MIGALA  » Restos de un incendio
guitar pop | Acuarela | NOIS1024
€13,50

On the cover of Migala's previous recording the band's name appeared in parenthesis and the title was in quotation marks. I can't think of a better way of describing the Madrid-based septet's situation in those days. They'd reached a high-point in their career and were on there way - after an intense and demanding recording period, especially on the emotional level- to putting a parenthesis in it. The songs had suffered a combustion that had left Migala with singed eyebrows and the smell of something burnt. "Arde" meant "it's burning" in every sense, or at least they wanted their most alert audience to have that sensation.
After the release of "Arde" (2002) - their third album after "Diciembre 3 a.m." (97) and "Así duele un verano" (99)-, and especially after the tour that occupied the band during the first months of 2001, including performances in Amsterdam, Oporto, Brussels, Bordeaux, Lyon and Paris, Migala where at a crossroad. Their live sound had grown in tension, decibels and emotion. Nacho Vegas (previously a member of Manta Ray and who as a solo artist has released "Actos Inexplicables", one of this years best albums) had definitely joined the band, and the effect of it had been the consolidation of a style that has always tried to live up to the maxim "creating classic songs with an uncanny atmosphere".
The new elements in this album are the remains of the fire, the marks left by time and agitation. Songs that were written and recorded between 1997 and 2000 and that were released with similar names on any of Migala's three LPs have now been recorded in a spirit best fitting their present state. The ten compositions are something that they'd once thought were finished. But here they appear changed by a fire that, though it hasn't succeeded in consuming them, has managed to erased the most superficial layers of paint. Those performing these songs seem to wrestle with something well known, yet seem to be discovering it all over again.
This record contains what was left when the fire, fed by the recording of "Arde" and livened by the months of touring, finally died out. The ashes are still glowing, symbolizing the end of an age and, perhaps, the beginning of something new.