This album, recorded in 1988 at Elkar Studios in Lasarte, is a happy accident, like much of La Polla Records’ early output, by Jean Phocas (who also worked with other bands of the genre such as Cicatriz) and César Ibarretxe. It was lovingly designed, with a medieval atmosphere for the cover (by Txefo, Joseba Olalde and Txarly) featuring a huge scroll containing five tarot cards, a back cover in the same style with heraldic figures, and a meticulous presentation of the lyrics with separate spellings for each song, on a double sheet with photos of piglets suckling from their mother on one side and various images on the other. With animals as the common thread for the songs, it represents the confirmation that the concept album had arrived on the national punk scene. Perhaps a work of maturity, the band’s traditional objectives disappear from the lyrics, and although there is still room for specific protests and chronicles of nights of alcohol and violence (such as those of La Rata), the emphasis is on revelling in the description of all kinds of personal, psychotic and hallucinatory hells. Evaristo confessed to being influenced by Umberto Eco’s book The Name of the Rose (1980) in the making of this work. Far from indicating any departure from the foundations laid in previous works, it shows that the spectrum of the anti-establishment struggle the group was committed to was broad. A very complete album.
01. LOS MONOS
02. CANARIOS Y JILGUEROS
03. OCHO MARIPOSAS
04. EL ANIMAL SIN NOMBRE
05. CONEJAS Y GALLINAS
06. RATA (PARTE 1)
07. RATA (PARTE 2)
08. EL PERRO SALVAJE
09. EL AVESTRUZ
10. CONFUSION
11. EL CERDO
12. ESCORPION
13. EL PINGUINO
14. CIERVOS, CORZOS Y GACELAS
15. LAS HORMIGAS
16. TODOS LOS ANIMALES PRIVANDO JUNTOS EN EL BAR
