Walle - ¿Qué obo? Darcowboy [2013]

Walle is an inspiring, baffling and emotional combination of various sounds both foreign and familiar that come together in impressive harmony, pulling from a plethora of musical stylings to realize a complex musical representation of the disorder, depression, banality, joy, spontaneity and absurdity of everyday life. Their ability to combine angular riffs, mathy rhythms and dischordant progressions with catchy lines, heavy jams and uplifting crescendos is not something I've heard much of before Walle.

One time when I was under the influence of something I said Walle is like running through a thick forest downhill, winding your way through the various life forms that all speak to you in different tongues as you pass until upon reaching the bottom you collapse and melt into the soil and become reincarnated as a mountain peak. Maybe its just the DL4, weird wailing vocals and explosive drumming but sometimes it just feels like the soundtrack to a hypnotic curse.

Somehow Walle has passed under everyone's noses for years and much of the world remains ignorant to their very progressive and surprisingly relatable soundscapes. They have toured parts of the US and Mexico a few times (they just finished a 4-week US tour) and last year headed down to South America to play in Perú, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.

I imagine they'll continue to grow faster as they gain popularity, but perhaps their approach is far too free from typical rock structure and doesn't fit tidily into a certain genre or scene for folks that aren't already looking for this kind of music to begin with.

Anyway, ¿Qué obo? Darcowboy is their first LP and though it was released digitally in 2013, the official vinyl release didn't become available until some months ago, so now's your chance to pick up a record!

To buy the vinyl in the US, contact Dream Diver (website) or Ethospine Noise.
To buy the vinyl in México, contact Walle (facebook).


I realize I should have posted about them before their US tour so folks would go see them, so I'm sorry for that but I'm sure they'll be back soon. They play in SoCal from time to time or if you live nearby you can always hop into Tijuana for an evening when they play there.

Here's a cool review from the dudes in Zeta (from Venezuela/Colombia), who shared a number of tour dates with them in the US just a few weeks ago: Una de las más interesantes propuestas que tiene américa latina

Genres: old Screamo, Math Rock, Bolero, Punk, Post Rock, Classical, Shoegaze 

Walle - ¿Qué obo? Darcowboy [2013]

1.México 2 - Brasil 1

2. Yo Soy la causa

3. Ya no late, ya no oscila

4. Olvídalo, así comienza todo

5. ¿Qué obo? Darcowboy

6. Noise it up!

Temporada de tormentas - Del ruido y el espacio [2014]

Wow, so according to my music library I've been listening to this band since September but I definitely only rediscovered them until a few days ago. As I was cleaning out space on my ipod for new music I came across them and gave their most recent album a listen. I was unimpressed at first, the opening of the second song mostly just sounds like just another post-rocky emo band and I was just waiting for some trite screaming or at least some strained passionate yells. I was pleasantly surprised though when the vocals came through a bit more indie/pop or something of that nature (have you figured out yet that I'm not very genre-literate?). The vocals kinda push the music into a genre I haven't been exposed to much in Latin America, so hopefully by following these folks I can find some similar material. I wish I had gotten to see this band while I was living in Buenos Aires, but it just wasn't the scene I was most in touch with. They're from Haedo, which is a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Okay, so maybe their music isn't totally bizarre or fascinating or makes you ask a hundred questions (for that, see Insumisión), but their stuff is beautifully crafted, really nicely performed and well recorded, which quite frankly pushes them above most of the Argentinian bands I found during my short stay. My favorite is "El heroe de la plaza." Check out their work on their bandcamp (linked below) and a really nice video of them playing two songs off this record that I can't embed.

Genres: Rock, Indie, Punk, Post Rock

Temporada de tormentas - Del ruido y el espacio [2014]

1. Dolores Prats

2. Aterrizaje

3. Base secreta en moron sur

4. El heroe de la plaza

Walle - Vómito de Notas [2010]

I don't know why it took me so long to make a post on Walle. Maybe because Walle was the first Mexican band I ever really got into, and since then they have just been ubiquitous in my headspace and I go wrongfully assuming everybody knows about them. This is basically the worst logic ever because Walle is probably the most underrated band I've heard or seen in my life, and if there's any band that seriously needs to be paid attention to it's this one. These folks are from Tijuana, México.

In terms of bands seeking to push genres into something much more unusual or unheard previously, Walle is at the forefront. They have strong roots in punk and emo (members of Maladie, Satie and Growing Pains - all bands I will eventually post on and that you should check out), but with this project head much more into the math, shoegaze and 'experimental' realms. They have a really attractive interest in creating catchy riffs and then tearing them apart or ending them abruptly, or entering an environment that I might call psychedelic but is perhaps even more accurate to the strange emptiness and alien feeling one might experience while on drugs than the more commonly known music under the same name (the best part about this is they're straight edge).

If there's anything Walle captures really well it's the feelings of joy, humor and gratefulness that somehow sprout from an underlying pervasive sense of anxiety, loneliness and desperation. Vómito de Notas is like a giant mood swing, or a metaphor for an existential crisis. It's the moment when you realized everything sucks but life is still sick because we have each other. I recommend you listen to Mexico 2 - Francia 0.

One of the funny things of the album they like to quote other people and works, which actually works out quite well. I never thought dialogue from Tarkovsky's Stalker or quotations from the bible would sound so good next to experimental punk. Ok, maybe I did. Bukowski is basically ubiquitous if you like anything emo-related. The point is, delve into the lyrics on their bandcamp (if you read spanish), you won't be disappointed.

Genres: Punk, Math Rock, Experimental, Post Rock, Shoegaze

Walle - Vómito de Notas [2010]

1. Apocalipsis 6 - 15 (pm)

2. Tortis

3. México 2 - Francia 0

4. Utopía

5. Mientras Más Conozco A La Gente Más Quiero A Mi Perro

6. Stalker

7. The Worst And The Best

LÖRI - Split 12" w/ Yusuke [2014]

LÖRI was one of the first Latin American bands from Perú I found, as they form part of La Flor Records in Lima (two members also play in Procrastinación Uno Yo Cero, see older post). At the time they were known as Löri Berensön. I was particularly ecstatic about this album when I found it, and had Sajid Ñopo from La Flor send me a copy to the US all the way from Perú. Okay, I suppose it's not that far, but it was a momentous occasion for DIY for La Flor and I was pretty stoked to get a CD from Peru (living in Buenos Aires these days makes acquiring South American music a little easier, so looking back on it feels kinda silly, but it had a romance to it so just go with it). With this album he also threw in Caídas y Vueltas from P1Y0 and the Angkor Wat/Día Gris split on a scratched up mini CD (to this day I haven't gotten a chance to try and play it, but I suppose it doesn't really matter since I have the songs on the compy). I'll do a post on Angkor Wat soon, they rule.

Anyway, LÖRI is a fierce band that was a bit more emo-violence on the first releases and are now have a lot of post-rock elements. The band shrieks and growls and plays some heavily distorted stripped-down riffs that feel punk as frick. Whether they're conscious of it or not, the band definitely takes some root in hardcore punk, from the abrasive shout/scream distorted vocals to the heavy walking drumbeat. Maybe it's just a hardcore punk band that has tastes that lean towards emo? Maybe I've classified this band all wrong, but either way it's pretty slick and contains that serious abrasion and disgust that I sense in a lot of aggressive Peruvian bands. Check out their other stuff on their bandcamp, as their old stuff is super rad and is a bit rougher around the edges.

So, here's the important part: YOU CAN ORDER THIS RECORD RIGHT NOW. Friendly Otter (Chicago) has it up for pre-order HERE, so get your hands on it while you can because Latin American screamo on vinyl is pretty rare and v exciting. It will also be available from Zegema Beach (Canada), La Agonía de Vivir (Spain) and Off Cloud Nine (Michigan).

Edit: Now available at Zegema Beach HERE

Genres: Screamo, Emo-violence, Hardcore Punk, Post Rock

(this is from an older album, listen to the split below)

LÖRI - Split 12" w/ Yusuke [2014]

1. La Taza Medio Llena

2. Cada vez que te levantes a las 6 AM

3. Coherencia

You can listen to the Yusuke side here!

Paroxetina - Paroxetina [2011]

Paroxetina is an instrumental rock band from Santiago, Chile. They have a lot of elements of math, progressive and post-rock, but above all else they just jam heavy. The riffs are solid, the tones are nice, put it on and get some work done. It just sort of fluidly soars around without ever stopping to take a break. Heavy rock 'n' roll riff after riff. Lots of sound bytes from movies or shows or I don't know what. There's a bunch of neat stuff like this in Chile, so I'll be posting some similar bands later.

Genres: Instrumental Rock, Post Rock, Jam

Paroxetina - Paroxetina [2011]

1. Guardando las apariencias

2. Celebrando la muerte de dioses blancos

3. Cruzando el limite de la perversidad

4. Pon el lugar

5. Cuando te extraño me visto con tus ropas

6. (-.-. .- -... .-.. . ..)

7. La gloriosa marcha de las bicicletas al horizonte

8. Siempre leo mal las instrucciones

9. No hay suficientes piedras para arrojarle al destino y morir siendo unos niños

Fractal - Demo/EP [2013]

Fractal forms part of the strong scene in Tijuana, México and like many bands in TJ seem to pull from a wide range of genres to put together something that sounds reminiscent of things you've heard before but never in the same song, let alone in the same band. These folks are putting elements of hardcore punk right next to post-rock, and just when you thought you understood where they were going they toss in a ripping guitar solo. They seem to like to let the songs really play out (they're relatively long), which seems to give some sense to their swings from genre to genre, as though each one were a journey through the different emotions one might feel over the course of a week. I really have no clue how I feel about this band, but I do know they're good at their instruments and are worth listening to. As a first listen, I recommend Cuatro Miedos (which I think is the first song that plays on their bandcamp anyways).

Genres: Hardcore Punk, Post Rock, Metal

Fractal - Demo/EP [2013]

1. Polvo

2. Disiento

3. Sin Sangre

4. Cuatro Miedos

5. Julia