The organizers of the 2021 Ruido Award announced this week the list of finalists vying for the prize that recognizes the best Spanish album of the past year. Among the finalists are Zahara, Rufus T. Firefly, Alizzz, Baiuca, C. Tangana, Vetusta Morla, and Kiko Veneno.
The finalists are chosen through contributions from members of the PAM (Associated Music Journalists) association . Each member nominates 12 albums released between December 2020 and December 2021 to form the shortlist for the 2021 Ruido Award. The winner will be selected through a new round of voting, open until December 30th, and will be announced at a ceremony next January.
Meet the finalists
Want to know which Spanish albums are vying for the 2021 Ruido Award? You've probably heard some of them—especially if you keep up with our new music releases —but this could be a great opportunity to discover others. And why not add a few tracks to your favorite playlist?
- "There must be something else", by Alizzz (Whoa Music). This is the debut of the Catalan Alizzz, one of the most sought-after producers today whose work was recognized at the last Latin Grammy Awards. A project composed of 10 songs and electronically funky rhythms that has the collaboration of artists such as Rigoberta Bandini, Los Planetas, Little Jesus or Amaia.
- "Embruxo", by Baiuca (Flat Study). Alex Guillán continues to explore the Galician tradition from a contemporary perspective, mixing traditional Galician music with electronic sounds, in this his second album in which he has had numerous collaborations.
- "La Contraçeña", by Califato ¾ (Breaking Bass Records). After his debut album “Puerta de la Cânne”, Califato 3/4 returns with a new album that is less salty and more authentic than the previous one, but equally vindictive, combative and joker. An album that offers an avant-garde vision of the folklore and electronics of the XNUMXs.
- "El Madrileño", by C. Tangana (Sony Music Entertainment Spain). C. Tangana's seventh album represents a new turn in his career, one of the most risky. The themes that make up the album are born, not only from a study of the most urban folklore of the late 80s and early 90s, but also from an identity link with the origins of Spanish music and the artist's own life. Thus, it is not strange to find collaborations as diverse as those of Andrés Calamaro, Jorge Drexler, Toquinho, José Feliciano, Kiko Veneno, La Húngara, Tonino Vallardo or Eliades Ochoa, among others.
- “Hilo Negro”, by Derby Motoreta's Burrito Kachimba (Primavera Labels / Universal Music). As "a perfect remake of genuine Andalusian rock approached from the perspective of bicivoladores from outer space", this second album by Derby Motoreta's Burrito Kachimba describes the official Primavera Labels press release.
- "Hunger", by Kiko Veneno (Kiko Veneno). With a flamenco and electronic sound, “Hambre” collects ten new songs with a more distressed, minimalist and sad tone than those of his previous work, Sombrero Roto. «A bet as if to extract the rage and the roots of the old flamenco, but with contemporary sound».
- "KOKOSHCA", by Kokoshca (Sound Boy). Kokoshca focuses on this new eponymous work in its well-known facet of creators, postponing, its more experimental vein. A collection of ten songs with good choruses and freely interpretable lyrics for each person who listens to them.
- "MKMK", by Maika Makovski (BMG Rights Management and Administration SLU). «He is direct, in the band, vigorous and raw; It's probably a rock album, although, as always in my work, there are songs that escape the label. Songs that speak of connecting, of coming together, of turning one's back on this system of unhappiness. " This is how the artist herself has defined it.
- "Clamor ”, by María Arnal i Marcel Bagès (Fine stamp). Continuity and evolution go hand in hand in this new album by the duo. An album more experimental than its predecessor, although rooted in the popular Hispanic song, which is based on the sounds of electronics and nature, as well as the use of the voice as an instrument.
- Morgan's "The River and the Stone" (North Records). The themes of this new Morgan studio album are concentrated between folk-rock ballads and blues rock. There are a dozen, recorded together with Campi Campón as producer and finished off by Stuart White to the mixes.
- "South in the Valley", by Quique González (Rock Culture / Warsaw Records). With a marked existentialist character, the new album by Madrilenian Quique González puts landscapes before stories and offers eleven songs, calm and restful.
- "The Long Morning", by Rufus T. Firefly (Orange Lake Records). Rufus T. Firefly breaks with his past in some way to embrace soul in this new album composed of eight songs with great instrumental richness and a look at the seventies.
- "Aurora y Enrique", by Soleá Morente (Elefant Records). Genuine and flamenco, Soleá composes all the songs on this new album that it is advisable to listen to from beginning to end. Because although the songs have different tempos and styles, they share an atmosphere that gives them coherence.
- "Cable a Tierra", by Vetusta Morla (Little Somersault). Cable a Tierra is the sixth studio album by Vetusta Morla, a collection of 10 original songs in which the group explores the sounds and rhythms of the folklores from here and on the other side of the Atlantic, without pretending to appropriate it, but rather rather integrating everything into his own sound to create new aesthetic and musical forms.
- "PUTA", by Zahara (GOZZ Records). PUTA is a conceptual, heartbreaking and cathartic album in which Zahara has vomited everything that was inside him: life, sorrows and hatred. An album in which he has had the help of his partner and friend Martí Perarnau as a producer.