Everyone who is irrevocably hooked on music knows that, hidden in the archives of some record labels, there are unique and incomparable gems that have remained unjustly hidden over the years, due in large part to the strange whims of the industry and its destiny. Elefant Records is proud to definitively recover one of these albums, maybe one of the most important yet to be discovered. After giving the necessary recognition to Nick Garrie with that “49 Arlington Gardens” which he released two years ago with Duglas T. Stewart (BMX BANDITS), Ally Kerr, Norman Blake (TEENAGE FANCLUB), and a full entourage of huge and renowned Scottish musicians, the time has come to focus the spotlight on his legendary work. And the thing is, “The Nightmare of J B Stanislas” is a missing link in music history, a cursed album that oozes inspiration from all sides, a mix of the intensity of Tim Buckley with the psychedelic touch of THE LEFT BANK, inimitable and inexplicable.

The story begins with a young Garrie who in 1969 is called by the French label DiscAZ (also home to artists such as Brigitte Bardot and Michael Polnareff), to record a debut album, after they heard some demo tracks that impressed them tremendously. Eddie Vartan (Sylvie Vartan’s brother, and an important representative of the French rock scene) is put in charge of production, for which he seeks the help of a 56-musician orchestra to fill the album with arrangements and melodic lines – and album that its composer had brought acoustic and bare. The result is the “The Nightmare of J B Stanislas” in which the seriousness of Garrie’s melodies, his abstract stories flooded with a Saint Tropez breeze, create a strange chemical reaction with Vartan’s orchestrations, and give way to this incredibly addictive work, an authentic canon of beauty, of imagination, of extravagant arrangements full of fantasy. The end of this exciting dream comes when, few short days after the disc goes on sale, the head of DiscAZ, Lucien Morisse, commits suicide, leaving the album orphaned, with no promotion or plan, which resulted in very few copies every getting sold.

All of this is just cause for this definitive edition, which includes the original album, those demos that so impressed the people at DiscAZ, his first single, some recordings done in Portugal in 2002, and above all, “The Cuts”, the recuperation of some of the compositions from that era that were never recorded, and that are now recorded by Garrie himself accompanied by the Scottish crew from “49 Arlington Gardens”. And to all of this we have to add the detailed and deluxe edition of an incredible 44-page book in which Garrie tells the story of his own life, and with it, the story of an album that will never again be called cursed. This work is what has won over people like Gary Olson (LADYBUG TRANSISTOR), Francis McDonald (NICE MAN, TEENAGE FANCLUB), Guille Milkyway (LA CASA AZUL) and our beloved Tracyanne Campbell (CAMERA OBSCURA), and now it’s time it gets its what it deserves, and this incredible edition is the first step.

CD1 THE NIGHTMARE OF J.B. STANISLAS - 1. The nightmare of J.B. Stanislas 2. Can I stay with you 3. Bungles tours 4. David’s prayer 5. Ink pot eyes 6. The wanderer 7. Stephanie city 8. Little bird 9. Deeper tones of blue 10. Queen of queens 11. Wheel of fortune 12. Evening
CD2 THE CUTS - 1. Seashore 2. Josefina 3. St. Tropez whore 4. Three old men 5. Que sera, sera (Whatever will be, will be)
LOST AND FOUND - 6. Summer nights 7. Wine and roses 8. Love in my eyes 9. Queen of spades [First single 1968] 10. Close your eyes [First single 1968] 11. Cambridge town [demo 1968] 12. Stone and silk [demo 1968] 13. Bungles tours [demo 1968] 14. Deeper tones of blue [demo 1968] 15. Little bird [demo 1968] 16. Stanislas [demo 1968] 17. Evening [demo 1968]

Raise your hand if you know a group with a more punk attitude today. Weren’t we just talking about that Spanish-sung compilation disc that was “No Controles” a few months ago? The thing is, is that that pair of pop culture agitators (and terrorists) that are Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring are back with a new disc. Seventeen songs selected from more than 40, with highlights like “No Controles” from OLÉ OLÉ, and “Voy a Ser Mamá” from ALMODOVAR Y MACNAMARA (this time in English!!), revisitations of incomparable characters (Divine in “Divine’s Handtasche” and Andy Warhol in the song named after him), versions of all kinds, from Brigitte Fontaine (“Barbe À Papa”), to KRAFTWEERK (“Tour de France”), including Rita Pavone (“Wenn ich ein Junge wär”, which was also made popular by Nina Hagen in 1979) and the Canadian trio SOUPIR (“Larmes De Mêtal”), impossible punk (“Babyboom Ohne Mich”), special journeys to unforgettable melodies (“Baby Ouh”), but above all their on-target quality that is as identifiably theirs as a flag and that only they can sufficiently raise with pride (“Alaska”, “Lady Dandy”).

This is a disc with STEREO TOTAL letting loose its most guitar-heavy side, like what is coiled within the ferocity of LE TIGRE and the immediacy of THE RAMONES. Such a cocktail can only turn out to be an incredible collection of amazing choruses, new proof of why STEREO TOTAL are and will continue to be such a unique band, inimitable, with an unmistakable personality and a boundless, spot-on immediacy. They themselves have used the perfect words to define themselves, while talking about this latest work: hysterical glamour. No kidding.

Coming of age, as longed for as it may be, is still a difficult, complex and complicated process. That must be what Andrew Laidlaw, compositional mind of the Greenwich (England) sextet, thought when, upon returning to his hometown after two intense and successful years, both critically (media like The Times, The Guardian, Uncut and Pitchfork were captivated by what they declared to be an innovative and complex pop album) and with the public (more than 50,000 copies sold all over the world can testify to that), for “The Great Unwanted”, and found he had no place of his own there. Living in the band’s studio, where he constantly played the piano until the wee hours of the morning, showering in the local community pool and concentrating entirely on making a second album that, as he himself recognizes, brought him to moments of fleeting madness, debating between the confusion that such contrasts provoked in him.

This is the birth of “A Coming of Age”, the second album by LUCKY SOUL, a disc that abounds in spot-on melodies, the ability with arrangements and the ease with which they create hits, adding that special touch of complexity to an album full of nuances, artists, songs that talk about melancholy and loss, following the path set by those bittersweet sentences on “Pet Sounds”, full of mixed emotions, of that purifying process that moves from darkness to the most blinding light. This light shines on songs like “Woah Billy!”, “White Russian Doll” and “Up in Flames”; it is an impressive way of making the disc its own and a contrast with the intense backlighting that songs like “Warm Water”, “Could Be I Don’t Belong Anywhere” and the very “A Coming of Age” give off. They’re back to give new shape to pop with northern soul, showing off their mastery with a complete, complex yet easily enjoyable album, full of artists and nuances, but at the same time agile and able when it comes to connecting with the listener… Like the great classics.

The Elefant edition has a different cover and includes a previously unreleased extra track.

When Corin Ashley, ex-bassist of THE PILLS and one of the biggest BEATLES fans left on earth, decided to start his solo career, his was obsessed with an idea: to record in the historic Abbey Road studios, where the Fab Four had recorded their songs. The Abbey Road studios have recently returned to the front pages of the world press since EMI announced their intention to sell the studios this past February. In the end, in response to the negative reaction to this news, the British Government declared the studios a “historic monument.”

After releasing the debut album, “Songs from the Brill Bedroom”, the opportunity to record a special and exclusive single for Elefant came up (just before the controversy that finally prohibited the sale and above all the demolition of they legendary studios). Accustomed to ceaselessly writing, he focused on getting his two best compositions, extensively perfected and purified, and planned the recording sessions with an exceptional band. Because for this single, which is an authentic and unique gem, a collectors item, Mr. Ashley is ultimately accompanied by no less than: Ken Stringfellow (THE POSIES, REM, BIG STAR) singing on “Badfinger Bridge”, Martin Carr and Rob Cieka (THE BOO RADLEYS), Edward Ball (TV PERSONALITIES, THE TIMES) and on the technical board is Charlie Francis, who recently worked with Martin Carr and has an unbelievable curriculum that includes artists like REM, Robyn Hitchcock, WILCO, SUPER FURRY ANIMALS and THE HIGH LLAMAS among many others. The result is this very special, unrepeatable release that includes the previously mentioned “Badfinger Bridge” as well as “Second Hand Halo”, in an exquisite mix of rhythm’n blues, sixties pop and soul. It’s a blue vinyl single, limited edition, a necessary piece in all important collections as of now.

Limited Edition [Blue colour vinyl]

Audio click HERE [DEEZER]

Video click HERE

Carlos Valderrama and crew gave us one of the most marvelous pop discs we had heard in a long time last year; taking influence from the great Italian pop singers of the sixties and seventies, and combining it with modern influences like BELLE & SEBASTIAN and LA CASA AZUL, the made a fierily lit disc, full of dreamlike arrangements, tremendously immediate and inevitable melodies. Now we get two compositions in green color vinyl, limited edition format as a continuation of that great debut album. On side A we have “Mondo Fitness”, a song that reminds us of the Italian group’s ability to make indubitable hits while, at the same time, filling them with elegance and delicacy. On the other side, side B, “Diego Mon Amour” offers a more restrained facet of the band, that fills itself with a Mediterranean sound between Marseille and Salvador de Bahía, between the French chanson and bossa nova: a seaside cocktail while we watch the sunrise, after spending the night dancing in the most unimaginable bars. Because, as you know, staying in shape is important.

Limited Edition [Green Colour Vinyl]

Audio HERE [DEEZER]

VINYL VERSION: SOLD OUT

It’s finally here. The throne has been claimed. For years, all the fans of the best pop waited anxiously for that group that was going to occupy the space left between THE PIPETTES, LUCKY SOUL and BELLE & SEBASTIAN, heirs of the best pop from the sixties (THE SHIRELLES, THE RONETTES, THE SUPREMES...) and the best Scottish pop (CAMERA OBSCURA, BMX BANDITS...). But it’s finally here, “Loveless Unbeliever”, the debut album of THE SCHOOL. And the Cardiff band, after the singles “Let It Slip” and “All I Wanna Do”, with which they conquered the critics and the public half the world over, in addition to creating uncommonly high expectations, have shown us that they’re the perfect spearhead of a sound that, even today, continues to thrill us. Once again with the production of Ian Catt (SAINT ETIENNE, TREMBLING BLUE STARS, THE FIELD MICE, SHAMPOO, THE BOO RADLEYS…), they demonstrate their incredible ability with melodies and arrangements, releasing an album with more gems than a jewelry store, like “Valentine”, “Is He Really Coming Home”, “I Want You Back” and “Hoping and Praying”, songs that are uncontestable candidates to remain perennially in our stereos.

Video "Is he really coming home?" HERE

Audio HERE [DEEZER]

**There´s a limited edition of this album for vinyl lovers. [Red colour vinyl]

The best youth: L-KAN have given color to those interminable nights on the best techno-pop dance floors Madrid has to offer with albums like “Cosas Que Miden Poco” and “Discazo”. But the moment arrives to change direction, to open new doors, to try new things, and the irreverent immediacy turns into uncontainable restlessness. Luis and Belén (huge activists of the Madrid night-life, responsible for clubs like Ocho y Medio and Elástico) decide to form BLA (an L-KAN parallel project) to let loose all of those things that are going on in their heads, with music geared toward a more organic sound with slightly sharper lyrics. The first result of all this is “La Mejor Enfermedad”, an album that finds its two composers with much clearer ideas, with a new proposal in their hands, and with a highly uncommon ability with arrangements and melodies. From the fantasy of “Cómo Seremos” to the irreverence of “Los Exnovios”, from the delicacy of “Yo Soy Como Portugal” to the introspection of “Mira Lo Que Se Oye Cuando Estamos Callados”. From the totally obvious reference to the dance floor in “Siempre Hay Una Más” to the perfectionist pop of “La Canción Que Nunca Llegó a Serlo”. Luis and Belén have brought us something refreshing, original, new, and above all fun, assimilating their inheritance of those who are most representative of Spanish-sung pop: LOS FRESONES REBELDES, ASTRUD, FAMILY, CARLOS BERLANGA, CHICO Y CHICA and more. Everyone will be talking about BLA and their great sickness.

Audio HERE [DEEZER]

The Valencian duo GUATAFÁN is one of those bands that show their love for the music they adore in every melody and every word of every song.

Their first record label release, which is also the second release from Elefant's new limited-edition singles collection, "New Adventures in Pop", has a song dedicated to HELEN LOVE ("Pink Punk Party"), a LA CASA AZUL version that is full of admiration ("Como Un Fan") and between the lines of the marvelous "Cucuruchu" (it was chosen to be included on compilation by the independent Japanese label abcdefg*record) and "Cálculo Utilitarista" you can openly discover the hours that María and Suso have spent listening to bubblegum, techno-pop, punk-pop and French and Spanish pop from the 60s.

Their demo was already singled out in Festival ContemPopránea's demo contest and they have played their songs in cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Mallorca and London. This single was recorded, mixed and mastered by Carlos Soler (DAMIEN LOTT).

GUATAFÁN are a lively and tremendously fun group, who put care into every single detail and who, starting now, can be considered a necessary reference for pop fans.

Audio HERE [DEEZER]

The moment arrived and it was clear it couldn't be any other song. After so many characters typed into webs and blogs, being one of the most-search-for groups on the Internet, having their demos be the cause of adoration, being desire by other labels (some from outside Spain), PAPA TOPO finally has their first record label-backed release on the street, and what's more, they are the first group in Elefant's new limited-edition singles collection, "New Adventures in Pop".

Adrià and the young Paulita give us the definitive version of the "Oso Panda" demo, revised and remixed by Guille Milkyway (who has also done the same with “Lo que me gusta del verano es poder tomar helado”), which has also resulted in two danceable remixes of the song that is on its way to being a landmark in Spanish pop this year. Catchy as can be, as addictive as chocolate, easier to hum that "La la la"; with "Oso Panda", PAPA TOPO present themselves as one of the most attractive bands in the Spanish pop panorama thanks to their freshness, immediacy and appealing simplicity.

“Lo que me gusta del verano es poder tomar helado” is the song that made us at Elefant fall totally at the feet of the promising talent that is Adrià. The two-voice melodies, the lyrics, the arrangements... Puff! It's a pure pop explosion.

One side for the demo and the other side for Guille Milkyway's remixes, which the LA CASA AZUL leader made as a clear and authentic homage to the Moog discs from the 70s, full of versions of ultra fun and danceable country classics. A perfect appetizer, that does nothing more than whet our appetites. We want more!

Audio HERE [DEEZER]

It was one of the albums from last season, and we are still head over heels in love with it. The proof is that there’s a new 7” vinyl limited edition single, the fourth and final single from “Way Better Now”, the second full-length from Sweden’s SPEEKMARKET AVENUE, released last year, and which has earned them definitive recognition in an infinite number of countries, especially in Sweden and the United Kingdom (where it was the single of the week on Q Radio and on Steve Lamacq’s program on the BBC).

This time the chosen song is “No Drama”, one of the most immediate melodies on the disc (whose fun and surreal video, by the way, is already posted on the Elefant Records Youtube channel), in which we can enjoy some of the best qualities of the group: energy, precision in the arrangements, unforgettable melodies and huge choruses… as if they had been written on a sunny afternoon in the city of Glasgow by Stuart Murdoch and THE TRASH CAN SINATRAS. The B side will be filled by the previously unreleased “When You Fell”, a song that explores the more ambient and melancholic facet of the group. It’s the perfect reference to close one of the most marvelous discs we’ve released in the last few months.

Limited edition!

Since the release of their second album last February, their Guitarras y tambores (guitars and tambor drums) haven’t stopped for a single second. They participated in the 30th anniversary party for the radio show Flor de Pasión (RNE-Radio 3); they were COOPER’s special guests for the presentation of COOPER’s new album, “Aeuropuerto”, in Madrid and Bilbao; they performed at some of the most important festivals in Spain (Indyspensable, Contempopranea, Fuengirola Pop Weekend...) and they traveled to England to perform in London and at the Indietracks Festival.

COLA JET SET are releasing a limited edition single, a color vinyl with the A side “En Esta Pista Ya No Se Puede Bailar” and two new songs on the B side; “Nos Volveremos a Ver”, is a spot-on Spanish adaptation of the 1939 classic written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, “We’ll Meet Again”, which became one of the most popular songs during the second world war. The song has seen many versions throughout the years by many different artists, from Vera Lynn, who had a huge hit with it in 1954, to THE BYRDS, who included it as the final track on their 1965 debut album, “Mr. Tambourine Man”. But that’s not all THE TURTLES, THE CHORDETTES, Sandy Coast and even Johnny Cash himself did versions of the song, and now it’s COLA JET SET’s turn, a small gem for the B side of this new vinyl single that will also include a new song by Alicia, “Cola Jet Set 100%”, a declaration of intent. White vinyl!

Marc and Joel (The Hands Collective) did an extraordinary job directing the group’s video-clip, where they shine like true pop stars, playing, singing and dancing with a ton of friends.

**Limited edition! [White vinyl!]

What could have been an album of the Berlin-based duo’s most prized songs revisited in Spanish (this isn’t the first time they have shown their passion for singing in various languages, like French, German, English, Italian, Turkish or Japanese), has ended up also including a small yet incredible collection of versions, the majority of which are exquisitely selected from the Spanish pop songbook of the last decades. And after more than 15 years giving us addictive pieces of the best Electro-pop (with touches of Punk, Disco, New wave and Garage), Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring couldn’t approach this furtive and agile look back differently: unprejudiced, with a mischievous attitude and above all enormously fun and enjoyable. This is how we should take the revision of songs like “No Controles” from OLE OLE, “Voy a Ser Mamá” by ALMODOVAR and McNAMARA (electro-punk band of film director Pedro Almodovar at the beginning of the 80’s), and “C’est Fini” by LA CASA AZUL. It is surprising to be able to listen to these songs oozing through the STEREO TOTAL filter and sung in Spanish with that familiar French accent. And what’s more, we have the occasion to enjoy songs from all of the stages of the group again, including two songs from THE LOLITAS (the group that Françoise made her name with in the middle of the 80s, and who released four albums in France and Germany). “Wir tanzen im 4-Eck” is now “Bailamos en Cuadrado”, “Everybody in The Discotheque (I Hate)” is rebaptized as “Todo El Mundo en La Discoteca”, “Plus Minus Null” is “Más Menos Cero” and their incredible “L’amour à 3” is “Amo Amor a Tres”. What this means is, we are witnessing a reinvention, an ephemeral rebirth; a different language, songs in different forms (many of them mutate most curiously)… All of this is effected with that rebellious and non-conformist attitude, accentuated by a surprising touch of rock’n roll and with the guarantee of one of the best contemporary hit-makers. As if looking back were just an illusion, a way of thinking in order to live the present more intensely. An abundant banquet, an unrepeatable menu, with sophisticated French aromas, the strength of German raw materials, and that sunny seasoning of the Mediterranean diet, all loaded with spice, Tabasco and cayenne. A musical orgy, barbaric, ruffian, in which sex plays an important role again, where KRAFTWERK practice a libidinous game with the Welsh masses, and the RAMONES declare a pillow fight with Plastic Bertrand, while URSULA 1000 plays songs in a stellar bacchanal. And since it couldn’t be any other way, STEREO TOTAL return to compel and surprise us, making their own path, ignoring all the known and unknown rules, destroying the concept of the compilation, adapting it to what they want, to what appeals to them, giving us the gift of so much hedonism and lust for life.

**There´s a limited edition of this album for vinyl lovers. [White colour vinyl]

LA BIEN QUERIDA has gone from being one of Spanish pop’s biggest promises to being one of the most amazing realities that has hit the national panorama in years. “Romancero” has been acclaimed in all the press, earning covers of various publications (EP3, Mondo Sonoro, Plástica and El Obrero Digital), various praise and elegies, selected as one of the best albums of the year. Ana Fernández-Villaverde has already made her way across half of Spain as well as to a few other festivals (Primavera Sound, Benicassim, Contempopranea, South Pop Isla Cristina, etc.). Here at Elefant we are continuing on with this incredible phenomenon with the release of a single called “9.6”, one of the most talked about songs because of the surprising disco-pop that the song gives us after those 45 seconds of acoustic introduction, meaning one of the compositions that has mutated the most from its original conception to its final result on the disc (this CD includes the demo version recorded at Ana’s house more than two years ago now). So the two remixes included on this new single celebrate this marked evolution: the remix by Guille Milkyway [LA CASA AZUL] emits a sweet Motown only to finish in an amazing rhythmic game with a new and different musical conception, while the HIDROGENESSE [French Hot Dog] remix takes the track much more boldly and brazenly and plays a fun game with the lyrics. Finally, the release contains the video-clip made specifically for the song, directed by Luis Cerveró (one of the most important and innovative directors, responsible for video-clips for LOS PLANETAS, Christina Rosenvinge, LA ESTRELLA DE DAVID and Joe Crepusculo). Cerveró takes full advantage of the song’s tone to give the video an air of clear eighties nostalgia and irony; Ana is incredible; David Rodríguez and Joe Crepúsculo shine with her like authentic italo-disco stars, simulating a live television performance, in the style of how it was done in the 80s. The final touch is the choreography that pays homage to Ballet Zoon and Valerio Lazarav, who recently passed away. There is no doubt that this year is “the year” of LA BIEN QUERIDA and 2010 promises even more to come!!!

Audio HERE [DEEZER]

Yeah, JUNIPER MOON were among the most capable composers of the punk-pop pills that have ever existed in Spanish lands, and their international effect corroborates this. But the thing is that JUNIPER MOON haven’t existed for over 4 years (although, it must be said, that their flame still burns in our hearts, proof being the compilation that will soon be released in Japan). From the ashes of that unforgettable group rose LINDA GUILALA, three years ago. Iván and Eva threw themselves into the composition of songs whose modus operandi is their immediacy. The songs are just as addictive, maintaining that incredible freshness in the melodies, with the best of the pop tradition of bands from the Spanish new wave like ALASKA Y LOS PEGAMOIDES and LOS ZOMBIES, with the insolent energy of HELEN LOVE, and that passion for dense, captivating textures of groups like THE CHARLOTTES, LUSH or PALE SAINTS.
We are finally lucky enough to have their debut album, “Bucles Infinitos”, in our hands. The album is a demonstration of a way of understanding pop that few have managed to express at such a level. They know how to balance youthful energy, twee passion tending toward the most classic pop, the lightest techno-pop with that unavoidable touch of punk, and above all that hazy shine of the shoegaze atmosphere, which all together give way to an authentic treatise for lovers of the melodic genre above all else. It reminds us of LOS PEGAMOIDES, as well as the first albums by LUSH, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, RIDE, by those groups that made us vibrate so much at the beginning of the nineties, but the energy that LINDA GUILALA puts into this “Bucles Infinitos”, those guitars with appearing and disappearing distortion effects as far as they can push them, Eva’s choruses, the keyboards… make this disc something really special. The songs of LINDA GUILALA know how to play with pop and melancholy, with speed and introversion, with textures and melodies, and in the end they simply leave you with the feeling of having listened to a handful of tremendously addictive pop compositions like your ears had never heard before. Try it.