Fogbound

Provenientes de Galicia, se manejan por las espaciosas coordenadas pop que a finales de los sesenta cruzaron la primeriza psicodelia con el embrión del hard. Podríamos indicar como referentes ectoplásmicos a los Yardbirds de PAge o los Opend Mind de "Magic Potion". Fieles y rigurosos practicantes de lo mejor que dio de sí el freakbeat, de hecho sus dos singles podrían pasar por ocultos acetatos de luminarias como Wimple Winch. Sulfuroso, turgente y maleable pop poseedor de la agilidad y brillante resolución de The Move o el "Happenings Ten Years Ago" de Los Yardbirds.
Aquí manda ese olvidado canon para el neo-psych, la canción. Añadiéndole a todo ello ciertas dosis de esoterismo época Swingin London, como bien asevera Fabio, guitarra y cantante: "A mi personalmente me encanta todo lo relacionado con el ocultismo. Ya bien sea por mi contenida obsesión con Jimmy Page, o por todas las películas de terror que he tenido la ventaja de ver desde que tenía 5 o 6 años. Nuestro anterior single "Whispering Corridors" es un guiño a la saga de terror coreano".
Asunto también presente en su segundo single, "Purple Wax", "que va de eso, de un amigo que deja a su pareja en una fábrica abandonada donde hacen una misa negra con ella como forzada protagonista. Al final de la canción se escucha algo así como: Fúndeme con tu cera púrpura".
Preparando ya su primer elepé, que imagino redundara en las bondades expansivas del sonido de sus anteriores singles, uno de ellos, pasto ya del coleccionismo internacional, "pues estamos trabajando en temas nuevos que siguen por los mismo cauces. Quizá el primer largo de un grupo siempre tiende a ser una amalgama de singles, pero desde luego no vamos a caer en la comodidad de incluir lo que ya está grabado". Pero antes de volver a entrar a grabar se van a tocar a Londres, al festival Le Beat Bespoké, junto a The Misunderstood y Kaleidoscope, grupos que deberían ser obligatorios para nuestros lectores.
Ante semejante honor Fabio se quita importancia y se la otorga a su obsesiva militancia, algo digno de admiración: "Vamos gracias a nuestra insistente chapa a Rob Bailey. Ya nos vio tocar en el Euroyeyé y en el mismo festi tiene un apartado de bandas emergentes. Existe una cantidad ingente de grupo que hace neopsicodelia...pero grupos que intente reavivar la llama del freakbeat creo que somos de los pocos insanos que los llevamos a cabo". - Ruta 66 (MAY-2015, Spain)

Summoning the best classic British mod-psych sounds is all in a day's work for these fast-rising Spaniards.

If you know your psych you'll certainly be aware that Fogbound is the title of one of the standout tracks from Michael Lloyd's classic Sgt Pepper meets Pet Sounds opus The Smoke from 1968.
It's also the moniker of one of the most exciting new bands to come out of southern Europe in quite a while, a band named partly after The Smoke classic and partly after the occasional mists of their city, A Coruña in northern Spain. Their debut single caused some serious ripples last year and now they're back with the follow-up.
Fogbound play old school freakbeat, but with massive psych twists, and their swirly sounds are drive along by a classical L-100 Hammond. "Foggy" seems an ideal way to describe them. Take "Kicking Eucalyptus Seeds" one side of the new single, which also owes a debt to countless post-60's bands (with particular nods to The Prisoners and The Clique). Older tracks, which you cand find on their Soundcloud page, are just as urgent, exciting and mind-blowing.
Given their Swinging London sound it is no surprise to discover that the band is completely obsessed by the period. Fabio Mahía(lead vocals, guitar) explains how "the first British psychedelia era is our greatest influence - from Pink Floyd to The Attack, amongst many others. We include a host of British covers in our set including "Strange House"(The Attack), "In The Deep End"(The Artwoods) and "Lovers from the sky"(Contact)".
It also turns out that A Coruña houses a thriving psych scene. "There are 60's parties almost every weekend!" says Fabio. "It's a familiar and lovely scene. I personally adore Puma Pumku [refreshing neo-psych]".
Even if you can't catch Fogbound live there is still plety of recorded music to look forward to. On it's way it's a split single with the intriguingly-named Mega Purple Sex Toy Kit, then a third 45, and eventually an album to follow by the end of the year. IT all ends up to them being well on their way to becoming a key international psych band. - Shindig! (ISSUE 46, UK)

Galician psych wonders Fogbound are finally about to unleash their debut long-player.
Andy Morten drops in for tea and octopus.
It's been over a year since Fogbound's last single, 'Lazy Lad', received rave notices amongst spectators of 60's influenced psychedelic rock. As the A Coruña based quartet's self-titled debut nears completion, Shindig! asks lead singer and guitarist Fabio Mahía what the group have been up to in the interim.
'We've been playing a lot this year: we tour all over Italy in March,Barcelona Psych Fest, WOS, Gijón Sound, GetMad. This has been brilliant to improve our live sound and to learn to live together in a van. We've also rehearsed and recorded the LP'.
As the band's principal songwriter, Fabio explains his inspirations. 'I like to write in English for the band because most of my influences came from the UK and USA. IF you have a good ear you can approach a decent accent. It's hard but, fortunately, a friend of mine helps me with some grammatical issues. It is a collaborative thing?Basically, I compose all the tunes at home with my acoustic guitar. This is the best part of the process because it's all about intuition, experiences and sensations. Then we shape the songs at rehearsal. Each member brings their ideas and a different point of view from their own influences".
Despite their sonic authenticity, previous Fogbound releases were recorded live and captured with Protools. The allure of analogue recording, however, proved too tempting to ignore any longer. 'Yes, we've gone back to the analogue method. We spent more days mixing and producing the entire LP than recording it. The concept that we were looking for was to represent who we are in a live context and I think we have achieved it".
The band's buoyant, combustible live sound was captured in Estudio Brazil in Madrid. 'It's a great studio, led by the eminent Javier Ortiz. He was aware of the techniques we wanted to user because we had talked about our influences beforehand. We realise that we had chosen the right studio from the very first moment. His professionalism and knowledge made us feel very comfortable and everything began to flow. I had a basic idea about each song in terms of production, but he also helped us by providing ideas and solutions'.
The group's sonic palette has similarly been expanded beyond the guitar/bass/drums archetype of live shows. 'Fernando played a Mellotron for two songs and a grand piano for another. When we recorded the basis we realised that we had to put a few overdubs here and there. The best part of the studio trickery came with the tape flanging on 'Edward Devine'(see last issue's It's Happening 3 compilation). Javi disguised himself as a magician and he did a sublime job. Other effects involved were and AKG reverb, ADT for vocals, Roland Echo and many more. We are a psychedelic band in all senses!'.
Riotous, colour-drenched packaging has remained a constant trough the group's release so far. 'We wanted to express the whole concept in the artwork. I made a sketch in which each song is represented by an image. David Cobo applied textures in the style of Iván Zulueta. So, a mix of Iván Zulueta an Klaus Voorman seems to be perfect!'. - Shindig!(Issue 63)