PABLO Y LOS CIERVOS DORADOS

Sometimes all that matters are the songs. And the songs by Pablo y los Ciervos Dorados have something different from everything that surrounds us. In a sea of generic music, the songs of this trio from Pontevedra are an anchor to hold on to. They draw from folk rock and slowcore, from Red House Painters, from Lisa Germano or MJ Lenderman, but they take it somewhere else. Because their songs are both expressive and completely free—sometimes stretched into unusually long forms, sometimes reduced to simple sketches—but always deeply moving.

Born in the heat of the legendary DIY space that is, has been, and will be Liceo Mutante, Pablo y los Ciervos Dorados have gone through several iterations and explored different genres, educating themselves musically around post-rock and experimental electronics. It is in this latter form that Pablo’s songs have ultimately settled into something intimate and narrative-driven, working as a kind of triumphant practitioner of a rare form of songwriting in Spanish music: that of the children (or rather grandchildren) of Neil Young—an impulsive folk somewhere between the emotional and the violent. And the great strength of these songs lies in their ability to turn the everyday into something epic, to be absolutely sincere, and to operate on a profoundly emotional level.