Name: El Refugio
Brand: Sei Still

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

FC143CD

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Indies Only

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Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-03-04

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5060467888233

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Sei Still 

Genre GB

Psychedelic

Label GB

Fuzz Club

Fuzz Club is a London based independent record label that focuses on raw, experimental rock 'n' roll. Influenced by genres such as psychedelia, shoegaze, noise, garage, blues, folk and experimentation. The label started in rural Norway during the 24 hour darkness of the Arctic winter and emerged onto the scene in 2012 with their compilation album "The Reverb Conspiracy". This annual release captures the essence of today's underground music scene.

With over 40 releases and around 20 artists under their belt, Fuzz Club has worked with renowned names like Anton Newcombe, Goat, Alan Vega, The Black Angels, Dead Skeletons, A Place to Bury Strangers and The Underground Youth. They believe in putting as much energy and art into the presentation of their records as the bands do into their music. Collaborating with visual artists allows them to create unique and collectible album covers and vinyl.

In addition to their regular releases, Fuzz Club offers super limited edition deluxe versions of select albums. These hand painted, stamped and sealed editions are considered works of art themselves. As a distributor for Fuzz Club records, Cargo Records ensures that these exceptional releases reach fans worldwide.

Mexican five-piece Sei Still return with their second album El Refugio via London’s Fuzz Club Records. The follow-up to their 2020 self-titled debut album marks a number of changes for the band. Not only have they upped sticks and moved from Mexico City to Berlin, but their sound has undergone a process of evolution too. Where the debut LP was an exercise in mesmerising Krautrock channeling the likes of Neu! and Can, El Refugio keeps hold of that motorik pulse but trades the debut’s more expansive and hypnotic tendencies for a collection of dark, wiry post-punk vignettes. The album is a more skeletal effort than its predecessor but packs a greater punch precisely because of that; the songs are shorter and unapologetically to-the-point, brimming with a tension and anguish that makes El Refugio a deeply affecting listen. “The biggest influence on this record was the fact that our personal lives had a radical change and we felt the need to do something different, to dig deeper into the possibilities of what the band was about. We never wanted to make the same record twice. The songs allude to childhood, dreams, desire, loneliness, paranoia and hope. A longing for a different reality that breaks the monotony of daily life."

El Refugio is still driven by the taut, propulsive rhythm sections of their earlier work – see the driving motorik post-punk of ‘Extrarradio’, ‘Me Persigue’ and ‘Exilio’, or the death disco grooves of ‘Solsticio’ – but the surrounding instrumentation owes far more to 70s punk and new wave than any kosmische travellers. Whilst melodic bass lines propel the music in a perpetual forward motion, guitars flicker from angular and razor-sharp to shimmering and forlorn, peppered by the ambient whirr of synths that oscillate subtly in the background throughout. All the while Lucas Martín’s monotonous sprechgesang vocal (delivered in Spanish throughout) give the tracks a foreboding and ghostly allure. The band still have their hypnotic moments, mind. On slow-burning moments like ‘Soldados Caidos’ and ‘El Peso De La Piel’ Sei Still trade in a desolate, mournful goth-rock and the ethereal title-track El Refugio is a shoegaze-indebted comedown that brings the album to a hauntingly beautiful close.

El Refugio

Music GB