Labels: self released
Review by: MH
My previous acquaintance with Malaga’s Altraüma was when they sent in their excellent split with Shonen Bat a couple of years ago. Their side of that split was three tracks of punked-up emo that was a nice contrast to the more intricate guitar sound of Shonen Bat (I’ve just noticed there was a subsequent split with Pura Vida that I should probably check out too – Andy reviewed it on here so I could’ve paid more attention). There are bits of this new LP that sound more like Shonen Bat this time around – the guitar sound on the opener as well as the start of “Todos necesitamos algo de desierto” but Altraüma remain a noisier bunch. It’s also a touch more abrasive than before too – particularly vocally. There’s a couple of them yelling on most of the tracks here and it’s an energetic set of songs with a sound that is steeped in the 90s. “Nadie tiene por qué morir en el Norte” is desperate and mixed in with a spoken sample from 90s film, “Frankenhooker” – this one has me thinking of that Yage track with the sample from “About Schmidt”. I’m glad bands like this still find their way to this website.