Led from Xixón by Arantxa Carcedo (ESVA, Coru antifascista Al Altu la Lleva) and Alejandro Rodríguez (Pijamas Social Club, Kresy, Bep Kororoti), in a short space of time and with only two singles released, Ciudad Naranco have carved out a valuable niche for themselves in the alternative pop scene, thanks to their melodic blend of post‑punk with explicit cold‑wave and synth‑wave elements; a blend that now crystallises in «Avería», their debut album.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Rodríguez himself at Ondas Parraque, «Avería» synthesises the diagnosis of a mechanism that has ceased to function and, through its mechanical failure, sabotages the system. This metaphor, like a techno‑pop opera, comes to life through the life journey of a protagonist who falls victim to a modern tragedy born of material, temporal and existential oppression: a middle‑aged woman whose life goes off the rails and spirals downwards into self‑destruction, marked by escapism, denial and addiction, culminating in paranoia that leads to the dissolution of her personality.
«Avería» kicks off with a slap of reality in «No eres», a dark anthem about the cardboard cut‑out fetishes of youth on which identity is built, confronting her with her own mediocrity. Then «Uñas de emperador» foreshadows the consequences of an erratic life and the fallout for those close to her. Next comes «Divertículos», where she takes the first‑person voice to celebrate her love for the most dangerous playful tendencies (not without a certain undercurrent of self‑pity and a sense of self‑control). In «Intrascendencia», she begins to consider death as the only certainty in life, which in some way justifies it, and then the poetic and enigmatic «Fuego temporal» closes side A, like an initiatory rite of no return towards total escapism. Side B opens with «Funcionarios del karma», delving into the pit of misery where loss of control is the norm. In «Frenopático» our protagonist pops her head up again, begging for a companion in her drift but surrendering out of love for perdition, and from there the story hurtles into a spiral of paranoia against the world (Complot), which turns into blindness (Odio persistente) and ends inevitably in tragedy (Cuerpos quebrados).
