WHEN WE STAY QUIET WE ARE ALSO MORE POWERLESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNFLOWER BEAN

Posted on March 30, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Community and tagged activisim, album, alternative, Anger Can Be Power, anxieties, anxiety, Cate Le Bon, collective, conviction, create, Donald Trump, Dream Wife, fat white family, featured, gun control, human ceremony, indie, jacob faber, Jay Som, julia cumming, king krule, march for our lives, MGMT, music, New York, nick kivlen, norwich open, NRA, Parquet Courts, political music, presidential election, psych, punk, Pure X, republicans, Sheer Mag, student movement, sunflower bean, Twentytwo In Blue, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, US, USA, Washington, Wolf Alice.

by Rowan Gavin

Sunflower Bean are a band who know what they’re about. Sitting down with the trio of 22 year old New Yorkers ahead of their show at Norwich Open on March 26th, it becomes immediately apparent how certain they are of their musical and political convictions. Drummer Jacob Faber, guitarist Nick Kivlen, and bassist & vocalist Julia Cumming made quite a splash with 2016’s debut Human Ceremony and its fresh-yet-eerily-familiar blend of indie, punk, psych and alternative sounds.

Having previously visited the Fine City when they supported London alt-rockers Wolf Alice, they returned to headline here for the first time at Open off the back of their entrancing second album Twentytwo In Blue, which was already making waves when I spoke to them three days after its release.

REVIEW: BUTTERFLIES, THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM ZAIA

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged 21st century, album, Amy MacKown, Back to My Get Out, Barrington Levy, bass, brass, Butterflies, Challenge 145, choral, Chronixx, dancehall, Dark Days, David Rodigan, David Tomlinson, drum and bass, drums, dub, Fire in My Heart, folk, genre, Gentleman's Dub Club, gospal, Gregory Isaacs, guitar, James Bolton, Josh Hughes, keyboards, Letter from an Old Friend, live music, Marcia Richards, mastering, music, My House Grows in the Sun, new testament, Nubiyan Twist, Oxford, pop, reggae, review, rhythm, rock, roots, Simple Tune, Sister Nancy, spiritual, summer, The Ethiopians, The Skints, trance, Under the Tree, vocals, ZAIA.

By Rowan Gavin and Liam Hawkes

“We break the rules”

So says lead singer Amy MacKown on Simple Tune, the penultimate track of the debut album from Oxford’s current premiere Reggae outfit, ZAIA. We wouldn’t say they break the rules so much as blend and bend them, juggling genres and playing with preconceptions throughout this fascinating and infectious summertime record.

A SEAT AT THE TABLE

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Perspectives and tagged a seat at the table, album, artivism, arts, BHM, black history month, black pride, black women, Chance the Rapper, creative, empowerment, FUBU, hip hop, Jill Scott, Kelela, Kelly Rowland, LEMONADE, message, music, Nina Simone, Noname, prince, Puma, QTip, racism, Raphael Saadiq, review, Sampha, Solange, solange knowles, South Africa, style, Tink, women artists.

by Candice Nembhard

‘A Seat at the Table’ is the newly debuted project by the enigmatic Solange Knowles. The 21 track album marries intricate layers of R&B with densely packed lyrics, carving open a bigger space to discuss the beauty of black creatives. With features from the likes of Kelly Rowland, Q-Tip, Sampha and Kelela – not forgetting incredible production credits from Raphael Saadiq – there is no denying that Knowles is opening and changing the space for admiring and respecting black creativity.

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL BREXIT

Posted on June 26, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged album, anarchy, arts, Brexit, canada, Churchill, dread, economy, england, EU, euRef, Europe, hellscape, Kate Tempest, Leave, Lexit, mad max, migration, mock, music, Panic, parody, Range Rover, referendum, Remain, response, Rue Britannia, satire, Sex Pistols, songs, spoken word, The Clash, The Smiths, uk, visa, work.

by Mike Vinti

Are you hungover and full of existential dread? Do you have a crippling fear that life will never be the same? Have you said the phrase ‘let’s face it, we’re fucked’ in the last 24 hours? If you have, then boy, do we have just the songs for you.Continue Reading

WOMEN AND PUNK: SHAPING THE GENRE 40 YEARS ON

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged #WomeninMusic, Ace Bushy Striptease, Adore Life, album, autonomads, Baby Ghosts, BME, British music, Built on Our Backs, Chekhov’s Hangnail, Colour Me Wednesday, DIY, EP, From Caplan to Belsize, Goldman’s Detective Agency, hardcore, hc, In Evil Hour, Kate Nash, Kerrang! Awards, King Prawn, Laila K, Leftover Crack, Lily Allen, LP, Martha, math-rock, media, Middle Ones, MSM, Muncie Girls, music, music journalism, music that matters, No Ditching, No Man No Right, Okinawa Picture Show, Perkie, petrol girls, pop punk, post-hardcore, punk, Radiator Hospital, Resolution 242, rock, Savages, Ska, ska punk, Sonic Book Six, split, T-Shirt Weather, Tellison, The F-Bomb, the king blues, The Selecter, Treading Water.

by Chris Jarvis

Last week, Music That Matters looked at the 40^th anniversary of punk and how our understanding of its history is typically one which erases the efforts and achievements of women musicians and people of colour. Today, the scene is often still seen as a male and white space, with punk shows frequently having male dominated crowds queuing up to see white men thrashing on guitars in shabby venues.

But it looks like things are changing. 2016 feels like it is becoming a rebirth of women in punk, and critically, as if it is women of colour who often are leading the way. More women are touring, more are getting bigger stages and longer sets, and more are getting the media coverage that they deserve. Among the nostalgic reflection, this year, dozens of punk albums will be released. Some will become instant classics, others will fade from memory as quickly as they came. Here are 10 bands leading the British punk scene this year, and the women that are making them shape the future of the genre.Continue Reading

BLAST FROM THE PAST – CHRISTINA AGUILERA: STRIPPED

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged album, Beautiful, bell hooks, binaries, body, Christina Aguilera, Dirrty, empowerment, equality, feminism, feminist, Genie in a Bottle, hip hop, love, music, pop, rap, relationships, review, revisit, sex positive, sexuality, slut shaming, stereotypes, Stripped, tbt, teenage, Terry Young Jr, The Hampton Institute, Top of the Pops, vulnerabilty, Xtina.

by Carmina Masoliver

I have a strange memory of Christina Aguilera performing Genie in a Bottle on Top of the Pops and my dad asking if I liked her songs. Strange, because it’s so unremarkable to be kept inside my head. At this stage I her career, she had made her big break, and soon enough I was listening to her album, with hits such as What a Girls Wants and Come On Over (All I Want Is You). Yet, it was three years later, when she released what I will always think of as her best album: Stripped.

I was having a hard time at school, and listening to this album was the very definition of empowering. I had been pushed out of a friendship group during a time where looking back, I honestly believe I was depressed, and this escalated to the extent where I felt I was a target for lots of different groups at school. I did make some new friends, and remember connecting with one of them through a shared love of this album. This was before we had learnt to talk about why it is that Beautiful holds so much resonance with us, but fourteen years later and we are still friends, now sharing a love of bell hooks.Continue Reading

LOVE, HERB AND REGGAE – AN INTERVIEW WITH TAJ WEEKES

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged activism, Adowa, album, arts, black politics, charity, dub, interview, liberation, music, music journalism, music that matters, occupy, politics, reggae, st lucia, taj weekes, taj weekes and adowa, UNICEF.

by Chris Jarvis

February 12^th saw the release of St Lucian born musician Taj Weekes’ fifth full length album Love Herb and Reggae – a collection of fourteen bouncing, mellow reggae tunes with his band Adowa. In 51 minutes, Taj’s lyrics cover the full assortment of reggae’s lyrical history, touching on politics, human rights, marijuana and love. And yet from the opening hook, to its final, fading gasps, it never slips into cliché or stereotype, proving itself to be original and unique and without doubt their strongest record to date.

NEW YEAR, NEW POLITICS – AN INTERVIEW WITH LANDE OF MUNCIE GIRLS

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged album, arts, Balloon, counterculture, Daniel P Carter, Emma Goldman, From Caplan to Belsize, frustration, Gas Mark4, indie, interview, Kerrang, Lande, Muncie Girls, music, music that matters, ONSIND, politics, Propagandhi, punk, punk rock, radio 1, Roughneck Riot, RVIVR, Tellison, Tony Benn, tour.

By Chris Jarvis

In November, Muncie Girls announced the release of their debut album From Caplan to Belsize, set for a release in March 2016. They followed up this announcement with two singles – Gas Mark 4 and Balloon, and kicked off the New Year with vocalist and bassist Lande being featured on the cover of Kerrang! Magazine as one of the ‘Stars of 2016’ as well as being interviewed and played on Daniel P Carter’s Rock Show on Radio 1. It looks as though 2016 will be the breakthrough year for Exeter based indie-punks Muncie Girls. Having been part of what is so often a political scene, The Norwich Radical spoke to Lande about the new album, the politics behind it and how she sees the role of political music our series Music That Matters.

REVIEW: DAVID BOWIE’S BLACKSTAR

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged album, Aphex Twin, blackstar, david bowie, death, Donny McCaslin, John Ford, Kendrick Lamar, lazarus, music, Polaris, Prodigy, radical review, review, saxophone, Squarepusher, The Next Day, Thin White Duke, uk, Young Americans, Ziggy, Ziggy Stardust.

by Mike Vinti

This review was written over the weekend, when David Bowie was still alive. In light of his death last night, much of the meaning of this album has changed and one can’t help but see this album, released just three days before his passing, as Bowie’s final gift to the world. In this review, no great weight is placed on the allusions to death or nagging sense of dread throughout, the aspects of the album that stand out most today. In my naivety I guess I thought he’d live forever. Listening in light of the news, ‘Lazarus’ especially feels like a resigned goodbye, lines such as ‘I’ve got scars you cannot see’ and ‘just like that bluebird, I’ll be free’ seem to warn the listener of Bowie’s fate and one can’t help but feel like a fool for missing them. Continue Reading

album

WHEN WE STAY QUIET WE ARE ALSO MORE POWERLESS – AN INTERVIEW WITH SUNFLOWER BEAN

REVIEW: BUTTERFLIES, THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM ZAIA

A SEAT AT THE TABLE

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL BREXIT

WOMEN AND PUNK: SHAPING THE GENRE 40 YEARS ON

BLAST FROM THE PAST – CHRISTINA AGUILERA: STRIPPED

LOVE, HERB AND REGGAE – AN INTERVIEW WITH TAJ WEEKES

NEW YEAR, NEW POLITICS – AN INTERVIEW WITH LANDE OF MUNCIE GIRLS

REVIEW: DAVID BOWIE’S BLACKSTAR

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