Màgia Roja changed Silvia Konstance’s life. Growing up, she wasn’t that interested in music, and hadn’t been to a concert until after she turned eighteen. The pub cover bands that played in her small hometown in northern Italy bored her. It wasn’t until she moved to Catalonia that she realised that music could be something else. Working at Màgia Roja, the now mythic Barcelona DIY music venue and label, connected her to the city’s underground art. It’s where she discovered her tastes for noisy, scrappy and experimental music, and how she met her bandmate Viktor Lux Crux. Crucially, seeing people be free and take risks on stage inspired her to do the same.
The pair repeatedly say in interviews that Dame Area wouldn’t exist without Màgia Roja. Everything they experienced at the club shaped their art together. “We’d never known such a place before, which makes it harder to describe,” says Lux Crux speaking to Pan M 360. “Maybe you could say it was an anti-club, a place of freedom, very wild. The members nevertheless behaved there as a kind of extended family. People danced there in communion to sounds you’re only supposed to hear in your room.”
Lux Crux helped found the club and label. His magnificent sideburns pop up in band pictures all over their website, from the krautrock group Qa’a to his primitivistic solo project Huan, which incorporates self-made instruments. His regular weekly DJ stint at Màgia Roja was just as important. It allowed him to soak up the anything-goes mentality of a place growing beyond what he created. He helped Konstance put together what was meant to be one track, and the pair discovered a creative closeness they’ve followed ever since.
When Màgia Roja shut its doors in late 2019, all focus was shifted to Dame Area. They later came out of the pandemic eager to perform the mass of songs they had written, leading to nearly two-hundred live performances and five full-length releases in just a few years. Until now, it’s the live setting where Dame Area has thrived. Pulling from the ethos of bands like Suicide, Throbbing Gristle and Einstürzende Neubauten, there’s a feeling of urgency, that their performances could break apart at any moment.
Their records have understandably struggled to capture that untamed energy. Some of them don’t try to. Last year’s Toda la mentira sobre Dame Area (“The whole lie about Dame Area”) was meant for home listening, collating their softer, more melodic offerings in one place. There’s still a DIY quality to it – tracks like ‘La Nueva Era’ are caked in the dust of late 70s Italo records or worn-out sci-fi VHS tapes – but this side of the band is distant and dreamlike compared to the frenzied tension of their live show. Now, they release Toda la Verdad sobre Dame Area (“The whole truth about Dame Area”), the inverse of what’s just come, where their raw appeal is captured for the first time.
Toda la Verdad sobre Dame Area promises a stark and stylish listen from its cover. Gloved hands pick through torture implements, the violence out of frame. Fabio Calabretta’s picture could pass for a painting, beautiful despite its brutality. It mirrors the music, where screams, layered percussion, feedback and sheet metal are formed into elegant new shapes. This was their first record where all the metallic percussion was recorded live, adding grit and a sense of space not present on previous records.
Disrupting the elegance is Konstance’s shouted vocal. She’s a reactive performer. Lux Crux has said that he never knows what she might do or where on stage she might end up when they start. Her voice shakes you awake in its ragged gasps and barely-contained rage. On ‘Striscia’, she captivates with a guttural delivery that gives chills after many replays. On the following ‘Tú Me Hiciste Creer’, she’s restrained and threatening, singing an off-key nursery rhyme.
Her voice is one of many secret weapons used by the group to provoke a response. Another is song construction. ‘Tú Me Hiciste Creer’ is built on a simple two-bar synth riff, but rather than adding incrementally to the loop as you might expect, they shift suddenly with blasts of noise, a new section, or a burst of live drumming. Their songs draw attention to the performers following their noses. Hearing them bend and stretch a song across its runtime is thrilling.
Even with a barebones set-up of percussion and synths, the record is alive and dynamic. Opener ‘Si No Es Hoy Cuando Es’ starts intense with its relentless kick drum, and still finds room to push and pierce. Konstance’s lyrics hint at pending civil unrest (“¿Cómo hacer sin poder? ¿Si no es hoy, cuándo es?”) She performs like a catalyst, willing it on.
‘Vengo dall’aldilà’ is more menacing in its approach, working at a simmer. Here, the band zoom in on their interlocking rhythmic drumming, building dynamism into how the songs work individually and as a whole. That’s a skill learned from performance too, where reacting to the room was key.
The duo’s stripped-back palette means that even subtle changes have huge effects. ‘Devociòn’ is free of any vocal delay or processing, and Konstance’s screams are more satisfying in their lack of polish. ‘Esto Es Nuestro Ruido’ is another highlight, and it grows even more captivating when it skirts off into a loose and unkempt final section.
Màgia Roja might not exist as a physical place you can visit to exorcise whatever is inside you, but Dame Area now brings its spirit with them on the road. Somehow, Toda la Verdad sobre Dame Area makes that place real on record, too. Its sound is destructive and confrontational, but it also holds the determination and camaraderie of building something new together.
