Hot New Band: Toundra

Occupying the heavier end of the post-rock spectrum, Toundra are poised to release their stunning fourth album, titled IV in tribute to Led Zeppelin. It’s an album that crackles with energy, imagination and a sense of rejuvenation, as guitarist Esteban confirms.

“After the last album it was six months of non-stop touring then a lot of changes,” he recalls. “Victor [Garcia-Tapia], a founding member, left the band and now we have a new guitar player, David Paños. We signed a new record deal, too. It was exciting.”

So how have new blood and recent experiences shaped IV?

“With III we wanted to make a darker album,” Esteban explains. “IV is more energetic and more complete. We gathered new influences all the time and made an album from all these ingredients.” /o:p

The band’s artwork is again provided by New Yorker Chelsea Greene Lewyta. The striking image of two running foxes has been developed into an animated video for the track Oro Rojo and gives the barest of insights into Toundra’s world. Is there a concept behind the album, or indeed the band?

”We give some ingredients of a story but we don’t have lyrics, so it’s impossible to say that we should have a concept album with an explicit story,” says Esteban. “We give you sound, artwork, interviews, the video clip and every person can make their own story. But we wanted to have a red cover. We were thinking, ‘What is red?’ Fire is red, foxes are red. So we can make a record about foxes running in a forest that is burning… and you can imagine the forest is society or the economic state!

“We are stating some values, so there’s a little bit of politics in Toundra,” he adds. “But we are never going to include lyrics. We’re starting to have ideas about direction, and I would like not to use any language to describe the next album.”

IV IS OUT NOW VIA SUPERBALL/o:p