20 BEST RADICAL MUSICAL RELEASES OF 2017

Posted on January 6, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged 2017, albums, Algiers, Anarchy.ForSale, anti-venom, Autonomad, Beans on Toast, Benjamin Zephaniah, cypress hill, DSM GlobalCollective, enter shikari, featured, Flogging Molly, Ibeyi, In Evil Hour, jesus and his judgemental father, Joey Bada$$, Mala rodriguez, Martha, MTM, music, music that matters, Nas, Niholas Payton, ONSIND, Paloma Faith, Priests, prophets of rage, public enemy, pussy riot, rage against the machine, Red Wedge, release, review, riot grrrl, sleaford mods, SonicBoom Six, the undercover hippy, year.

by Chris Jarvis

It’s a common cliché that the quality and abundance of political and protest music is directly proportionate to the awfulness of the broader political landscape. The Vietnam War gave us the great American folk singers. The stagnation, unemployment and neoliberalism’s cusp of the 1970s bred punk. Thatcher’s Britain brought us the motley crew of rebels surrounding Red Wedge. The rapid and destructive spread of militant capitalism and imperialism at the end of the Cold War bore Rage Against the Machine. Apartheid in South Africa swelled a wonderful mix of pioneering sounds and firebrand resistance.

Unsurprisingly, 2017 was one of those years – a terrifying political context coalescing into a bumper crop of fantastic radical releases. So with a withering nod to the year that was and with a glint of hope in the sounds of revolution, here are the very best radical musical releases 2017 had to offer.
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THE 20 BEST RADICAL MUSIC RELEASES OF 2016

Posted on January 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged a tribe called quest, Against Me!, anohni, austerity, b-real, chris t-t, chuck d, climate change, cypress hill, drone warfare, dubstep, enter shikari, far right, fascism, folk, folk-punk, fugazi, gentrification, Green Day, hardcore, hip hop, Kate Nash, Lobster, Martha, michael kiwanuka, mischief brew, Muncie Girls, obama, OPS, petrol girls, pop punk, post-hardcore, post-punk, prophets of rage, public enemy, punk, racism, rage against the machine, rap, refused, reggae, reggae punk, Saul Williams, Ska, ska punk, sleaford mods, slyvia plath, Solange, Sonic Boom Six, soul, suffragettes, surveillance, taj weekes, The Selecter, The Tuts, tom morello, war.

By Chris Jarvis

Yes, yes, we all know that 2016 has been an unmitigated cluster-fuck, with rising fascism, worsening humanitarian crises and intensifying conflict. In moments of darkness, many of us turn to the arts world – especially music – for comfort, for release, for explanation. With David Bowie, Prince, George Michael, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, Maurice White, George Martin, Phife Dawg, Erik Petersen, Leonard Cohen, Nick Menza, Greg Lake, Sharon Jones, and too many others all having passed away, many have found music to have also fallen on dark times.

That notwithstanding, 2016 has been a year of some undeniably and uniquely brilliant music too, especially music that espouses messages of a better world, of political analysis, of radical alternatives. Here are the 20 best of those radical releases from the past year.

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

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20 BEST RADICAL MUSICAL RELEASES OF 2017

THE 20 BEST RADICAL MUSIC RELEASES OF 2016

WOMEN AND PUNK: SHAPING THE GENRE 40 YEARS ON

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