The Pinker Tones

by Stewart Mason At a time when the Spanish indie pop scene tends to favor either retro power pop or Belle & Sebastian-style tweeness, Barcelona-based duo the Pinker Tones pursue their own uniquely rewarding path. Their largely electronic sound blends straightforward bubblegum hooks, dance rhythms, and a magpie-like attitude to all styles and eras of pop music past. Salvador Rey (vocals, guitar, keyboards, flute) and Alex Llovet (keyboards, samples, drums) met at university in the late '90s and formed the Pinker Tones in 2001 when Rey was offered a commission to compose a soundtrack for a television documentary and he approached his neighbor Llovet about using the latter's home studio for the project. Enjoying the collaboration, the pair continued under the name the Pinker Tones, adopting the stage names Mister Furia (Rey) and Professor Manso (Llovet) as part of an overarching concept of incorporating humor and multilingual positivity into their music. Following a pair of introductory singles, the Pinker Tones released their debut album, The BCN Connection, in 2003. While maintaining a strong sideline in producing and remixing other artists and composing soundtracks for television and film, the Pinker Tones recorded their second album, The Million Colour Revolution, over the course of two years, releasing it worldwide in early 2006. A slow-building buzz around the duo -- helped along by their half-band, half-DJ live sets and a series of entertaining videos -- led to the Canadian label Nettwerk Records picking up the duo's own label, Pinkerland Records, for North American distribution. The first fruit of the deal was the remix album More Colours! (featuring contributions from Kraftwerk's Wolfgang Flür and second-generation Brazilian musician Moreno Veloso, among others), released in the summer of 2007.