Rising Argentine duo Peces Raros play a high-energy set for their debut London show.
Techno in a pub on a Tuesday night is a hard sell.
For those not familiar, The Victoria Dalston is a cute pub with an outdoor seating area. The low-ceiling windowless back room is the live music space. Tonight, there’s not even a warmup act, so the headliners actually have to start their set in an empty room before people start filtering in from outside.
Peces Raros (translation: Strange Fish) are Argentine duo Lucio Consolo y Marco Viera. Their music has evolved significantly from their debut 10 years ago, where their first album No Gracias leaned heavily on classic rock and jazz inspired by fellow Latin rockers Charly García and Luis Alberto Spinetta. With their 2018 album Anestesia followed by Dogma in 2021, they’ve gradually shifted into the electronic music sphere.
They now straddle the liminal space between being a rock band and a club outfit, the latter more likely to start the show at midnight, not 9pm. Surrounded by an assortment of synthesisers and keyboards, Viera still keeps his electric guitar to hand to occasionally sound off some epic riffs.
The Peces Raros classic rock is long gone though, replaced by thudding electronic beats that merge from one track into the next.
Tracks such as Óxido, from their newest album Artificial, and No Van a Parar (They’re Not Going to Stop) work particularly well when the hooky electric guitar riffs and lend themselves to the thrumming synths and Consolo’s gliding vocals.
Both dressed in baggy black clothing, their cool aesthetic matches their indie sound and concept, although Consolo has to take his Neo-style sunglasses off halfway through – he’s got to see what he’s doing after all.
Compared to the UK’s thriving electronic music scene, Argentina’s scene is more niche. Peces Raros had their break when fellow Argentine rap star Trueno heard their track Cicuta (Hemlock) and hopped on to feature on the remix.
They play the original version tonight but after a long tension-building drive to the chorus, it’s over a bit too soon and I’m left feeling they could’ve done more with it.
Between the looping synths, vocal distortions, and experimental keyboard notes, it sometimes still feels like the duo are finding their way in the electronic soundscape. For example, changing the sound of the same guitar riff several times is fun when playing around on a synth by yourself, but not very engaging for everyone else.
That said, the mainly Spanish-speaking crowd tonight seems to be having fun and everyone is dancing by the end.
Peces Raros is a rising global talent and one to watch on the international electronic music scene. They’ve broken out from the underground in South America where genres reggaeton and pop urbano reign king, and across the other side of the world, cut through the noise of Europe’s saturated electronic music market to make their mark with a European tour.
Tonight was their first-ever UK show but I doubt it’ll be their last.
