Kangrena

Spanish Punk Hardcore band from Barcelona formed in the early 80's. The band was formed in Barcelona in 1981 by Johnny Sex (bass), Kike (guitar), and Manolo (drums) while singer Quoque teamed up with them afterwards: He, uninvited, joined them up on stage for their version of "My Way" on a show in December that same year and was offered the vocalist's post. The name (a misspelling of the Spanish word for "gangrene"), was chosen because they wanted something that could be indentified with what they were doing. Or so they said in that interview for the Spanish fanzine "Melodias Destructoras." As for their influences, they said that musically it was the Sex Pistols sped up and Crass and Exploited lyrically. If to judge by their 7", I'm not sure if those would have been the first bands to pop up in my head, but well, they know best. It's definitely better, more fucked up than their description would lead you to believe. As for local influences, they expressed their like for Ultimo Resorte, Decibelios, R.I.P., Attak, Frenopaticss and some Siniestro Total stuff and their dislike for anything out of Madrid. They kept playing about once a month until their debut EP Terrorismo Sonoro was released in 1983, on the Anarki label. Five songs of rough punk, its aggressive trashy sound probably pushes them considerably towards the hardcore side of things. Their appearance on the P.E.A.C.E. compilation, which I guess has to do with the show MDC (who compiled that masterpiece) played, along with Kangrena and Ultimo Resorte, in Barcelona during their European tour, associated them with the burgeoning European hardcore scene. In 1984 they also released a 17 track cassette called Estoc De Pus, followed by another full length tape, El Cubo De La Basura a year later, before disbanding. I would really like to lay my hands on those two. I think a discography CD is in the works, or even out already. At least I was lucky that the good folks at Tralla records re-issued the 7" some years ago.