Guest post by Sneaker - BAKALAO TRAX
Dresden’s Sneaker is back on 33RPM +8%. He’s releasing a new EP today which is full of ghetto and acid inspired bangers, check it out here and don’t sleep on it!
We actually met last Spring through this website and a terrific post he made to promote a La Fête Triste party where he was playing. I’ve had the pleasure of playing many of his edits this summer as well as playing with him in Berlin for a daytime B2B that was one of my favorite sets so far this year. And now I’m hooked on his own productions, the Holistical EP on Lunatic is pure fire and the one he is releasing today is great too, I predict neither record will leave my bag for a long time.
It quickly became apparent that we share a taste for many dance music genres, from the usual house / techno shenanigans to things that are closer to EBM, industrial and wave. It seems we are both interested in the styles and scenes that grew on the margins and that are somewhat ignored by the usual narratives of dance music history. Even if a style isn’t very fashionable anymore, there are still things to be learned and inspiration to be gained by revisiting it.
Which is why I asked him to share some of his favorite tracks from the Bakalao scene with us, considering I’d heard of it for years but never really understood what it was about, beyond Chimo Bayo and a few others.
I first learned about this scene through a number of compilations. It was rooted in Valencia, Spain and it seems it really grew in the mid-80s where local DJs re-appropriated EBM, industrial and new wave. While the Spanish Wikipedia page is somewhat informative, I wanted to figure out what are the good records from this scene...and it’s now possible thanks to Sneaker’s selection.
I am neither a pro or particular fan of the genre nor a witness of the time and place. Nevertheless the phenomenon is largely overseen compared to the huge recent Italo and New Beat hype.
It is said that it appeared in Valencia in 1985 first as a phrase coined by the DJs in the record shops. In the same city, there was an infamous road called the “Ruta Destroy” filled with clubs where dancers would go to “get destroyed”.
Besides New Beat, the British Summer of Love and Aggrepo, it was one of the European micro scenes of the late 80s long before the weekend club tourism of our easy jetset.
I might do a follow-up list of the Frankfurt-born Aggrepo scene.
No preference or order here (I simply love ALL 'good' music):
1. Boa Club - El Santo Grial - 1990
To me that would be the typical Valencia sound. Lo-fi drum machines. A similarly cheap, but epic hook. On any account - cheesy. A beat borrowed from freestyle, but lacking the 808 (I guess they simply had no clue). The overall aesthetics also resembling the Italo vibe.
2. Boa Club – All Drums - 1991
To just push that on top here the same band also offers its gritty side. I bet they beat the DR-660 drum machine with its versatile sample banks. What a tool!
Heavily banging, slightly distorted and with a stomach punching low tom it illustrates my opposite cliché of Bakalao shortly before before a low profile, 909 burdened rave sound hit in.
3. Espiral – Dunne - 1991
Here applies the same like for El Santo Grial. Read my words on it again while listening to Espiral and it seems to be its proper description. Strangely the vocal goes “Espiral” and not “Dunne”!?
4. K.R.B. - Sanaa - 1992
Really – again the same prototype structure. Like done by the same guys. And it remains a mystery where they drew this precise idea from. It seems completely out of context considering the region and the city of Valencia. Suddenly the sound was there and quickly it faded away. The more it was compared to New Beat – the faster it disappeared. And also the reasons of authorities restricting the club culture at the Ruta Destroy were comparable with the Belgian scene.
5. Megabeat - Fuego Bassline - 1992
This is what Bakalao became at the advent of the whole European rave culture. The beats are more 4/4 in the dance music corset. I don't dig their other stuff, but Megabeat was somewhat of the flagship of the scene and they must have had some Italian connection releasing on the boot as well.
Italo house and Italo dancefloor (Usura, Corona) come to my mind ... Girls! - Buy this 90s Italo wax on discogs now for lumpy cents – following all known cycles this is going to be the next big thing!
6. Nacho Division - Durmiente En Metropolis - 1991
I bet that Nacho Division was producing their first records on a tracker program on a Commodore Amiga (nope, youngsters, that's no fancy old school equipment, that's a so-called home computer – the wet dream of my puberty).
However all instruments are definitely sampled and not synthesized. Later Nacho Division did the techno crap most producers without an interest for the background from the US went into.
7. Nacho Division - Monus Beat
Yes, it's spelled Monus Beat. Nowadays you might be branded as a dumb hardcore disciple for such primitive looping. On the other hand - sound-wise it pretty much defines what I love about old school EBM - lacking a hint of reverb and an aggressively barking shout.
8. Toss - South Flute - 1991
Producers at the time were 'uncompromisingly' (care)free. Ethno pipes, saxophones - with some cheese topping. No problem. You might have expected this tune in a very good IBM-PC game of the time. The result reminds me of 90s cosmic records. This shameless everything goes attitude – to implement ethnic structures in context-free dance music (the cosmic scene often overlaid their exotic flea market finds with a 909).
9. Psycho Team – Hypno - 1989
With this track it is more the melodies, the arpeggios, structure and programming that are intriguing. The sound is rather in the mids without real pressure or kick. Just like Nacho Division, their later records are harassing rave techno.
10. The Sun Corporation - Farenheit (Primitive Version) - 1990
In the vein of the Boa Club beats this sounds like the Boss Dr. Rhythm or some Yamaha drum machine again. What a whistle! Whoo … !
