BONZOMANIA | VINYL RECORD (LP)

First reissue; remastered sound; 180-gram vinyl. Released in 1991, four years into Cerebros Exprimidos's ten-year career, Bonzomania finally reflecting the four-piece's true creative momentum. Mas Suicidios (MR 004LP, 1990), their previous album, featured tracks that had been stored up for too long, and which didn't really represent what the band was coming up with in the new decade. Before Bonzomania, several demos, tracks scattered around compilations, a mini-LP, the aforementioned Mas Suicidios, and extensive live activity had already clearly confirmed that this turmoil of island isolation that came out of Majorca's tourist pigsty was the most genuine punk rock gesture in '90s Spain, with La Perrera's permission. The 1991 Ritual EP, a preview of the album, gave some clues; it featured more elaborate arrangements than usual, a deeper sound, more variety and definition. Bonzomania became the band's most technically structured recording. Despite crafting more formally ambitious work, Cerebros Exprimidos stayed loyal to their elemental genetic factor, which was, as they put it, 'muthafukkin' unpretentious punk-rock.' And that's what the grooves contained. Two covers (Germs and FU's) and eight original songs, which, theme-wise, continued the war campaign the band had launched against social perversion since their beginnings. The world, they claimed, was a prison. And as there is no escape from such a vast jail, submitting the listener's mind to the Ludovico technique - an intensive session of nihilistic therapy and homicidal noise - seemed like a reasonable way out. Meteorites of speed-grunge such as the taciturn 'Sentirme Bien,' bulldozers like 'Experto en Muerte' and 'Listos para Sufrir,' or deadly cells like 'Irresponsible' portrayed a more introspective and reflexive band, but still able, nevertheless, to sow chaos and destruction behind a playful alibi, a cannibalistic cocktail that cauterized their wounds in a bonfire of thoroughly controlled anarchy. The music on this album has no pretensions. It's an expression of relief and self-sufficiency; a gesture of annoyance, rejection, and disgust straight from the guts. There are no hidden meanings or artistic excuses. Cerebros Exprimidos were what you can hear in Bonzomania Irritation. Energy. Attitude. A tornado that burst in without asking for anybody's permission. A swollen ulcer sprayed with teenage napalm, furious as a wounded wild boar. And it's still there, open and festering, swollen, hurting with the same intensity as almost 25 years ago. -Jaime Gonzalo