Spanish instrumentalists El Páramo are gearing up to issue a DVD called Live at Ritmo y Compás that captures a full set in multi-cam professional style taped at the Madrid venue Ritmo y Compás — now defunct, as I understand it — for what was dubbed the Madrid Stoner Festival Showcase. Dutch acts The Machine and Sungrazer also played the Feb. 19, 2013, show, as part of a tour they were doing together at the time. It was a packed house, and if the video of El Páramo is anything to go by, a killer vibe, and the desert rocking four-piece made the most of the good company they were keeping, playing a total four songs in 38 minutes.

Three of the cuts they played had yet to be released at the time. El Páramo put out a self-titled debut (review here) in 2008 via Alone Records but had been heard from little since. In 2014, they would release a second album, also self-titled, through Nooirax Producciones, Gran Sol and their own La Polvareda Records imprint. It was recorded late in 2012, so by the time they played the Ritmo y Compás for this show, the record would’ve already been in the can for a couple months, but it would be more than a year still before it was made public. Still, though they may not have heard the LP, the room doesn’t show any sign of trouble getting into “Turbina,” “Aspid” or “Llano Alto,” and with the warm tones and thick, immersive grooves it’s little wonder.

Captured with brilliantly clear audio production and right-on camerawork that makes the most of the very, very red lighting that the Ritmo y Compás seemed to have on offer, the El Páramo set rounds out with the engaging jam “La Polvareda” from the debut, beginning just before the 27-minute mark in the video and carrying the band — guitarists David López and Jorge Garcia, bassist Santiago González and drummer Santiago Núñez — through to their finish with lush ebbs and flows that never seem to lose their fullness of sound as loud or quiet as they get. I don’t know the release details on when the DVD version of Live at Ritmo y Compás will be out, but the video’s available to dig into now, and I have the privilege this afternoon of hosting the premiere.

Please find El Páramo‘s Live at Ritmo y Compás on the player below, followed by some background on the band, and enjoy:

El Páramo, Live at Ritmo y Compás DVD

19-02-2013. Ritmo y Compás, Madrid
Madrid Stoner Festival Showcase: El Paramo + Sungrazer + The Machine

1 – Turbina (0:00 – 09:38)
2 – Aspid (09:39 – 15:35)
3 – Llano Alto (15:36 – 26:49)
4 – La Polvareda (26:50 – 38:29)

Cam and video edition: Adrián Rios, Raul de Lucio (Proyecto Huracán)
Sound recording and edition: Victor Caldera (Proyecto Huracán)
Sound engineer: Raúl Lorenzo

El Páramo was formed at the beginning of 2005 in Madrid. After Sou Edipo split up, drummer Santi Núñez and guitarist David López (Sou Edipo) searched for a new band where they could convey their musical aspirations. Jorge, partner guitarist with David in Adrift, joined the band together with bassist Santi, forming what would be the definitive band members of El Páramo, creating an instrumental, progressive and atmospheric music that arouses mesmerizing, cathartic and desert-like connotations.

From their very first concert in 2005, El Páramo has played live concerts in Spain as well as abroad. At the end of 2007, El Páramo recorded their first analogue live album (No title) edited by the Málaga record label Alone Records.

El Páramo has played in national music festivals, such as Costa de Fuego or Aloud Music Festival. Moreover, they have performed with the most outstanding bands of the modern scene, like Colour Haze, Motorpsycho, Nick Olivieri (QOTSA, Kyuss…). In 2014’ s spring El Páramo released their new album. To publish it, they have created their own record label La Polvareda Records, which together with Nooirax Productions and Gran Sol, distributes the album, without title too. Now David also play in Toundra and Jorge in a new band called Viva Honduras!

El Páramo on Thee Facebooks

El Páramo on Bandcamp

Nooirax Productions

El P?ramo hablan del desierto. Actually, they don’t “hablan” (or whatever the correct verb form is; apologies for my ignorance of the beautiful Spanish language) at all, they’re instrumental. But musically, their free-flowing jams and Colour Hazey tones point the way to wind-carved dunes that stretch for miles. The Madrid four-piece, whose name translates to The Wasteland, offer a simple take on desert rock but don’t go as far as ripping anyone off. Their influences are easily discernable — Colour Haze and Kyuss being principle — but the seven tracks on their Alone Records self-titled debut boast a warmth and character that’s all their own.

Santi, Santi, Jorge and David (drums, bass, guitar and guitar, respectively) offer their ’70s psych wares in a variety of packages, be it the expanse of opener “Varicela,” which at 11:53 does more than merely set the tone for the rest of El P?ramo or the heavier, riffier, “Sirope de Arena,” which follows “La Benedici?n de Eolo,” a track that eases the transition by combining jamming with more straight ahead guitar work.

As ever with roots stoner rock, and even more so with the European variety than with their US counterparts who will try anything to avoid the label, El P?ramo don’t necessarily branch out much from the well established parameters of the style sound-wise — that is, they’re not bringing in unexpected instrumentation or off-the-wall timing — but as the Los Natas-esque lines that run through the early part of “Infecci?n de Escorpi?n” sweetly ring out, the lack of pretentiousness alone is enough to carry the song. It’s a rare genre that’s so approachable? that bands can get together and release albums purely because they love the music. The vibe I get from El P?ramo is that they are as much saluting the masters of the style as they are emulating them.

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