Lagartija Nick- Spanish neo-psychedelia
In pulling bands for my (now 1,200+ entry-long) playlist, Lagartija Nick was one of those groups I pulled from a RateYourMusic list. If not for that source, I don’t think I would have come across this delightful Spanish (specifically of Grenada) band. In a more just world, I would have been able to easily pull them up from English-language sources: They put out a set of distinctive high-speed rock albums, held together by drummer Eric Jiménez, who served as their drummer through 1996. I think he may be one of the best of the decade.
A description of Lagartija Nick’s sound would make them sound a bit plain: They were a 90s rock band that pulled from the more experimental strands of 80s music to create a high-speed punk-rock-metal fusion sound. However, you have to take note of a few things:They were doing this since at least 1991, when their first album Hipnosis came out, and their appropriation of these influences is distinct and energetic.
Their first album is an alright listen, but doesn’t quite get at what made the band great (at least up through the mid-90s). It sounds very British, almost too British at parts. Press coverage seems to describe Lagartija Nick as a “noise rock” band, although I’m not sure that’s a good descriptor. Yes, they’re named after a Bauhaus song, but the band ultimately is pretty squarely 90s rock. I wouldn’t describe any of their “noisey” elements are particularly severe, even for the time period:
Here’s another good one from the debut, has more of a psyche rootsy vibe:
Go ahead and skip to Inercia, released in 1992, if you want to hear the best this band has to offer. Their major single, Nuevo Harlem, gets to the point pretty well. The band tightened both their style and their playing, producing a high-energy, expertly controlled rock album.
Let me expand upon that “expertly-controlled” bit. I know it sounds pretentious, but I think it’s a good description of the musical virtues we see here. The outcome is something that sounds like Oasis-before-Oasis, except better: Punk-speed neo-psychedelia, where each player moves together while supporting one another's’ off-script flourishes.
Unlike other Lagartija Nick albums, every track on here moves fast. It doesn’t get boring though, and a lot of that has to do with Jiménez. Even while playing fast, he switches up the tempo, and throws in diversions with ease. In that sense, he reminds me of The Jesus Lizard’s Mac McNeilly.
Su, their next album, is also good stuff. It brings back some of the looseness of the debut, while still sounding like a follow-up to Inceria. You get power ballads and stuff like that, but still anchored in the speed-psyche sound they perfect on Inceria
Their fourth album, Omega, is… quite different, and is a further testament to the band’s skill. It’s pretty much a Flamenco album, recorded with vocalist Enrique Morente, the album serving as a celebration of Federico García Lorca. For the most part, it’s Flamenco music, and clearly more of Morente’s album than Lagartija Nick’s.
However, the band’s playing here cannot be faulted, and what they do inject is convincing. This is one of the tracks where they’re the most up-front:
Many of the vignettes offered by the guitarist are in the style of thrash metal, which isn’t too surprising, given the band’s accommodation of a more classically-influenced Flamenco sound. What is a bit disappointing is that they would lean pretty hard into the thrash sound in their next albums, after Jiménez leaves the band. I admit that I probably could have listened more closely to their post-Omega albums, but the guitarist seems to have take more creative control of the band, and was pretty into metal sounds that were proliferating during the 90s. I just don’t find it as interesting. They clearly continued to be a tight group of musicians. I couldn’t fault them there.
FFO: Oasis, The Jesus Lizard, Nirvana, Sonic Youth
Tags: Spain, speed rock, neo-psychedelia, excellent drummer
