It’s great to hear this range of quality coming from Spain. Utíl has gathered a spread of musicians from the homeland that are cutting the mustard and some sharp angles. Some of those angles might need some refining but the raw material is packed with potential and some pure electro fire.
Living in Spain, I try to source music coming out of my adopted homeland. The Iberian peninsula does not enjoy the same productivity as its European neighbors, in more ways than one. Nevertheless, there are those beavering away behind banks of beeping lights, behind the glow of the screen as well as trying to find the funds to bring sounds to audiences. It’s not an easy task, not by any means, but thankfully there are those out there foolhardy enough to do it. Utíl Records is one of the brave ones.
The label debuted in 2018 with the hard hitting no-nonsense sound of Vema-Diodes, a musician who has surfaced on labels such as Alex Stark’s Fundamental Records. Four straight-for-the-jugular cuts make up Dark Ambition with Vema-Diodes making his untoward intents known from the needle drop. The title piece lives up to its name. Harsh, the sounds on show are frigid and fiercely sharp with vocals drowned to a guttural rumble. “M.O.F.” hovers into being, descending from the heavens like Deckard’s motor in Blade Runner. And, like the score of the famous 82 movie, the track soon makes itself known as broad notes and slender snares are compressed before breaking into a wonderfully elegant piece. Bars, bass and beats are all alloyed in a thick metal, giving the entire 12” both a solidity to it as well as a sinister gleam. The flip takes on a totally different perspective. “Electro Cooking” describe itself perfectly. The chef take a spread of different ingredients, jittery beats, touches of electro funk and some glitch, to create a strange cocktail of sometimes unsavory tones. “Computer beeps and bleeps are regimented by a strict drum in “Dirty Tube”, fizzing drum rolls and alarm bells unnecessarily busying the finale.
Speaking with María Marín, one of the label’s bosses, to date the label has mostly focussed on Spanish talent but the plan is to broaden their range and search out new names. Their latest compilation, ut002, has done so, sourcing Croatia’s N-Ter with “INTB” and a track that let’s itself down with some pretty suspect vocals. Arguably, the lyrics employed by Dark Vekor are more successful. “Es Que No Lo Veis”, replete with vocoders and a serrating snare, is one for the new wave of electrofunk freaks. These spoken word pieces sit a little uneasily amongst the other tracks of the compilation, yet they do give variety. The works that shine come dipped in motor oil, like the looming lines of Álex Martín’s “F4nk” which he cuts with bright cascading chords. Vema-Diodes returns for two collaborations. First with Bandit for the charcoal smeared bass bulging behemoth of “Sulfur Fumes” before the looming menace and angular acid of “Hypoxia.” Honexters goes it alone with “Centripetal Force” adopts a cruel wavering riff while applying Kraftwerkian computer dawns and slides.
It’s great to hear this range of quality coming from Spain. Utíl has gathered a spread of musicians from the homeland that are cutting the mustard and some sharp angles. Some of those angles might need some refining but the raw material is packed with potential and some pure electro fire.
Both Dark Ambition and ut002 are available on Util.
