Labels: BCore
Review by: Ciaran Power
L’Odi Social is apparently notable for singing in Catalan, and I think you can tell it’s important to them, which is obviously going to have a positive outcome in their music. From what I have deciphered of the lyrics, there’s some top quality stuff here (in terms of punk), of particular note for me being Una Vez Más, “Where is the anarchy that we talk so much about? Where are your ideals, and your personality? in your brain? Or in your fist?”
As you might have guessed, Discografía Completa entails the band’s complete discography – which consists of Que Pagui Pujol, Extras and Esventats – plus a bit more on top in the form of live recordings.
Que Pagui Pujol (“let Pujol pay”) accounts for the first five songs of the release, and was originally released as a 7″ in 1986. Busca Busca initiates this album with an awesome intro which then becomes a brilliant, fast piece of hardcore. They continue with the fast hardcore thing, which they pull off nicely, until Autobus №13, which has a slower start before bringing it back to some more of the same.
Next up is Extras, recorded at the same time as the 7″, and originally released in 1990 as an LP that also contained the single, as ‘Que Pagui Pujol + Extras’. The opener, Ves A Sapiguer Qui Era, is particularly notable for me, and is followed by Maldita Heroína, which a sterling bit of punk rock, even though for a couple of seconds at one point it makes me think of Teenage Kicks (quick message to Birmingham bands: stop fucking covering this song). There is a cover of Snap by DRI right at the end, which is useful in bringing something new to the table.
Esventats constitutes the next thirteen songs. It has a designated intro and a designated outro. Fucking heaven. The first two ‘real’ songs are both covers – the first being Skineta, of Somos Asin, and the second being Rawhide, of Fuet de Cuir. Skineta starts all upbeat and then gets punx. Rawhide is punk from start to finish, but it still provides something a bit different from what L’Odi typically does. Later can be found No Olímpics, a song embodying the band’s protestations over the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Another particular steamer I thought I should mention is Zombie Slalom. It wouldn’t stand up as well as some of the other songs offered here to musical scrutiny, but the amount of anger present makes up for that. This album in general refrains from becoming the all-out aural assault prevalent in Que Pagui Pujol, relying more upon instrumental breaks and even melodic elements, which I think turns out superbly.
At the end of the CD are six songs’ worth of extras, in the form of live recordings. The first two are taken from a show in 1985, at Zeleste, Barcelona; the recording’s choppy, but it’s worth them being on here considering they’re two ‘new’ songs, and good ones at that. The other four are from a recording of 1997 show when they briefly reunited after breaking up five years earlier, also in Barcelona but this time at Palau d’Esports, and the quality’s pretty crisp. No new material here though; three are from Esventats and the last one is from Extras. Admittedly they sounded more frantic and exciting in 1985, but altogether they sound like they put on an intense show.
On top of all this, you’re given 9 downloadable tracks, recorded in 1986 when they played Nicaragua Rock, which was a benefit show for the Sandinistas and was actually released as an LP (I think). It begins with a two-minute intro which definitively kills it. All the songs on here are from Que Pagui Pujol & Extras. The recording’s not quite as sharp as in the 1997 show mentioned earlier, but it’s still not shabby at all, and the songs are played well and with passion. The singer gives really urgent-sounding speeches between the songs, but as I said before, I have no idea what they’re about. Still good to hear, mind. Bundled in the downloads come the lyrics to all the songs in a word file and a pdf containing what I assume are the front and back covers (gig poster alongside photo, tracklisting and details, respectively) to the original release of the Nicaragua Rock recordings.
The packaging on this CD is excellent. The case is a trifold and the outside bit has photos of the band’s shows on it, while the inside is plastered with gig posters and a photo of a pile of letters (sounds stupid, looks tops). The booklet’s filled with 21 pages of great photos of the band playing, chillin’, loving and learning; album covers and more posters as well as a page of info (it’s in Spanish, I think, but you can get the jist). The booklet itself is placed inside a slit cut out on the back of the front cover, while the front cover has a hole punched in the top right corner. I don’t know why they did this, but I like it. The imagery contains a lot of ‘x’s and ‘circle-A’s, which I would summise to represent their affiliations (but BCore does state that “they represented a symbol to the young anarchists, communists and left-winged young people in Barcelona’s underground. But that political attitude was somehow accidental”, making this a bit of a mystery).
What’s offered with Discografía Completa is enjoyable throughout; plenty of straight up hardcore punk and the covers present help to prevent it becoming repetitive. I also now consider them to be Kings of the intro, which I really appreciate. If you’ve read all of this, I think you owe your ears some attention and should subsequently give this a listen.