Salu2 Axolotes Mexicanos

Madrid-based group Axolotes Mexicanos play an overwhelmingly giddy, sugar-spiked brand of indie pop that embraces influences such as punk, chiptune, J-pop, trap, and more. As gleeful and childlike as the music seems, the lyrics are decidedly less than innocent, with subject matter including revenge fantasies, relationships with extraterrestrials, pornography, and bitter loneliness. Originally from the Principality of Asturias in northwest Spain, schoolmates Olaya Pedrayes and Stephen Lyne started the group in 2012 along with Juan Pedrayes, Olaya's twin brother. By the end of the year, the group had released a demo and appeared on the compilation A Christmas Gift for You from Elefant Records. The following year, the label released the band's debut EP, Infectados, which was mixed and mastered by Eva Guilala and Iván Juniper, both of Juniper Moon and Linda Guilala. Axolotes Mexicanos' 10" mini-LP Holi <3, co-produced by Juan and Carlos René, followed in 2015. Two years later, Axolotes released the digital single "Trececatorce," which was significantly more electronic than their prior recordings. The full-length Salu2, the group's first release without Lyne, appeared in 2018. ~ Paul Simpson