Los Saicos: Demolición: The Complete Recordings

Los Saicos was a Peruvian phenomenon. The group appeared in Lima in 1964, the four musicians straight out of high school. They never released an album, only singles. Demoler! they sang on television. Demoler, demoler, demoler! “Demolición” was their anthem, and Demolición is their entire recorded oeuvre. A 2000 release of the same material from Electro Harmonix called the music “Wild Teen Punk” and “punk” sums up their approach. That zealous sneer, that buzz of bratty refusal. Erwin Flores spits words wickedly, a man satisfying an itch on a body part his parents told him never to scratch in public. Even during “Ana”, which is mostly crooned with Bobby Vinton suave, he explodes periodically into growls. It’s as if a singer interrupted his own romantic ballad by saying, well, okay, yes, kissing has its nice points, but what he’d really like to do is rip out your heart with his hands and chew on it. Occasionally compared to their North American contemporaries the Trashmen, they sound more feral. Reminds you why the authorities fretted and frumped over rock ‘n’ roll — how profoundly it must have made structure, civilisation, music itself, feel like a veneer over primal eruptions.