Doctor Explosion ‎"El Loco Mundo De Los Jovenes" 1994***

I don't know much about Doctor Explosion other than that they come from Gijón, a small coastal city of northern Spain, and that they've been playing 60's influenced Surf and Garage Rock since 1989. This is their 2nd LP and you shouldn't judge them from the nice-little-schoolgirls pose they strike on the album's cover. They are three really bad boys intend on making as much noise as possible. The singer really screams his lungs out every chance he gets, and the mono recording is really raw and primitive - although they do include a song in "estereo": it's the closing acoustic number "Come Back", which could pass for a second-rate Rolling Stones track circa '64. Which reminds me, did you know that in Spain the Rolling Stones are not called for short "Stones" but "Los Rolling"? Anyway, most of the album is much wilder than that, starting off with the Spanish-language dynamites "Basura!" and "Rompi La Television". Other Spanish songs include "Eres Feo, Chaval" (a psychobilly cover of The Downliners Sect's "One Ugly Child") and "Vivir Sin Ti" a garage-soul romp originally recorded in 1967 by Los Salvajes. Other covers include Mickey Finn's "Garden Of My Mind" and The Music Explosion's bubblegum "Let Yourself Go", both louder and more out of control than their 60's counterparts. The band's original compositions like "Hey, Little Girl", "Free Your Troubled Mind", "Someday" and "I Really Don't Care" sound like they could have been written in the U.S. circa 1966, though only the latter (and relatively more restrained) would have been a minor classic of the era. "Breakin' The Wave!" and "Surf'n'Shake" are Trashmen/Cramps-like surf punk. They're not exactly instrumentals since they include a lot of shrieks and shouts. The latter features British punkettes The Headcoatees on backing vocals - they also pop up in a couple other numbers. All in all this is a pretty standard 60's-style garage LP with an aggressive punk twist, reminiscent of Gravedigger V, Stomach Mouths etc. Recommended if you like that sound, but not among the top LP's of the genre.

**** for I Really Don't Care, Vivir Sin Ti

*** for Basura!, Eres Feo Chaval, Rompi La Television, Garden Of My Mind, Free Your Troubled Mind, Breakin' The Wave!, Hey Little Girl, Surf'n'Shake, Let Yourself Go

** for Someday, Peep Show Baby, Come Back