This morning, we’re breathing in the morning with our dear guest Melenas! Based in Pamplona, Spain, the quartet joins us following the release of their 2023 album, Ahora. The band’s energetic selection echoes their own releases, full of creative harmonies, hypnotic vocals, and vintage synthwork.

Melenas’s selection

Yo La Tengo - Autumn Sweater

Melenas: ” Oh… this Autumn feeling! One of our favorites to listen to at home or in the van, this song feels like coming back home after a rainy day. Undoubtedly inspiring for us, it is beautifully constructed, with the steady drums and the subtle percussion, along with the powerful and melancholic vintage organ and the soothing and sensitive Ira Kaplan’s vocals… it feels like a warm blanket wrapped around you. “

Magnetic Fields - You and Me and the Moon

Melenas: ” One of those songs that immediately gives you a shot of energy and good vibes! An euphoric boost that describes perfectly a crush. We really can’t avoid starting to dance (even in the van) and singing along to these beautiful vocals, which make a perfect harmony combo (in the original song, just to make it clear :)) “

Aventuras de Kirlian - Victor

Melenas: ” Víctor is a very special song for us, with its absolutely pop melody and its exotic beat drawn by slide and bass in a loop that absorbs you right from the start. It makes you feel like being in a dream, and like in dreams, now you’re here and then you’re there… Maybe on a roof waiting for the rain, or maybe in your room, surrounded by lizards that lie to you with their hypnotic humming… “

MailTape’s selection

Melenas - Bang

Sarah: ” This track is so full of life ! Set at the middle of their album Ahora, the third release from Melenas. Love their use of vintage synths across the album, especially in this track’s springing groove, which at other moments dips into more mysterious cycles. “

Quirino Do Canto - Mino Di Mama

Sarah: ” Leaning into the synths this morning, live wires everywhere ;) This track appears on the Space Echo album, a compilation of artists from the cosmic Cabo Verde (released by Analog Africa, highly recommend reading the backstory attached to this one). “

Carlos Niño & Friends - Dreamishappening (Reprise)

Sarah: ” Revisiting Carlos Niño’s discography with the release of (I’m Just) Chillin’, on Fire. I come back to this one, though it’s a reprise of Dreamishappening (track before on the EXTRA PRESENCE album). There’s this sense of feeling welcomed into disorientation with this track, drawn into spinning with these synths/vocal hints and then coaxed standing again along the chimes and wood percussives. “

Dear Nora - scrolls of doom

Sarah: ” The first track off of Dear Nora’s 2022 album human futures (the latest release in just under two decades) absolutely struck by the contrast of this staccato piano x drumline percussives and Dear Nora’s smooth vocal bursts “

That’s all for this Sunday morning! Thanks for being with us. Much love to Melenas for their wonderful selection and to Noémie Dijon for this week’s fantastic illu. See you next Sunday morning !