Cooper

Fonorama [Special Reissue]

ER25-005LP LP [Sold out] / Digital Album [MP3]

Reissue in vinyl format for the 15th Anniversary of "Fonorama" album taking part of 25th Elefant Records Anniversary collection **It includes two extra songs ("Sara Tiene Un Secreto" and "Canción De Cuna #2") that original edition didn't content

Numbered Limited Edition of 500 copies in LP format [Red Colour Vinyl] **This vinyl includes a free digital MP3 download [320 kbps] **First edition of "Fonorama" in CD Digipak format clicking HER…

"25th ELEFANT RECORDS ANNIVERSARY" COLLECTION [Issue 005 of 025]

In honor of our twenty-fifth anniversary in 2014, we told you that we were going to celebrate it by re-releasing some of our most representative albums from these first 25 years of Elefant Records, as well as offer some exclusive releases. There will be 25 releases, including a documentary about the label, as well as a book. The re-releases of FAMILY’s “Un Soplo En El Corazón” and LA BIEN QUERIDA’s “Romancero” have already come out, and we’ve also released a very special homage to FAMILY’s legendary album. Now three new releases have arrived from this unique collection that, little by little over the next few years, will be completed.

First, that masterpiece, the beginning of a legend. In October, we are releasing LA CASA AZUL’s first album, “El Sonido Efervescente De La Casa Azul”, again. But we’re not just releasing it, we’re pulling out all the stops: on this double vinyl, we are including all the demos and takes that we included in the previous re-release on CD, and on top of that we’re adding six live songs recorded at a party for the radio program “Viaje A Los Sueños Polares” in Madrid’s Aqualung club in May, 2000. That’s 27 songs total for a really juicy re-release that also celebrates the 15th anniversary of the original release of an album that made so many things happen. In November, we are re-releasing “Fonorama”, COOPER’s first full-length album. It is an impeccable collection of songs that showed pretty clearly what line Álex Diez’s post-FLECHAZOS career was going to follow, and which, ultimately, identified a sound that has always been his own. This vinyl re-release will also include two tracks previously unreleased in this format (“Sara Tiene Un Secreto” and “Canción de Cuna #2”), and which were previously available on the CD-Single “Vértigo”, but had never been released on vinyl before. November will also be the month for the re-release of LE MANS’ “Entresemana”, their second album and one of the albums we definitely feel most proud of. This re-release felt necessary: songs like “Perezosa Y Tonta”, “Con Peru En La Playa” and “Mejor Dormir” seem like they were created to feel their notes played by the needle of a record player, like a summer sunbather who lets the sand at the beach caress their back. That is why we thought it was important for this album to be released in this format, and remastered.

And in the coming months we will have re-releases from LA CASA AZUL, NIZA, THE SCHOOL, LOS FLECHAZOS...

COOPER “Fonorama (15th Anniversary Special Reissue)”

To say that Álex Diez is a tremendous songwriter is to state the obvious. He had already proved it with LOS FLECHAZOS and has continued to demonstrate it with every new album he has given us as COOPER. But “Fonorama”, COOPER’s first album, was more than just great songs; it was a near perfectly collection of them, that fit together perfectly with each other. Maybe it was the fresh energy of starting a new project after the break-up of LOS FLECHAZOS, or maybe many of these songs had been locked in a box for ages just waiting to see the light of day, or maybe the new blood in the band (Carlos Torero on drums, Mc Cartney on bass and Mario Álvarez on guitar) was the perfect package to make these songs fly so high. Together, they created the perfect chemical reaction. The thing is, is that 15 years later, “Fonorama” still has the very same energy and freshness, as if it were the first day.

“Un Nudo En La Garganta” kicks things off with a furious guitar and Álex’s eternally young voice to narrate one of those stories of small gestures and intense emotions that characterize him so much. “Tecnicolor” is one of those greatest hits that continues to be included in COOPER’s repertoire more than 15 years later; it is colorful, electric, and has an unforgettable chorus. There is the psychedelia of “Cuando Duerme Junto A Mí” with its delicious chorus; the agile, carefree immediacy of “Buzo”; the power of “Imposible” with those structures and different parts that jump around with an ease that contrasts with the immediacy of a song that is surprising within COOPER’s repertoire. “Vértigo” seems lazier at first, but its descending riff also ends up cradled in our memory, so that “Avenida De Cristal” takes things back up a notch. And if we were afraid of heights, now we are at the edge of “Rascacielos” and we are yelling: “Y resulta que aquí todo es igual / Y es de locos / Y ahora quién me va a ayudar a recoger / Los pedazos de mis sueños rotos” (And it turns out that everything here is the same / And it’s crazy / And now who will help me pick up / The pieces of my broken dreams). “Diciembre” makes way for a velvety riff but with a deeply melancholic melody executed with energy and vitality, which gives it a strange strength as more and more voices join in. Beautiful!. “En el Parque” is another big, colorful hit, ideal, like almost all of COOPER’s songs, to start the day in a great mood. “Es Tarde” is not the last song on the album, since at the end of both sides of the red-color vinyl, there are previously unreleased tracks: “Sara Tiene Un Secreto” and “Canción De Cuna #2”. They are originally from the CD-Single “Vertigo”, and we have them here for the first time in this format.

We can talk about thousands of references when we talk about Álex Diez’s music: mod, sixties, rock ‘n roll... But it doesn’t really make sense anymore, as has earned himself a place as a reference himself for all fans of these sounds, and to have the opportunity to rediscover the songs of this “Fonorama” is nothing less than an indescribable pleasure.