipuzcoan musicians they have always been very close to, their usual collaborators. Their surprising signing for Oihuka Records has something to do with that attachment to their homeland. Their place is the underground, and if a first listening to "Amateur Universes" seems to show that this is their easiest record, the one with the widest register, the subsequent meetings with these new songs reveal the balance between the tolerated and more commercial songs and the new fields that make this record a brave work, yet fitting perfectly into the Rhumba style book.

With their rawest but most powerful sound to date, the rythms (the essence of their musical stamp) are more and more precise and perfect, the voices are more and more extreme (Rober jumps shamelessly from falsetto to baritone), the guitar playing is more them than ever before, the keyboard gets its deserved importance, there are vibraphones, percussion, steel guitar and backing vocals... and a variety of styles with harsh rock'n'roll as the backdrop, from ancient country to the sandinist dub, a couple of warmly restrained gems and their habitual and open tributes to Don Van Vliet and Josetxo Ezponda. Interwoven, the ultimate dancing songs that characterise the band so well would make any American punk-funk look like a beginner.

May you all enjoy and dance endlessly!

Salud and Rhumba

Fernando Gegúndez