ESKORBUTO - Eskizofrenia 1984

Now another classic record and I wanna quote a lots of info from the grandiose KillFromTheHeart page: Eskorbuto were among the most popular of the "Radical Basque Rock" movement, despite the fact that they were constantly fighting against those who defended the term. The band was born at the beginning of the 80s in the slums of the Margen Izquierda ("Left River Bank", Bilbao), they managed to become local legends before they even recorded anything. Their nihilistic attitude, the members' strong personality (especially Iosu's) and their catchy tunes, helped them gain many followers both in the Basque Country (Euskadi) and in the rest of Spain. Their first LP Eskizofrenia ("Schizophrenia") was surrounded by a lot of controversy (including arrests, censorship...), which in a way helped the band in increasing their popularity. Musically, the record is their fastest and probably their "freshest" one. It cannot be considered hardcore, but this album stands out among its contemporaries (more influenced by Oi) because of the anger and aggression of the vocals. Their following work was a split LP with RIP (which I think is the first ever Spanish split LP), in which both bands sound pretty similar and share clear political lyrics, even though you can see a strong Discharge influence on RIP.

A year later they released their second record, called Anti-Todo ("Anti-Everything"). The title was not meant to define the band's stance, but rather that of the whole society. Here the drumming is real (on Eskizofrenia they used a drum machine) and they worked much more on the songs; in fact, many regard this one as their best record. After releasing the Impuesto revolucionario live album("Revolutionary Tax"), and the Ya no kedan mas cojones Eskorbuto a las elecciones EP ("There are no more balls, Eskorbuto to the elections"), they released what was probably their most personal album, Los demenciales chicos acelerados ("Speedy Mad Guys").The combined songs on the record supposedly tell a story, creating what they call a "rock-opera", but to be honest, I don't think that even the band really understood the story's plot very well. But what this record does have is songs full of pessimism and unmatched hatred. Here there are no political ideas to defend and no typical street posing, this record just tries to show the dark side of life.After reading their lyrics, it's not hard to understand why two of them found their death through heroin (the biggest enemy of punk), leaving behind the illusions and energy that should be part of every band.

After this record, Eskorbuto's musical career goes steadily downhill, they managed to released two more records with Iosu and Jualma but they were far from the sincere anger discharged in their previous works. Their drummer, the original lineup's sole survivor, assembled other various musicians and kept releasing records under the name Skorbuto. A few months after going out this album, during the follow-up promotional tour, in March of 1992, Iosu leave the band again but health problems. After two months at the hospital, Iosu Expósito died in May 31 of that same year. Pako and Juanma reformed Eskorbuto with a new singer/guitarist Urko Igartiburu and continued working on a new album, but five months later, in October, Juanma pass away. Along with the band La Polla Records, Eskorbuto has been very influential in the Spanish punkrock.

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