Reconquesta - S/T 7" (Disco Nightmare/See You - 2014)

The only european country which is not from Northern Europe present on this blog so far is Spain, and it's not gonna change. Well actually it might change, because Reconquesta (do yourself a favour if you look for the band on internet and write their name right, if you write it Reconquista you will only find a shitty spanish WP band, and by shitty I mean that this made me want to burn a paella plate, yep, it was that bad) are from Catalonia, and I know that catalonians are pretty touchy about their own national identity. So let's say it's not Spain.

These guys were, as a matter of fact, more or less uknown to me, I bought their 7" (which is also their first vinyl release, even though they seem to have started the band in 2012) pretty much randomly, given that I only had heard some demo songs on youtube before.

Well, that was a good random purchase if you want my point of view. Now those who know me (and those who have read the KnockOut review) know that spanish Oi! is not really my cup of tea, even if the catalonian scene is kind of an exception given that one of my favourite record of 2012 (and probably my favourite iberian band) is Secret Army's Crush the Remains. But anyway, I'm open to new bands, and giving a chance to Reconquesta was everything but a mistake. These guys are playing a melodic but still hard hitting Oi!, with great bass and solo guitar all the way, topped by  equaly melodic but still in your face vocals. Through and through it is really strong.  From what I can read on their Facebook page, they list their influences as english, french and american Oi! from the 80's/90's. Well, you can't go wrong with these (especially with the french one), but to me they sound actually much more modern than this, even if you can obviously hear these influences in the two songs on this single.

For some reason Blogspot decided to be a piece of shit and couldn't find the studio version of their song "Gloria". But look for it in Youtube. Believe me, it's worth it.

These two songs, to name them, are "Gloria" and "Reconquesta". I must admit that I am actually not familiar at all with the catalonian language, but reading the lyrics of "Gloria" on internet (they were clever enough to write them in the description of the song) helped a lot, since catalonian is pretty close to french (more than I thought actually). So basically, this song urges you to be proud and to never look down. The lyrics are not going to change your vision of the world, but is that what you expect Oi! to do ? Probably not. Instead they make you feel proud, strong and free (to quote Stars and Stripes), which is, to me, pretty much all I want to hear. Their second song, "Reconquesta", is not as melodical as the first one, maybe more straight forward, but is still great. It actually gives you a balanced single, with a melodical song and a more in-your-face one.

All that comes with a great artwork, which is the logo of the band (a feather and a sword) in a shield with a dragon in some kind of parchment style (it's the brown tone of it all that gives me this feeling I guess). The only thing I regret is that there's no insert but that's only a little disappointement given the quality of this release. Note that this record comes with a big central hole, which is kind of unusual nowaday I guess given that the only records I have like that are from the 70's to the 90's. 300 copies of that record were released, 100 in black, 100 n brown and 100 with a different cover. My advice is that you should buy this record, because by doing that you will not only get 2 great songs, but you will also support a young band which deserves it. So you know what you have to do !

Edit : you can now listen to both songs of the 7" on the band's bandcamp and download them (as a name your price download) !