BESTIOLA, HIDROGENESSE
Austrohungaro, Spain ****
Rating: 83
By Carlos Reyes
Hidrogenesse is yet another great band from Spain’s current indie scene. Their music might be too hipster for many, they are known for alienating the purists and putting a big smile on the experimental followers. They sing in Spanish and Catalan (Spain’s second language) and sometimes they just let the music communicate their thoughts. They were virtually unknown until their last album Animalitos (2007), which I found unusual, bizarre and simply uplifting. Bestiola is a continuation of Animalitos and way more experimental than any of their previous works. The album itself presents very little new material but does a solid job making a cohesive album full of color and roundness. The kind of album that works perfectly when playing it on Windows Media Player and its chromatic visualizations. Genis Segarra and Carlos Ballesteros are simply unique, sometimes they seem to have child-like personalities, and other times they’re simply weird. First single “Schloss” is full of lasers and groundbreaking clashes of bytes. The song reminds me of their anthem hit “Vuelve Conmigo a Italia” (also included here), songs designed to be perceived as audiovisual pieces. My favorite track in the album is “Fuig Llop Fuig Llop Fuig”, a playful song that brought the best and the worst of my childhood. Hidrogenesse really doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before, perhaps because their biggest influences come from Euro countries such as Germany and Hungary. In their last album they wrote about many animals, including ponis and tigers, the title of Bestiola refers to “the little beasts”, to the disfigurations they have made out of their previous versions. They make fantastic videos too; I’m still magnetized to their colorful Disfraz de Tigre video. Don’t make Bestiola your first experience with Hidrogenesse; I suggest you first digest Animalitos and have Bestiola as a dessert.