Aeons ago I wrote about the Spanish duo Toilettes. This is what I said:
Toilettes: I heard “Observatorio” on the CD16 and thought, where does this beautiful lo-fi racket comes from? They hail from Barcelona and they are two girls, Joana Mallol and Julieta Caprara. They have a tape out (I don’t know if it is still available) on Discos Walden/Discos Populares and it includes 8 songs, all which you can stream on their Soundcloud. This is really, really great. Pop that reminds of flexi girl-fronted indiepop bands like The Felicitys, The Definite Article, or even Talulah Gosh!
It’s been almost 10 years since the release of their self titled tape. And I am honestly confused in how come their music didn’t make more of an impact, and how they didn’t release more records. And on top of it all, did Joana and Julieta continued making music with other bands?
The “Toilettes” tape came out on May 19, 2016, on Ediciones Populares (EP09) and Discos Walden (DW52), both Spanish labels. I am much more familiar with Discos Walden who has released many bands I enjoy as well as some top-notch books related to indiepop and DIY. The album only had 8 tracks, all songs under one minute. The longest song clocks 1:39 minutes. Imagine.
The tracks are “Observatorio”, “Coge el Dinero”, “Salgo a la Calle”, “El Metabolismo”, “Dulce Hogar”, “Persiguiendo el Mal”, “Serpiente de Papel” and “Viaje a Zurich”. Julieta played electric guitar, electronic drums, backing vocals. Joana played keyboards and sang. The music is credited to both and the lyrics to Joanna.
As mentioned earlier, their track “Observatorio” was part of the terrific compilation “CD16” that my friend Joel released under Impermeable Records (IR-CD001). A compilation that captured the great moment indiepop was having with a great crop of bands in 2016.
On the band’s Soundcloud we encounter a few tracks not present in the tape like a cover of the Bananas song “Salí del Cuerpo” or the song “Bye Bye.”
The band had set up a Facebook page. But there’s really not much in it. A photo dating from April 2015 says that they were preparing for their first gig.
I look for more info. I see that Julieta made the artwork for the Barcelona band Pacífico’s album “Muévete” in 2016. On this band I know both good friends Toni Amaya and Óscar Huerta played. Maybe they know more about Toilettes? I also believe that Joana made the video for the song “Buen Pastor” by the Barcelona band Miedo.
I find a gig where they played. They played the Ladyfiesta de Invierno on December 18, 2015, alongside Lucius Works Here, Pentina’T Lula! and Les Suques. I think this was in Barcelona.
I keep searching. I see that Julieta is actually from Argentina. She also goes under the name Jay and has been living in Santander prior to the Toilettes. There she was playing guitar with the band Meryl Streep and made cool fanzines like the one for Soma Records. She also Djed at a bunch of places like Metropole, Opium, Gareje Sónico or Zeppelin.
As far as I know the duo was based in Madrid. Julieta must have moved.
I read that a video was made for a song. I am not sure which song. I read the director was filmmaker Marçal Forés. Anyone knows? I can’t seem to find it in Youtube. But I did find another connection between the director and the band. Marçal made a film called “Amor Eterno” in 2014. I haven’t seen it. But it looks like Joanna was part of the actors in the movie.
And that’s what I could find. The two disappeared after Toilettes. A true shame as the tape was wonderful really. A burst of perfect pop. I hope they are involved in a way or another in music, or in the arts. Would be great what happened to them.
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Listen
Toilettes – Observatorio
