Madeira Press, Articles, & Reviews

"Tribal Fires" was the featured album on the Spanish public radio surf show El Sotano (The Basement) on April 24th, 2012. You can listen to the entire hour-long streamed show here (we're featured in the first 15 minutes only).

The translated description of the show:

The album featured today is the next release by The Madeira, an Indianapolis-based band led by guitarist Ivan Pongracic, a passionate (and encyclopedic) student of surf music. "Tribal Fires" is by far the best album in the genre that we've heard so far this year. An instrumental and conceptual trip into the dark jungle with ultra-intense passages, enigmatic atmospheres and absolutely captivating melodies, as you will hear in Tribal Fury, Twilight and Mar Vista on today's show.

The translated comments by the show's DJ, RJ Diego:

[the show opens with "Tribal Fury"]

The song "Tribal Fury" pays homage to grandmaster of surf guitar, Mr. Dick Dale, both in its atomic sound and its title which echos Dale's "Tribal Thunder". It is the spectacular beginning to Tribal Fires, the third album by The Madeira, out of Indianapolis, led by one of most active, respected and deeply involved figures in surf music, the guitarist Ivan Pongracic. A passionate student of the genre, Pongracic founded the galactic surf group Space Cossacks in the '90s . On his first album with the Madeira, Sandstorm, he turned to desert landscapes. On their second album, Carpe Noctem, he created a dark, mysterious atmosphere, but always with a foot in the classic surf sound. We look for Pongracic's articles published in The Continental magazine and on the web on Surf Guitar 101.

Tribal Fire ranks among the best albums of its kind that have appeared in 2012. Here is "Twilight," a 24-carat melody, with a sound that winks - with great respect - at the great Shadows.

[plays "Twilight"]

Like earlier albums, Tribal Fire is thematic and conceptual. If on Sandstorm there were references to the desert, here the Madeira takes us into the jungle. The song titles allude to a mysterious journey through Central Africa. But do not expect to find 'exotic' sounds. Rather, the music is 100% surf instrumental, with a great variety of sound, impeccable riffs and solos. They pay homage to Ernesto Lecuona in a tremendous version of "Jungle Drums", and once more honor the Australian surf pioneers, the Atlantics, playing their song "Giant". But all other compositions are by Pongracic and his six-string partner Patrick O'Connor.

Tribal Fires is the great surf album of 2012. It's out on the Double Crown label. If you like instrumental surf and musical surprises, seek it out. Here is one of the surprises you will find there: "Mar Vista".

[plays "Mar Vista"]

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