Made up of Josefine Jonsson (bass), Serra Petale (guitar), Nic Crawshaw (drums), and Agustina Ruiz (synths/keytar), London-based Los Bitchos are releasing their latest long player, Talkie Talkie, via indie label City Slang, following on the heels of the band’s 2022 debut album, Let the Festivities Begin!
Describing the album, guitarist Petale says, “Sparkling, eclectic. There’s a real sparkly edge to ‘Talkie Talkie.’ That’s the mood of the record.” She goes on, “That said, we didn’t want to make a throwback record. In some ways, we are all in the same musical echo chamber, where we all take in everything from everywhere. Like a lot of our favorite music, it invokes that little sense of sadness, but also something like hope.”
Los Bitchos arrived on the music scene in 2019, releasing two 7” singles that designated them as a band ready to burst out. Since then, they’ve appeared on crème de la crème festival stages, including Glastonbury, SXSW, and Coachella, and sharing the stage with Pavement, Belle & Sebastian, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.
Encompassing a dozen tracks, highlights on Talkie Talkie include “Hi!,” with its bluesy, psychedelia-lace guitars riding a Latin-lite funk rhythm. The best part of the song is when Petale chants, “Suck on that one, bitch!”
There’s a delicious, sleazy, swaying motion to the instrumental “Kiki, You Complete Me,” a blend of slinky surf rock and galvanizing alt-rock marinated in exotic savors. The feel and mood of the melody is sensuous and beckoning, like a Siren crooking her finger at her quarry. “1K” glides on a guacharaca rhythm of cumbia as witchy, spectral guitar tones infuse the tune with a Santana-like flow, dreamy yet dripping with sorceress surfaces. A personal favorite because of its hints of Spaghetti Western and galloping flow, “La Bomba” flirts with tints of country rock embellished with Latin spice.
“Open the Bunny, Wasting My Time” conjures up suggestions of The Ventures dipped in Latin surf rock zest. The rhythm gambols and prances with pizzazz as luminous guitars give the melody voluptuous accents.
Darker, hurtling guitars and a careering rhythmic beat give the final track, “Let Me Cook You,” a contagious movement full of the peppery kinesis of Latin surf rock on maximum parade. A braying organ adds oozing depth and dimension to the harmonics. Drenched in swirling reverb, the atmosphere evoked by Talkie Talkie is lush and cinematic – whiffs of surf rock, loping Latin drums, and shiny, liquid guitar twangs.
