‘Sirenes, Blaves, Rodes, Punxades, Finestres, Trencades, La Caixa, Cremant’ (Ckaos Total) / ‘Sirens, Blue, Wheels, Punctures, Windows, Broken, The Box, Burning’ (Total Chaos)

Tàrrega is a small town in Catalonia that holds an annual theatre fair each September.  During the 1991 fair, skirmishes with the police escalated into a full scale pitched battle, which very nearly resulted in the burning down of the town hall.  The aftermath of the violence was defined by arbitrary arrests and the illegal detentions of 86 people.  The cases took over a decade to bring to court and resulted in nominal fines due to the lack of evidence.

As you will have gathered, Tàrrega 91 take their name from these events in their hometown and, as with their 2023 debut EP, Ckaos Total continues to mine the injustices that were inflicted by the authorities.  The crackling intensity of their onslaught transports you back to the unfolding night of violence, while their bristling anger compels you to confront the structural inequality that shapes our legal systems.

The emphasis is on stripped back, tightly honed, rampantly fast d-beat in the classic vein of the early 1980s’ originators.  The flaring dissonant melody of opener No Es Casa Teva (It’s Not Your House), the surging eruptions of Ossos Ets I Ossos Seras (You Are Bones And You will Be Bones), and the more expansive groove of I Ara Que Fars? (And Now What Will You Do?) compellingly capture the album’s anarchic spirit.