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LP
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MR 465LP
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Décima Víctima were a Spanish band that, during their short-lived career between 1981 and 1984, developed a very personal sound reminiscent of Joy Division, The Cure, and other British post-punk bands. Despite commercial success evaded them, rarely has any Spanish band achieved such a high degree of quality and coherence in their music and personality. Although included in Munster's past release MR 305 (2010) as part of a limited-edition boxset, this is the first time their second album Un Hombre Solo (1984) gets an official reissue in its original single LP format. For this edition, the sound of the original tape recordings has been cleaned and improved and the artwork has been slightly modified following the band's ideas. Despite only being active for under three years, Décima Víctima left a long-lasting legacy, and their influence would later be heard in Spanish bands such as Family, Los Planetas, and Sr Chinarro. In 1981, brothers Lars and Per Mertanen formed the instrumental band Clausula Tenebrosa. After a show they started talking about the possibility of rehearsing with Carlos, a friend at the time and ex-singer of the recently split Ejecutivos Agresivos. That's how the story of Décima Víctima started, rehearsing with a drum machine in the cellar of the Mertanens' house in Madrid. Despite commercial success evaded them, their first LP (1982) was acclaimed by the press, especially by El Pais, one of the biggest-selling newspapers in Spain. A second album would follow two years later. It was called Un Hombre Solo (1984) and was released on Grabaciones Accidentales (GASA). Unavailable for years and always in high demand, it now gets an official reissue in its original single LP format.
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LP
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MR 458LP
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Sold out; repressed spring 2025... Décima Víctima were a Spanish band that, during their short-lived career between 1981 and 1984, developed a very personal sound reminiscent of Joy Division, The Cure, and other British post-punk bands. Despite commercial success evaded them, rarely has any Spanish band achieved such a high degree of quality and coherence in their music and personality. Although included in Munster's past release MR 305 (2010) as part of a limited-edition boxset, this is the first time their debut album gets an official reissue in its original single LP format. For this edition, the sound of the original tape recordings has been cleaned and improved and the artwork has been slightly modified following the band's original idea. Despite only being active for under three years, Décima Víctima left a long-lasting legacy, and their influence would later be heard in Spanish bands such as Family, Los Planetas, and Sr Chinarro. In 1981, brothers Lars and Per Mertanen formed the instrumental band Clausula Tenebrosa. After a show they started talking about the possibility of rehearsing with Carlos, a friend at the time and ex-singer of the recently split Ejecutivos Agresivos. That's how the story of Décima Víctima started, rehearsing with a drum machine in the cellar of the Mertanens' house in Madrid. The first single came out in 1982, with Lars playing drums on it. Soon after, Los Esclarecidos introduced them to Jose Brena and he joined Décima Víctima as drummer. The second single was also recorded in 1982. A few months later they went to Vigo for a week to try out their repertoire live, in order to see which tracks the audience liked best and choose 12 for the record. The studio sessions were no short of joy and experimentation. Paco Trinidad, the producer, understood what the band wanted and managed to achieve it technically. Despite commercial success evaded them, their first LP was acclaimed by the press, especially by El Pais, one of the biggest-selling newspapers in Spain. Unavailable for years and always in high demand, this is the first time their debut album gets an official reissue in its original single LP format. For this edition, the sound of the original tape recordings has been cleaned and improved and the artwork has been slightly modified following the band's original idea.
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LP
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MR 394LP
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"After many years, we've recovered a rehearsal session that we had recorded on an old cassette tape. It had originally been laid down on a four-track recorder but unfortunately the tape got lost. The story of these tracks goes back to the last weekend of October 1983, when we went to record at Paco Trinidad's family home in the mountains north of Madrid. It was unexpectedly cold that weekend and we weren't prepared for the drop in temperatures . . . Paco recorded our latest songs on a four-track tape recorder at the house. It was done live, except for extra takes of Lars playing the clarinet and some guitar details. The garage sound, as the name suggests, was achieved in the garage and an adjoining room where José Brena played the drums. I used to write most of the lyrics . . . On this tape the track 'Una Vez Más' is instrumental and it's been so long now that we don't remember if it was like that at the time or if we hadn't defined the vocal melody yet. I rewrote most of the lyrics for the studio edition of the tracks on Un Hombre Solo (1984), with the exception of Lars's version of 'La Frontera Perdida'. It's not that his lyrics weren't good but I was more comfortable singing the words I wrote, as they felt more intimate . . . we always registered the songs as group compositions, drawing no distinctions between lyrics and music. The sleeve design is by Lars, who designed all the covers to our records. It's a photo montage of our performance for the Maqueta de Oro (Gold Demo) at the Diario Pop awards in March 1983, plus another photo of the band in the dressing room at Rock-Ola after playing our last gig. Áurea Cuní carried out the research and coordination among friends of friends in order to find photos of the group. The project for this record began months ago, when Per and his wife, Áurea, commented that they had listened again to the cassette tape of Décima Víctima that they kept in their storage room and had realized the power we had as a band. They said it was an interesting item for collectors and we should release it..." --Carlos Entrena, 2019
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