Los Bonsáis

Blending the airy charm of twee pop with the dense, abrasive textures of shoegaze, the Spanish duo Los Bonsáis positioned themselves among noise pop indie acts that offset melodic warmth with harsh guitar textures. Across multiple releases the pair issued a run of albums and EPs whose peaks include the unpolished 2013 EP Martín Pescador and the tighter, shorter 2015 set Nordeste.

The group formed in Asturias when guitarist and songwriter Nel González began laying down C-86-inflected shoegaze demos in 2010 and invited friend Helena Toraño to handle vocals. Those recordings proved strong enough for the two to continue working as a unit. In 2011 they completed two demo collections—Ultramar in May and Es Mejor in July—before signing with the Spanish pop label Elefant. Their first EP for the imprint, Ultramarinos, appeared in early 2012 and was produced by Iván Juniper together with Eva Guilala of Linda Guilala; the result carried a weightier tone that left the duo’s scrappy, melodic take on shoegaze pop intact. While preparing material for their next outing, the pair published four issues of the fanzine Temporal, and Toraño mounted an exhibition of her artwork. The same personnel reconvened for the eight-song EP Martín Pescador, which Elefant released in early 2013. Another compact collection, Nordeste, arrived in February 2015 and packed ten tracks into seventeen minutes. That November the band issued the four-song EP ¡Fanzine!, consisting of Spanish-language covers of songs by Black Tambourine, the Vaselines, and additional favorites. Following several quiet years, Los Bonsáis resurfaced in 2019 with their debut full-length album, Hinoki.