At this point, anyone starts presenting to Radio crime. In fact, we are talking about them because they are celebrating. It’s ten years already. Ten years that have passed since that first time “we have” (Brixton Records, 2013). Since then, many songs written, countless gigs, some line-up changes, but here they are, ten years older, having gained in pulse and strength, becoming almost synonymous with punk-rock.
And they celebrate it by extending their tour “Desde Las Kloakas Tour” because, shortly, right now, they will have a new album to defend; more food for his live repertoire, therefore. I don’t know how or when or who came up with it, but they have seen fit to write a punk opera, as they themselves have described it. There is nothing. They are not the first nor, almost certainly, they will be the last, but you have to have energy and desire to set out to publish, nowadays, a conceptual album, which was called before. If it’s already hard to get someone to escape the tyranny of the hit to be interested in an entire collection of songs, imagine if they all form an argument and ask you to listen to them together, in one sitting. It’s a long shot, and one should always applaud risk when taken in art, they say.
They have taken care, yes, that the format does not overflow. I explain. It’s like what Edgar Allan Poe said, and here I get lost, but I’ll try to show that it makes sense. Poe, who only wrote one novel in his long writing career, always argued that the strength of short stories and poetry lay in the totality of his composition. That is to say, that you could (and should be written for it) read a story in one go, in a single mouthful, and thus enjoy integral contemplation. Well here, the same. They ask that it be heard in one piece and the length, rhythm, and composition allow it, since they do not exceed minute numbers, in additional evocations, there are no shortcuts or detours.
The album, recorded, mixed and mastered at Chromaticity Studios by Aitor Tano and Pedro J. Monge, is called Franki, which, if you’re a fan of Radiocrimen, is surely a name that sounds familiar to you. They have divided it into three acts, with three songs in each except the last one, which ends with four. And all this contained in an intense half hour that adequately compresses the chronology of the main character. They go from Jon to Franki in a straight line, even though there are curves, drawing, in passing, time and the map of a territory and a very specific era. That, by the way, and in my humble opinion, is also appreciated. And it is that, although it is clear that they go back several generations and choose a very defined geography, they have not carried out a generic exercise and with the air of a paradigm, rather they have focused on a specific history and, from there, if appropriate, they expand. But, yes, I know, I haven’t given you the details and I haven’t explained myself well. Here it goes:
This punk opera tells the story of Jon, a young man who is located in the very center of the world, Bilbao, during the eighties. Jon lives, survives, despairs, does not wait, bursts and, in the end, becomes the aforementioned Franki, which, if you don’t know, I’ll tell you, is the name of the sixth Radio crime, the one that has become a symbol of the band, as much or more than the fuchsia pink color of its spelling, since it appeared on the cover of Mátame ten years ago, so it makes sense that they chose it as the protagonist of this tenth anniversary. In the long biographical journey through the mutation of Jon into Franki, the band expands and allows themselves to delve into that Bilbao that is never forgotten, the one that forty years ago defined, in part, the character of the city and its people. And it is not the one that appears on the album a dissipated Bilbao or outlined for fiction. It is a Bilbao that is wielded in detail and closeness, described from within, from memory and emotion. In songs like “Dios ha muerto”, ”Txitxarro” and “Plan ZEN”, they talk about the Mallona stairs, La Naja station, the Casco Viejo as a universe, MCD and the Clash as a soundtrack, the gaztetxes, the heroin, the Txitxarro nightclub, of course, the assembly of the unemployed and the already mentioned plan for the Special North Zone. That Bilbao that some can still feel and almost touch is the one that acts as a stage for us to see how Jon becomes Franki.
The breaking latest news begins and is presented in “Jon”, where the protagonist’s identity seems to be defined by third parties who describe him; however, already in “I do not accept”, the first person stands up and, when the transformation is complete in “Franki”, his voice becomes empowered and demands that his new identity be recognized. In any case, in this same song, there is a musical interval that takes us back to the first one, to “Jon”, and reminds us of all the way we’ve been through. It is achieved thanks to the voice of Nadège Ninne (also in charge of design, photography and layout), who shines by giving another rhythm and another nuance to the narrative. It is also the best example of what also happens at other times and on the record in general, because the Radio crime they show muscle, but also flexibility, the ability to twist the patterns and complicate the epidermis of the story that they try to convey in verses and chords. The disc has diversity and folds, it moves through time, admitting the investigation. Thus, they achieve a collection of songs that border on epic, but without losing immediacy. One can imagine that they are going to scream at the top of their lungs at concerts. Thus, for example, the police repression twists in the dark rhythm and the painful echo of “Mr. X” and the awareness of being different sustains the resistance in “I am a mistake”. And, in “Bastardos”, you can feel the spirit of that solid and sharp punk-rock, with throwing verses and swollen veins, which seems to define the genre and the ten-year career of this band, but, in the rest of the repertoire, It shows, as I tried to explain before, that compositional plasticity that enriches the songs and the record in general. As a maximum example, the free adaptation they make of “Where Is My Mind” by The Pixies in “My mental chaos”. Which, by the way, is not the only version, because, somewhere, search, I won’t say more, Patrik Fitzgerald will appear with his heart pierced by a safety pin, what works, I read it that way, as testimony of what the punk has meaning to many. That same assorted inspiration can also be seen in the knots of the plot, which is passed from one song to another with the suture of a roll or with the stitching of a bass line or with the hinge of an expectant silence. But, always, although the songs ponder themselves, they manage to keep that curious breath that wonders what will be next, how the story will end.
And, to find out, you have nothing left, because the day is coming. They announced that the premiere would be this April 14. The discs, I have read somewhere, will carry a postcard signed by the group as a gift and, for the first 25, a badge. In addition, they have announced that all those who come to the gig this Saturday, April 15 at the Kafe Antzokia in Bilbao, the day of the premiere, will receive a free copy on CD. If you can’t attend, don’t worry, you’ll have more days. The Radio crimeFrom the looks of things, they never get tired of going around and visiting places. In November, they will travel to Latin America and, before that, they already have commitments in Vigo, Gijón, Lleida, Burgos and some other place. So, take a look, Jon and Franki may be walking around your city, see if you’re going to meet them when you turn a corner, even if it’s the corner of time.