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Music

Stream the Long-Awaited Debut Album from Spanish Underground Heroes Chus & Ceballos

After 15 long years on the road, the "Iberican Sound" innovators have created something special.

Spanish duo Chus & Ceballos have been rinsing their euphoric tribal tech for 15 years. The pair are innovators of a sound they refer to as "The Iberican Sound," a blend of percussive tribal house and transcendent, soulful techno named after the Iberian peninsula they call home. The duo's trippy, yet always dancefloor-ready has made them mainstays at the world's biggest clubs and festivals, as well as most recently—Burning Man, an event they attended for the first time in 2014, and reportedly played a large role in inspiring them to to hunker down and make an album.

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Now a year later, C&C's Nómadas, released on their own Stereo Productions, has finally hit stores as a vinyl and special USB release, with a digital release coming next week.

In addition to a Q/A with the Spanish underground heroes, we're streaming the album in full below.


Spanish duo Chus & Ceballos have been rinsing their euphoric tribal tech for 15 years. The pair are innovators of a sound they refer to as "The Iberican Sound," a blend of percussive tribal house and transcendent, soulful techno named after the Iberian peninsula they call home. The duo's trippy, yet always dancefloor-ready has made them mainstays at the world's biggest clubs and festivals, as well as most recently—Burning Man, an event they attended for the first time in 2014, and reportedly played a large role in inspiring them to to hunker down and make an album.

Now a year later, C&C's Nómadas, released on their own Stereo Productions, has finally hit stores as a vinyl and special USB release, with a digital release coming next week.

In addition to a Q/A with the Spanish underground heroes, we're streaming the album in full below.

THUMP: Why did it feel necessary to release an album when you've been so successful without one?
Chus & Ceballos: We just felt like it was time. After many years of traveling non-stop, making singles/remixes, we both wanted to create something special, that wasn't just a bundle of dance floor tracks, but something deeper to enjoy at an intimate moment. It's a different side of us not shown before, and the album reflects our different and diverse backgrounds, influenced over the years by traveling all over the world.

Tell us about the name of the album.
Nómadas is the Spanish word for nomads, which is how we felt after all the intense traveling over the past years. Sharing magical music moments with so many different and diverse people has been an endless source of inspiration for the album. Live shows are a bit of a contradiction since we play for big audiences, but 90% of the time it's just us at airports and hotels. Having someone else there to experience it with makes it easier, especially being great friends. It's very hard to be a solo artist.

Throughout your 15 years on the road, what have been some of the biggest changes to your sound? How is that showcased on the LP?
The production of the album really opened our eyes and ears to what we can do in the studio. Not being boxed in to making only dance-floor oriented singles really pushed our creativity, and let us break down some unexpected music walls. We explored new musical landscapes and vocal collaborations that were unknown to us. We want to bring the same experience that we had in the studio to our shows, so we're working on a new type of performance that brings in new live elements and visuals to adds something different for our audience.

How has touring for so long around the world influenced the sound of the album?
Most of the tracks on the album were conceived and written while traveling. Some of the tracks were worked on in Madrid, Montreal, New York, Miami, and finished up in a quiet place in Tuscany, Italy. We consider ourselves global artists mainly because we get our inspiration from experiences, clubs and places around the world. Every country has a different energy and different roots, and our job as DJs are to read the crowd. We like to spend some time with the locals to learn about their culture, and their music. It's a back and forth where both parties learn from each other.

You dedicated an entire track to Burning Man—how pivotal was your experience there to the creation of the album?
Burning Man was one of the best things that happened to us last year. It was a life-changing experience, and one of the sparks that started the fire of Nómadas. We wanted to go after hearing so much about it, and DISTRIKT Camp's invite sealed the deal. We've been to many festivals, but nothing can beat what we felt at Black Rock City. The fact that it is a non-profit gathering, where there is no economic interest in it for the festival, made it a truly pure and genuine experience.

Chus & Ceballos are on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter

THUMP: Why did it feel necessary to release an album when you've been so successful without one?
Chus & Ceballos: We just felt like it was time. After many years of traveling non-stop, making singles/remixes, we both wanted to create something special, that wasn't just a bundle of dance floor tracks, but something deeper to enjoy at an intimate moment. It's a different side of us not shown before, and the album reflects our different and diverse backgrounds, influenced over the years by traveling all over the world.

Tell us about the name of the album.
Nómadas is the Spanish word for nomads, which is how we felt after all the intense traveling over the past years. Sharing magical music moments with so many different and diverse people has been an endless source of inspiration for the album. Live shows are a bit of a contradiction since we play for big audiences, but 90% of the time it's just us at airports and hotels. Having someone else there to experience it with makes it easier, especially being great friends. It's very hard to be a solo artist.

Throughout your 15 years on the road, what have been some of the biggest changes to your sound? How is that showcased on the LP?
The production of the album really opened our eyes and ears to what we can do in the studio. Not being boxed in to making only dance-floor oriented singles really pushed our creativity, and let us break down some unexpected music walls. We explored new musical landscapes and vocal collaborations that were unknown to us. We want to bring the same experience that we had in the studio to our shows, so we're working on a new type of performance that brings in new live elements and visuals to adds something different for our audience.

How has touring for so long around the world influenced the sound of the album?
Most of the tracks on the album were conceived and written while traveling. Some of the tracks were worked on in Madrid, Montreal, New York, Miami, and finished up in a quiet place in Tuscany, Italy. We consider ourselves global artists mainly because we get our inspiration from experiences, clubs and places around the world. Every country has a different energy and different roots, and our job as DJs are to read the crowd. We like to spend some time with the locals to learn about their culture, and their music. It's a back and forth where both parties learn from each other.

You dedicated an entire track to Burning Man—how pivotal was your experience there to the creation of the album?
Burning Man was one of the best things that happened to us last year. It was a life-changing experience, and one of the sparks that started the fire of Nómadas. We wanted to go after hearing so much about it, and DISTRIKT Camp's invite sealed the deal. We've been to many festivals, but nothing can beat what we felt at Black Rock City. The fact that it is a non-profit gathering, where there is no economic interest in it for the festival, made it a truly pure and genuine experience.

Chus & Ceballos are on Facebook // SoundCloud // Twitter