I have noticed that bands like Depeche Mode are still unfathomably popular in Spain. Something about their gloominess must have an opposite resonation in the sparkly Spanish psyche.
Either that, or everyone in Spain is secretly glum on the inside whilst being perky on the outside. You know what they say about depressive types.
Thus, I’m not stunned to find that StandUpAgainstHeartCrime – a Catalonian band – makes inky black, thunderous and widescreen electronic music.
Now, almost every time I have visited Catalonia, there has been some unplanned debauchery: the time I was corralled into drinking the world’s strongest gin and tonic at 9am, just when I was about to finally leave the nightclub; the time I ate a slice of innocuous-looking (and delicious) birthday cake and spent the next 24 hours tripping wildly; the time I fell asleep on the beach at 7am and woke up to see gypsies having a bottle-fight a metre in front of me.
I only mention these ludicrous incidents because Catalonia has always seemed so disordered, so alive. And music from the region is often precise and pristine (Seward, of course, excepted).
I Need No Sun is possibly a reaction to the reality of life, a kick back: cool, ordered, measured; gloomy, navel-gazing and introspective. We often project one thing, and feel another. This song manages to be endearingly close despite all these things.
I didn’t like StandUpAgainstHeartCrime’s band-name initially, and then it grew on me, the more I listened to their music. This is how most experiences with bands ought to play out. Order and disorder together, affecting each other.
