Tomentas Malsanas translates to unhealthy storms. The name of the Miami based band’s new album pays tribute to it’s home, it’s weather, and the cacophony of it’s music scene. Where so much current music often finds itself repeating the same dynamic note, focussing on musical lucidity and aesthetic constants, it is refreshing to hear a band capture the turbulence of both interior and exterior worlds. From heavenly ambience to uncompromising volume levels, Las Nubes scratch an itch that often goes unnoticed.
Ale Campos and Emile Milgrim, the two women who make up Las Nubes, both have extensive experience within the music industry: Milgrim is a sound designer and co-founder of Miami Girls Rock Camp; Campos is currently a guitarist for Iggy Pop’s touring band; both heavily involved in music education and empowering young girls. It is an impressive resume, and it’s not everyday you come across two artists who contribute to the wider music scene as much as this. Listening to Tormentas Malsanas, offers if only a slight indication to the love and commitment both Campos and Milgrim have for their work. It is a truly wonderful body of work, one that evokes such fury and such joy; it’s energy is totally infectious.
‘Would Be’ begins with an ambient guitar-scape, before launching into a duel vocal chant over some of the heaviest garage progressions I’ve heard in a long time. ‘Pesada’ is in a similar vein; a slower track with a chugging grunge groove, bearing resemblance to the heavier moments of, Waxahatchee and, Soundgarden. The only way I can describe the bass is ‘nasty’; it’s thick and distorted, with a perfect storm of shrill guitars raining down from above. It really is no wonder that Las Nubes has been recognised by noise rock pioneers and champions; Thurston Moore, Calvin Johnson, and of course, Iggy Pop. It’s difficult to not to notice a band made up of two queer women, covered head-to-toe in tattoos, making a positive mark in their local scene, producing some of the loudest music around – it is a striking image.
The rest of, Tormentas Malsanas is an absolute joy. My personal favourite, ‘Canse’ is a roaring sprint of a song, a moment that would fit quite nicely into any 2000s city-based indie film. The album is a testament to friendship; to Campos and Milgrim’s clear and utter devotion to their art, whether that’s getting kids to engage in making their own music, or getting on stage with rock’n’roll legends and showing them how it’s done. They’re a truly exciting band; however, I think it’s best put by Iggy Pop himself: “Like the children and the young at heart across North and South America, they rock from the soul, covered in tattoos and attitude. They represent an uncompromising lifestyle trend that is the future. They’re fucking loud, too.”
Written by Callum Foulds
