Jungle Indie Rock
SPECIAL REVIEW by Muñeco (Band, Barcelona)
MUÑECO are a experimental, krautrock band from Barcelona. The band attended Japanther's gig in Barcelona and they are writting this review for Jungle Indie Rock, a collaboration that seams very interesting. A band reviewing another band's performance. We want to thanks Muñeco for this review and invite you to know their music here
Five minutes before you can then read JAPHANTER at the neon sign of the venue, the Apolo of Barcelona. Dj Coco is inside at the plates spicing up with some kind of…rap? It seems he wants to ignore what will happen next, or maybe not, I don’t know.
Matt Reilly, bass/vocals, appears on the scene with a completely arrhythmic and clumsy dance. He just drop the bass, this is promising! Then here comes Ian Vanek, drums/vocals, dressed like The Wonders and with a sound effect as “Video killed the radio star" by The Buggles.
Musically talking we find two voices sounding in unison, cheerfully melodic and well worked, an old school garage bass and far drums keeping the rhythm. All is being padded by a sampler that appears throughout the show bringing a nice atmosphere, accompanying the melodies and reinforcing the drums.
JAPHANTER shape a certain kind of "artificial melodic garage", in a well planned show that we can’t really typify as the same garage/punk of nowadays, as this would be unfair for the genre.
The bass tends to fall on the second string of the third fret, but this is already the idea. “…As The Ramones”, says my buddy, and he's right. If we dissect the artifices of this New York duo’s music, we find that roots, and this is something that we confirm when they splice together one of their tracks with the famous "hey ho, let's go". They said it all.
First "pogos" comes at the half of the show, but as a shy pushing, just for fun, more than teens relieving their sexual frustrations. That sounds can’t really hurt you, perhaps because the external monitors are below what this kind of band needs, and you can tell this. They need more volume, an easy resource which failure produces a flat performance.
In conclusion, the show is very funny. Vocal melodies and the sampler make it elegant, I would add. People in their 18 to their 30’s are having fun and they will have even more fun later, with the music from the Apolo club, so they will have a great night.
