2007 was a crucial year for me, mainly because I left my parents' house to study Architecture in Santiago. But independently from that, what marked the way of things to come was the fact that that summer (in January, more precisely –remember I'm in the southern hemisphere–) I went to England for an exchange program to study English, and I had to spend my 18th birthday there. The most suitable scenario for an introspective trip.
Although the idea had already been there for a while, in England I came to the conclusion that I was not satisfied with who I was, that I was leading my life very poorly. Closing the syllogism with the premise that I had enough willpower, I decided that it was time for a change and to answer more thoroughly the metaphysical and existential questions that had been baiting me for so long. The experiment of adolescence had ended and it was time to learn some lessons out of those years.
Music was one of the key areas within this process. I decided that it was time to leave behind the barriers that I had somehow imposed myself and to begin an unguided exploration that would enable me to reach the vast sonic spectrum that I had been disregarding until then.
This research through recondite places obviously had some stumbles and many times I discovered sounds that don't deserve a second listen. But it was a journey that I was leading, and I was willing to "lose" my time with the only aim of learning as much as I could.
Blogs were one of the main means to this end. One that I warm-heartedly remember is
Get Off My Elevator. Thanks to websites like this, I discovered a lot of new music, and after a while of navigation through these unexplored waters, I decided that I wanted to share what I was learning. I opened Hijos de Saturno with this simple objective. That's why there are no limits; there can't be, there shouldn't be. When limits are imposed, learning is truncated, it becomes withered by definition.
Nonetheless, although this blog has no musical limits, it does have a very clear philosophy as regards how the world works. Capitalism has destroyed the arts and conservatism obscures the human being's creative potential. Music can't be reigned by a market logic. Thus, opening spaces like this enables us to spread the access to music and to contribute to honest, limitless human expression.
Yet, Hijos de Saturno has not been something oriented only to others, but to myself as well. This blog has a personal value: many changes took place in my life throughout the years that followed the beginning of Hijos de Saturno, which to a certain extent transformed it into a living record of my becoming. And that strengthens the idea that this can't just end here.
Ignacio MF.
Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements is an album that combines an almost decidedly pop sensitivity with the hypnotic volatility of krautrock. Without hesitation, Stereolab wanders from simple indie melodies such as "I'm Going Out Of My Way" –which, by the way, don't leave the german influences aside– to epic motorik deliria such as "Golden Ball" or "Jenny Ondioline". In sum, all this multiform variety of mellow but deep melodies constitute a powerful album, beautiful and delicately lysergic, in which Lætitia Sadier's sweet voice builds a trance fed by perfect synthesizers, space drums and an evident (but subtle) experimental vocation. In other words, they form an album that gives new life to krautrock without selling it to a commercial sound, but nourishing it with a dreamy, harmonious sensitivity. —IMF