Los Bonsáis

Martin Pescador

The Spanish duo Los Bonsais don't mess around much on their debut release for Elefant. From the first crash of noise on "Serin," it's plain to see that they are firmly planted on the noise side of the noise pop equation. Taking influence from C-86 groups like Shop Assistants and pre-Creation-era My Bloody Valentine, Helena and Nel coat their sweet indie pop songs in fuzzy, feedbacking guitars, drive the tempos forward relentlessly, and sing like cooing lovebirds. The eight songs all have sharp hooks and no frills. The punchy, super energetically poppy songs come fast and furious, and don't let up until the final track, the calm ballad "Pigazu," which shows another dimension of their sound. Thanks to the production of Ivan and Eva of Linda Guilala, the record is clean and powerful, with the songs always shining through the noise. Many bands have tried this kind of noisy pop -- many, many bands -- and not many of them got off to such a promising start.