365 ELECTRONIC MUSIC ALBUMS IN 365 DAYS

Day 17: Cabiria - Radio Coral

Genres: Easy Listening / Down Tempo / Tontipop / Experimental
Year: 2025
Country: Spain

(This is a personal opinion; I have no formal knowledge of music theory, but I love electronic music. Please keep that in mind while reading.)

Some time ago, a close friend and I had a long conversation about Spanish indie pop, especially a niche genre known as Tontipop. During the 2000s, it developed a nostalgic, kitschy and colorful sound filled with bittersweet lyrics. In many ways, it always reminded me of Japan's Shibuya-Kei movement.

Artists like La Casa Azul, Cola Jet Set and La Monja Enana helped define that sound. Over time, the genre gradually embraced electronic influences, particularly after albums such as La Revolución Sexual. Yet this year, one artist managed to surprise me in a completely unexpected way.

That artist is Cabiria.

Behind the project is Spanish singer, songwriter and producer Eva Valero, who released Radio Coral in 2025, an album that feels like a nightclub at the bottom of the ocean built to survive the end of the world.

And I'm not exaggerating.

The moment you press play, Cabiria immerses you in a universe where the surface world has become gray, cynical and exhausting. A place where sharks work as DJs, whales broadcast high-fidelity radio signals and people keep dancing even as everything around them seems to fall apart.

Because if there's one thing this album captures perfectly, it's the need to hold on to beauty when the world keeps trying to erase it.

Musically, Radio Coral drifts through Japanese City Pop, Italo Disco, Easy Listening and contemporary synth-pop. Yet it never loses the playful spirit and emotional warmth that define Tontipop.

The underwater theme is present everywhere.

Not simply as an aesthetic choice.

It genuinely feels as though you're trapped inside a late-1970s underwater nightclub.

What makes the album especially impressive is how Cabiria balances nostalgia with her own artistic identity.

Tracks such as Radio Coral, La Pecera Musical, Ziegfeld and Romance Interferencia create an atmosphere of mystery and melancholy that occasionally reminded me of artists as different as Björk and Boards Of Canada, while still remaining unmistakably Spanish.

It's clear that an enormous amount of work went into the production.

Cabiria spent years developing these songs while living in Berlin, researching Spanish disco records, studying 1970s production techniques and drawing inspiration from Japanese pop music as well as iconic Spanish performers like Rocío Jurado.

The result is an album that feels like a search for something that no longer exists.

A less cynical era.

A more innocent world.

Or perhaps just the illusion that such a world once existed.

For roughly forty-five minutes, Cabiria invites us to live inside that dream.

And honestly, it's difficult to leave once you're there.

PERSONAL CONCLUSIONS:

This album feels like the perfect meeting point between Down Tempo and Tontipop.

Radio Coral quickly became one of my favorite albums of 2025, and there are still many more records from this year waiting to be discovered. That's exactly what makes this 365-day journey so exciting: occasionally finding an album that appears out of nowhere and stays with you long after it ends.

I recommend listening to this record on a rainy afternoon.

Think about your friends.

Think about the person who once let go of your hand.

Think about your favorite corner of your home.

Allow yourself to dance even if you're alone.

Put on those shiny socks you used to wear years ago.

And for a moment, forget the noise of the world.

Cabiria created something genuinely beautiful with Radio Coral.

And I sincerely hope it moves you as much as it moved me.

DAY 17 — RADIO CORAL

Y todos observan como si fuera un tornado...

[ LISTEN TO THE ALBUM ]