Reconquesta - Recupera El Que Et Pertany (Disco Nightmare/See You - 2015)

Last week end I had the chance to see Reconquesta (we already talked about them here, remember ?) live in Stockholm and get my hands on their newly released LP.

And well, it does not disappoint ! Still the same english/french 80's/90's inspired melodic sound, always in their own native language, even though I got little more Retaliator-like vibes on this on than on their previous single. Probably because of the sound and the solo guitar sometimes (pretty fucking well done I have to say !), especially on the intro.

So let's get down to it. Recupera El Que Et Pertany ("Take Back What is Yours") gives us eleven songs (plus the intro), one of them already being in the last 7" ("Reconquesta") and two covers : "Skinheads Catalans" -an adaptation of Skinkorps' "Skinkorps Mécanique"- and a cover of Frontpilsen's -an early 90's Barcelona Oi! band- "El Final de la Nit" ("The End of the Night"). There's also an instrumental ballad called "D.E.P." ("Rest In Peace") dedicated to an ex-band member that passed away (if I understood well ?). The rest is, as I said, melodic but angry Oi! with great rythm section, solo guitars and vocals/choirs. You'll be singing along these songs after 2 seconds, even if you don't speak catalan ! My personal favourites songs are "Hereus de la Conquesta" ("Heirs of the Conquest"), "Morint Dempeus" ("Die Standing") and "Oi! Per Catalunya".

Oh, and before I forget, the songs on this LP are REALLY REALLY patriotic. Fuck, these lads love Catalonia. I understand that they're fighting for their independence and all that, but I can't imagine a "non-political" (by that I mean non-RAC/WP) band doing that in Sweden ! Not that it's a problem for me, the texts are really good and powerful, it's just funny to see what is ok somewhere in the world while it's not ok somewhere else. But anyway, brilliant lyrics full of pride, glory and love for their piece of land. Once again a great record !

All that comes in a nice drawn cover, delivered with a nice poster-like lyrics sheet (the gothic font is sometimes a little hard to read, but that's just me complaining for the sake of it I guess) plus an extra white paper sheet with the lyrics translated in english (really nice initiative !). Excellent production, both musically as in terms of packaging. Plus, I'm in the thanklist (something that I didn't know, thanks guys by the way !), always nice ! Do yourself a favour and get that LP. Marvelous from the beginning to the end. Please note that a CD version is due to be out soon on Sweden's Pretty Shitty Town Records (a matter of weeks now I guess ?). Best fucking southern-european going on right now, period !

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) !