Estupendo: "I would like to win the
lotto to edit thousands of albums... even if they remain unsold".
Sebasti n
Mondrag¢n, half the brains behind Estupendo, explained the
satisfaction of launching independent records. And Fernando
Lamas, the other half, talked about some other matters of
importance. One of the newest bands around, fully explained by
Mariano Lago.
Have you ever listened to an Argentinian techno band?. It is long ago since Virus -a very respected and successful techno-pop band from the 80's- disbanded because of the death of their singer.
Nowadays it is not so
easy to find techno bands. If there are any. But certainly there
are. Most of them aren't keen on live performances. People's
prejudices are against them, as well as their own moral rules:
"I don't like watching a bunch of guys pressing buttons. To
watch a computer perform I watch it home." says a member of
contradictory band Avant Press, which used to play techno-pop
(although they still play techno under the name of
"Polidor").
There are some techno musicians that seem to be like a group of friends. They often go to each other concerts, share live performances or publish records together. That is mainly what happened with "Lady Radio", the compilation that joins together in a record artists from Carola Bony to Leandro Fresco. From the bands featured in that record I would choose Estupendo.
The compilation
"Lady Radio" came up under Estupendo's record label
"Sonoridades Amapola". According to them
"Sonoridades Amapola" wasn't meant to be an independent
record label, but it turned to be a place to help their friends
edit records that otherwise would have to remain unpublished
because of the little response offered to this small and
experimental artists by record companies. It was just a name to
call the independent project, to have some kind of brand which
will make their forthcoming albums have a continuity. 
They are one of my favourite bands. In fact I think Estupendo is a very interesting band. They're retro with an irony, they're kitch and futuristically modern, they are easy-listening as well as experimental. They also want to be Farrah Fawcett (70's actress from "Charly's Angels"). They've got great songs, plenty of strange sounds and funny noises that creates an extremely pleasant atmosphere. Comfort is the word that defines some of their songs as well as their performances. That is the feeling I have when I listen to them. I'm used to standing a high noise level at concerts. Estupendo's concerts are so charmingly comfortable that you just sit and go with the flow. Or dance (actually wave) if you are standing up.
Estupendo are just two
guys: Fernando Lamas and Sebasti n Mondrag¢n (who played
synths for Juana La Loca). They met some years ago and had a
band. In 1993 they started working for what would be Estupendo's
debut: "Bistr¢ M laga". They are in charge of
doing everything in the band (recording, playing, editing and
every other task related to music). They also contribute to their
friends' works: they helped Leandro Fresco with his album -which
is called "Capsula"-, played some instruments in
"Miss Universo" by Carca and also played some synths
for the girls of "Glass‚" --which also appeared in
"Lady Radio".
As most musicians they
doesn't like being labelled. However, they say they are rock
musicians and -we could add- their music is mainly electronic. In
their first album "Bistr¢ M laga" (independently
released back in 93) they sampled a lot of other musicians' works
as another way of composing music. The album was most
instrumental but the songs which had lyrics talked about going
out, space travelling and even a calypso song in a very
stylistical old-fashioned manner. They love to use old-fashioned
and 70's sounding words like their name --"Estupendo",
"Montecarlo", "Hi-Fi"--; and they also use
strange sounding words --such as "Pinotea",
"Borneo" and "Lin¢leo"--. The reasons why
they have chosen these names for the band and the songs have to
be mainly with the phonetics of the words; what the word sounds
like and not what it means; and, of course, they have to like the
word.
The beggining of 1996 saw
the release of "Antenna", their second album. In their
own words "it is different from `Bistr¢ M laga'.
`Antenna' is not its sequel. Not graphically, not sonically and
not technically. The way the machines were used was different.
The band is still being electronic. Maybe it stands out more
because the programming is highlighted here. `Bistr¢' was more
like a `quotations' album, there are not so many samples in
`Antenna'. It is also more discreet (it is shorter in length,
with shorter songs and it hasn't got 18 minutes songs like we had
before)."
As Fernando says:
"Estupendo is a band as listenable and weird as any band, we
are just different in some issues (musical and graphical issues).
The main thing is that we show us the way we like to be showed.
We are very different to the music you hear everywhere, but we
are easy to those who try to go beyond and who look for something
else.
If you ussually
go to concerts you'll see that it is common for bands to come up
with new songs all the time. But not for Estupendo. They are
trying new things all the time, but they keep the new material
for themselves because people won't quite follow the changes.
They explained that it would be ideal for them to release a
couple of EP's (i.e. record with four tracks) inbeetween the
albums to slowly change. In other words: if they conceived their
musical career as a time continuum they'd avoid continuity hiatus
and time-lost songs by keeping the new songs for the time it
would be appropiate to release them. To prevent them from getting
bored they morph the songs they ussually play (but sometimes just
until the song crystalizes in some balance beetween all the
versions they played). Going to their concerts and listening to
the changes is the way people has to keep up to date with the
band's continuity.
If you feel you're interested in Estupendo's music and you don't want to wait until they play (which they seldom do) or you don't want to pay an overcharged price for their cd's, you can write to them. Their address is: Estupendo
Acevedo 1730
Banfield (1828)
Buenos Aires
Argentina
(c) Mariano Lago
1996
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