Los Infartos El Narco Ritmo

The Los Infartos from Teramo don’t waste time, having only released their second single in four years, showing that they have better things to do than make records. But when they do, they really give you a shake.

El Narco Ritmo does it with four tracks where punk, garage, and Hammond-beat blend into each other. Be careful, because with age galloping, you really run the risk of having a heart attack.

Lys Di Mauro 31/05/2019

But reviews are like flowers, they grow on their own and are like dreams, citation, let’s see if you can guess who said it. Ok, false start, let’s try to be (semi) serious, every piece I write starts with an introduction followed by a brief description of the tracks to close with a farewell phrase that usually aims to encourage the reader to approach the album in question.

In the case of Los Infartos, I had – in my own small way – prepared a little intro and – being a sensible and foresighted person – I went back to read my article about their first single dated August 2017 and realized that I would have wanted to write more or less the same things written on that occasion.

Brief consultation within my mind and it resulted that, who cares, some things need to be said again and so I’ll tell you again our guys have a nice name, their record has a beautiful cover (and in this case also a great title) and their proposal is incendiary and attitudinally unassailable. Compared to the previous release, in this case there are four tracks divided equally on the two sides of this 10″.

On side A, a bass intro opens Surf Dakota, a track in which an amphetamine-like pace sees more airy moments alternating with more threatening atmospheres, followed by The Man Who Lives There in which the more (power) pop side of the band emerges, showing their ability to develop a melodic discourse that is anything but predictable, let’s say a potential hit for Neverland. But if the first side is high level, it’s on side B that the heart attack guys fire their best shots, namely Karrrate Bilbao – which I had already talked about in my review of the Adriatic Ghost Sounds compilation – a garage punk piece that flies high in the sky of this sunny June, a song that (given the Spanish vocals) could have been recorded by Doctor Explosion and Sadistic Soul which, excuse me if I use a quote already used when talking about this quartet, recalls the atmospheres of the immense Brian Auger…and I wouldn’t add anything else.

Great object, 10″ are magnificent at least as much as singles, and great tracks, for the writer Italian garage record of the year, at least until these first six months, it can be easily deduced that the purchase, for those who love this kind of things, should be automatic

Luca Calcagno – InYourEyes ‘zine 07/06/2019

I have no idea who Los Infartos are, but from the names of the members printed on the back cover I’d say it’s not a Spanish band (as the moniker and the title of this single would suggest). What interests me, however, is what these four ugly mugs play: a vigorous old-school garage-beat, with plenty of fuzz. Pounding sounds, a voice that croaks like a bird of ill omen, and four heart-attack tracks (indeed). The single, two songs per side, bears the Area Pirata brand and besides the Sixties references – the American and more unbridled ones, in short, the ones I like – it has an undeniable punk attitude (listen to “Karrate Bilbao” and then tell me). But beyond the usual chatter, the advice I feel like giving you is: drop this review immediately and get this mind-blowing 45 rpm as soon as possible.

Diego Curcio – Hello Bastards blog 19/06/2019

Hold on tight because here you’re in for a ride worse than being on a rickety roller coaster. Four tracks full of high-octane rock’n’roll. Guitars that ooze distortions and a rhythm section with a tight beat.

After debuting in November 2016 with the 7″ vinyl Another Face (3 tracks), El Narco Ritmo is their second self-produced EP.

Looking for a mix of psychedelia, punk, beat and garage? Then El Narco Ritmo by Los Infartos is what you need!

Maurizio Galli- musicalmind 17/07/2019

In garage punk, Hispanic references are often synonymous with a bizarre and wild approach. It doesn’t matter if Teramo, geographically speaking, isn’t a Mexican town: what counts in the end is the spirit and the desire to have fun. “El Narco Ritmo” starts particularly agitated with the hot rod of Surf Dakota and the rave up of The Man Who Lives There, somewhere between Blues Brothers and Sonics. Karrrate Bilbao raises the level of rowdiness but for the finale, Los Infartos decide to recompose themselves, without leaving the dance floor, painting Sadistic Soul on Hammond beat frequencies. With benefits for the coronary arteries.

Rating: 7

Fabio Polvani – Blow Up #254-255 07-08/2019

Hispanics? Worse: young and genuine Abruzzesi, immersed from head to Beatle boots in sixties garage. Without catching their breath, they alternate beat(lesque) harmonizations, R&B and beastly screams à la Sonics (Surf Dakota, Karate Bilbao) with an organ that beats more than a streetwalker from the Tronto Reclamation. Four tracks engraved on a magnificent 10″ by one of the few Italian garage bands capable of holding their own abroad.

Rating 77/100

Manuel Graziani – Rumore #329 – 06_2019

With a respectable pedigree, the four Teramo natives that form Los Infartos express themselves with a clanging, adrenaline-fueled and never tamed garage-rock’n’roll-punk. The quartet has experience in and with: Electric Flashback, Tito and The Brain Suckers, Leighton Koizumi, Gangster Boogies, I Farabutti and Los Explosivos, and in this project, they capitalize on much of the experience accumulated in these projects.

“El narco infarto” is their second single, consisting of four explosive tracks. It starts with the sparkling and crescendo rock’n’roll of “Surf Dakota”, continues with “The man who lives there”, a fast and frenetic garage, and with the tight surf/hc/garage of “Karate Bilbao”, it concludes with a funk finale featuring Hammond organ. In short, if they pass by your area, keep away from flammable material!

Vittorio Lanutti – RockOn.It – 02/10/2019

It took years to have this new work by Los Infartos in our hands.
“El Narco Ritmo” indeed comes out in 10″ format a full 36 months after the previous single, with four high-impact bombs (“Karrrate Bilbao” hit of the summer by popular demand), in case it was necessary to reiterate how the attributes of the Teramo-based quartet have now reached (almost) complete development. This time Los Infartos aim even better, throwing on the table a mean mix based on Freak Punk, Garage Beat and Psychedelic Soul dirtied with Hammond and saturated with the worst intentions: in short, an energetic and post-atomic gust good for any arrogant suburbia.
Now we await the next step, namely the reconfirmation of the values in play in the classic LP format.

Davide Monteverdi – Razzputin Crew Milano 03/07/2019

Without looking at the accompanying notes, I put them on, not once but ten, twenty times and so on, I was absolutely convinced they were Spanish, but NO, absolutely NOT! They’re from Abruzzo and like few others know how to mix explosiveness, not too cumbersome Fuzz, a good dose of RNR, The Man who live there breaks hard, that continuous stop and go and that Sonics-like strained voice knock you out completely! Karrrate Bilbao is the piece that involved me the most at first listen, guys, it’s great stuff I’m telling you, then do as you please! Sadistic Soul closes beautifully just as Surf Dakota opens the dance! Bomb!

Stefano Ballini – Trippa Shake Webzine 01/07/2019

With the four tracks of “El Narco Ritmo”, the Teramo-based Los Infartos (unsettling name and cover) lead back to the comforting fold of an organ-driven garage with frantic modalities. The convulsive Surf Dakota, The Man Who Lives There and Karrrate Bilbao are however ‘cut’ by pleasant sixties-beat vocal inserts that somewhat attenuate their punk tendency. That Los Infartos are tendentially eclectic is well demonstrated by the five-plus minutes of Sadistic Soul, which unexpectedly manages to land on sounds even of lounge matrix.

Pasquale Boffoli – Rockmates blog 27/07/2019