Music Preview: Commuters: Journal of a psycho-candy pedlar

by F Oliva

‘Commuters’ is the new musical project of Javier Cabrera (La Linea de la Concepción, 1965), evergreen musician of the Spanish independent scene, with an extensive and noteworthy artistic career behind him.

‘Commuters’ (Javier Cabrera / guitar, vocals – Tony Wright / drums, backing vocals, – Pablo Alvarado / bass, keyboard, backing vocals), is a conduit for the bittersweet symphony of life – to quote the Verve’s Richard Ashcroft – that is the artistic output of a songwriter who has reached an interesting point of creative maturity, been able to amalgamate a lucid musical vision and lengthy trajectory, while commanding an imposing, unclassifiable sound that oscillates between a heavily introspective Psych-Folk, with mesmerizing, hypnotic Cohenesian registers. (Weariness with the excellent single Fratricide, and the Other People EPs on Bandcamp are utterly recommendable).

As with all exciting artists, he does not make it easy, and demands a commitment from listeners to discover hidden gems below the surface; even in the hymn, the requiem and the compunction, blinding flashes of prodigious pop stardust with a capital P burst through. But where imitators miss the point entirely and run aground in embarrassing caricature, ‘Commuters’ comes to us from the dark side, an antidote to deception and imposture. I once described them as the Bad Seeds on morphine backing Leonard Cohen from beyond the grave. It is that good.

Cabrera, a versatile inventive guitarist, conjures claustrophobic atmospheres, strangely beautiful yet sombre melodic textures, underpinned by an impeccable rhythmic unit, that slow down our perception of real time, to entrap the listener in a web of dense, viscous arrangements, the perfect repository for texts that penetrate the bleakest strata of the human condition. An enveloping, swirling musical behemoth, unnerving sonic architecture that augments the intensity of the experience, creating a parenthesis of disconnection from the outside world.

The common denominator of Cabrera’s permanent stylistic evolution, an incessant search for new creative resonances, has been the perfect mechanical assemblage of his bands, a well-oiled compactness that has allowed him to develop a wide range of sonic capabilities, from deceptively delicate and mournful strains to the multi-layered avalanche of sound that is the distinctive trademark of his live performances. Do not expect an iota of ‘artistic’ concession or the banality of mainstream acts. They are immersed in the mythology of rock and know very well where they come from. Even the day the earth stood still, they remained immune to the general shutdown.

Cabrera carved a niche in the national indie scene in the 1990s with Pies de Barro – performing a handful of times in Gibraltar under the moniker ‘Mudfeet’ – which constituted the perfect platform for his more luminous, muscular compositions, energetic songs influenced by unforgettable British bands like The Smiths. Their debut LP Luggage (Pussycat Records, 1996) sung entirely in English, was a harmonious fusion of bright, direct pop tunes, rock’n’roll with forefront wall of noise elements, and a heightened sense of dynamics. On the strength of the record they toured across Spain, earning rave reviews in national rock publications, and an opening slot for Granada’s superstars Los Planetas, one of the outstanding bands of the time.

He explored other subgenres in the rich tapestry of rock’n’roll, in projects like Lizardville and the various iterations of his most stable and long-lasting outfit, Captain Excuse and the Crooked Crew, credited with a back catalogue that documents a remarkable and prolific output in the past decade. Still, their performance on home turf is an excellent opportunity to witness one of the most stimulating bands in our limited radius of influence. Incomprehensibly underrated, in a rational world ‘Commuters’ would be a household name.

‘Commuters’ will play in the Rock on The Rock Club on December 9 at 11pm