By the time she launched her solo project
Aries in 2011, Spanish musician Isabel Fernández Reviriego had already spent years in her country's garage and indie pop scenes. After an album of wistful folk-rock, she switched to making radiant, loop-driven electro-pop that sounded like
Panda Bear dipped in the golden rays of the summer sun. Each of the three albums she made in the style during the 2010s moved further from her roots, becoming more and more electronic without sacrificing any of the songcrafting skills she had honed over the years (as 2019's Juramento Mantarraya proved.)
Reviriego started off playing guitar and singing in the garage punk band Elektrobikinis, who released a self-titled album in 2000. After that group called it quits, she formed the Charades, playing a lighter brand of garage rock and indie pop. The group released a string of albums in the 2000s that ended with 2010's Revolución Solar. Reviriego started
Aries in 2011, shifting musical gears toward a more acoustic sound. With help from her sister Virginia on drums, the first
Aries album, La Magia Bruta, was released in 2012 by long-running Spanish label BCore Discs. After another sonic change-up to a more electronic pop sound built around loops, samples, and keyboards, and similar at times to a sunnier
Panda Bear,
Aries jumped to La Castanya for album number two, 2014's
Mermelada Dorada. The next
Aries record -- 2016's
Adieu or Die -- moved even further into electronic territory while still featuring Reviriego's honey-sweet vocals and cheerful melodies, It was co-released by La Castanya and K Records. Early the next year, Reviriego issued a four-song EP of remixes by
Dan Deacon,
Prince Rama, BFlecha, and Banana Bahia Music. She stayed busy providing the soundtracks for the Playstation video game Melbits World and a Stella McCartney ad, as well as dubbing vocals for the Spanish-language version of Adventure Time. The fourth
Aries album -- 2019's Juramento Mantarraya -- was co-produced by Reviriego and Jose Vázquez and incorporated modern pop into the mix along with the sunny indie pop melodies and chirping electronics of the past. ~ Tim Sendra