Megabeat — Sonido de Valencia
Megabeat was an electronic band and record label (Megabeat Records) from Valencia, formed by Julius ‘Nexus’, Fran Lenaers and Gani Manero in 1989. His main influences include genres such as EBM, ambient, new beat and early trance.
Megabeat logo is inspired by the industrial sounds that later became known as “machine sound” or “Sonido Maquina”. The concept of industrial sound took place in raves at old abandoned factories and the aesthetic comes from the Soviet avant-garde movement.
The first album MEGABEAT 1 was distributed at local pubs in the city of Valencia. The tracklist looks like a compilation of international artists, but the names were fake and all productions are from Megabeat.
Some of the projects were really experimental by that time, like Documentos Teube, a series of albums with instrumental and ambient music. Numbered and limited edition copies, the designs and packaging were really special and crafted with detail by Sylvia Lenaers.
Despite its short career, it is to mention to say that Megabeat released almost thirty albums on the market released under different names depending on the type of genre, from ambient to EBM or techno in a very personal way.
It has been said that Megabeat’s work overshadowed the group’s own members, with its music becoming more popular than its name. In any case, Megabeat is a key figure who absorbed and synthesized the European avant-garde to introduce a new field in the Spanish electronic scene that later become a massive movement in the Valencia coast.
Megabeat is considered one of the best electronic music bands in Spain and the father of the controversial Sound of Valencia, nothing to do with the later concept of Bakalao music.
