Fantastic debut album
by this legendary punk band from Argentina, Los Violadores. They deserve the
full description which I lending from the essential kfth page: Despite its
demographic size and socio–cultural importance in Latin America, and unlike
Brazil, Mexico or Colombia, Argentina didn't produce many first rate hardcore
and punk bands during the 80's. But still, Los Violadores are probably among
the pioneers of Punk Rock in the area. Guitarist Hari B. formed Los Testiculos
in Buenos Aires in 1978, while the military dictatorship (who ruled the country
between 1976 – 1983) was at the peak of their power. The regime, that in a
couple of years murdered more then 30.000 left wing activists (or that were
suspected to be so), saw any act of non–conformity as potentially subversive,
so obviously the first generation of Argentinian punks was very much
underground. But they still managed to survive.
In 1980, Hari B.,
together with drummer Gramatica, changed their name to Los Violadores. Due to
censorship, they were unable to publicly use the new "offensive" name
for a while, so they ommitted just one letter and remained "Los
Voladores" for the early show fliers. About a year later, they were joined
by vocalist Pil Trafa and bassist Stuka. After one of the first shows with this
line up, about 200 hundred persons were arrested and the band members were
charged with "political disturbance", thus gaining public notoriety
and making it clear that Punk was alive in Argentina. As they put it "We
wanted to make something that was punk but still rooted in our reality. We
didn't want to be part of the complacent Argentinian rock scene, which was
silent during the dictatorship and thus partner for the atrocities". They
were one of the few bands which refused to take part in a huge rock concert
sponsored by the military dictatorship as part of the Falkland/ Malvinas war
propaganda campaign, even though they were surprisingly invited to participate.
Ironically, many of those who did appear there were actually self professed hippies,
who probably saw punk as something "violent & fascistic". Los
Violadores pointed at that hypocritical "hippy ideology" as their
second main enemy after the military regime.
Also in 1982 they
recorded their first (self titled) LP, which could only hit the streets in late
1983, after democratic elections took place. It was released by the Argentinian
independent label Umbral and it includes 12 great tracks with excellent
production. Unlike the raw, thrashy hardcore produced in neighboring Brazil,
Los Violadores are more '77 influenced, althought with an updated sound, kinda
like Generation X meets DOA.
After the return of
democracy, Hari B, who thought that the main reason of existance for the band
was to fight the dictators hip, quit. He played for a short time with
Argentinian's Oi! pioneers Comando Suicida, long before they became
full-fledged boneheads. In 1984, Los Violadores were asked to contribute a
track for the now legendary P.E.A.C.E. compilation, being the sole
representatives of Latin American punk among the 40+ other bands and maybe
making a small name for themselves in the international punk community. In
fact, Argentinian rock magazines reported that there was lots of interest in
the band from Europe and that they sold thousands of copies in the "old
world", but that seems pretty unlikely.
By then, they were
already changing direction towards a more commercial one, something typical for
many bands from the era. Their second mini album Y Ahora Que Pasa Eh? is definately more
rock/pop influenced, but in my opinion still enjoyable. They kept playing until
the early 90's and even after that, they reformed several times, but their
output is totally irrelevant to these pages. Their old material was reissued on
CD by the major they had signed with, but their first LP was bootlegged on
vinyl a couple of years ago. (source: killfromtheheart)
- Special Thx to Reinhard -
