Martín Schellekens and Martín Espinosa have never been shy about their fondness for Sonic Youth. They started out calling themselves Hey Joni, after all. But that alias didn’t last; eventually they hit on Land Whales, a name with no associations attached. Subtly surrealistic, “Land Whales” conveys a blurry constellation of ideas: brute force and sheer impossibility; weightless grace and its gravity-bound opposite.
All those potential connotations take on greater significance when you consider that the group came together in Cuba and recorded its music — a fusion of grunge, post-hardcore, and shoegaze — in a Havana apartment, against all odds.
Land Whales’ sound is uncannily familiar. Their second album, How to Make a Breakfast,…