Deliberately gloomy, with a rugged, harsh, sharp and dense sound, and practically recorded live. Sr. Chinarro's latest album, La primera Ópera Envasada al Vacío, contains seven new songs that add up to over 38 minutes. It will be released on March 5th and distributed exclusively by Caroline (Spain), Poplane (France), Sabotage (Portugal) and Darla (USA)

After much beating around the bush - Antonio Luque's favorite sport - La primera Ópera Envasada al Vacío is meant to be the long play resurrection of the Seville-born artist. Following last year's successful EP La pena máxima, which was the EP of 2000 for Spanish magazine Rock de Lux and one of the top 12 of the year according to the French publication Magic!. Perhaps as the result of an uncomfortable personal exorcism, or maybe as a consequence of wanting to get to the bone both musically and lyrically, Sr. Chinarro deliver a piece of work that recuperates the atmospheres of their first record. La primera Ópera Envasada al Vacío picks up where they left singles such as Pequeño Circo or Lerele, to the point of being classifiable as "terminal". New interest is added by Luque's delivering; this time he is a crooner, singing with more emotion, disgust and hurt... than ever.

You'll have to look carefully to find the moment in which Luque switched from humor to rebuff, yet the artistic result is beyond surprising. All the typical Spanish themes for which Sr. Chinarro was known are lost, or at least diluted, in La primera Ópera Envasada al Vacío. Those expecting to find traces of Andalusia, eerie Semana Santa (Easter) festivities and sick fairs, references to Southern Spain and/or the Mediterranean, will have to dig deep. The music and the lyrics, the noise and the fury, are the whips that Luque shakes at his classic pop song until it becomes an unconventional piece of (post-) rock. It lingers half-way between Dominique A's "Remue" and The Cure's "Pornography" (he himself admits listening to Coldplay lately!), reminding us at times of the atmosphere created by Bark Psychosis or of Mogwai's sonic hammering. His voice, behaving as a whole other instrument, drags a neutral accent along tangles of guitars and relentless drumbeats, almost martial in their advance. String arrangements, which on La pena máxima emphasized the most emotive moments, transmit a sensation of discomfort.

Intense pieces such as El Recolector de Sandías or the endless Falta, the type defined by Ya tienes quien te planche, the more lyrical ways of Merche* and "Con Algas como Peluca" or the frenzied party atmosphere suggested by "Robando Gusanitos" are just a few notes from a demolishing collection.

This time Luque was accompanied by Zonites keyboard-player Carlos Ojeda and three members of the free-core band D4insight (Pepe Delgado: bass, Fernando Cañas: drums, y Pablo Vinuesa: guitar), with the special collaboration of Linda Pitmon - who usually drums for Steve Wynn- on two songs.

In a few weeks Acuarela will also release a compilation of Sr. Chinarro's previously unreleased songs, B-sides and alternative mixes, titled Despídete del Lago (las rarezas de Antonio Luque 93-2001).