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.
Continue Reading

THE CULTURAL IS POLITICAL – THE REUNIFICATION OF LEFTISM AND CULTURE

Posted on June 19, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged anti globalisation, artists, arts, comics, culture, Ellie Rowsell, escapism, feminism, film makers, Great Depression, Grime for Corbyn, Grime4Corbyn, Jason Manford, jeremy corbyn, Joey Barton, John Steinbeck, Kate Nash, Kerrang, labour party, Lily Allen, Maxine Peake, musicians, nme, Noel Fielding, novelists, personal is political, playwrights, poets, political right, politics, pro choice, rage against the machine, riot grrrl, thatcherism, vietnam war, woody guthrie, writers.

by Chris Jarvis

Culture and politics are inseparable. Culture is more than mere entertainment, more than escapism. Culture is central to how we understand the world, build our value sets and perceive our fellow people. It stirs human emotion in unique ways, pulling different levers in the brain. Sometimes overtly, sometimes with subtlety, the dominant cultural practices, institutions, icons and outputs are used to reinforce the dominant political system and defend the status quo. Establishment weaponise culture as a means of influence.

But this isn’t the sole preserve of the political right.

Looking through history, many of the most important moments of popular revolt have an accompanying soundtrack. The resistance to the Vietnam War had the protest folk singers. Rage Against the Machine were agitators of the US anti-globalisation movement. Riot Grrrl acts built feminist infrastructure, led pro-choice campaigns and brought ‘the personal is political’ sentiments to the fore of a cultural phenomenon. And so on, and so on.

This isn’t coincidental.Continue Reading

MEANWHILE, BACKSTAGE IN SONIC BOOM SIX’S WORLD

Posted on March 26, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged Anti-Vigilante, artivism, backstage, Barney Boom, Brexit, Capdown, commentary, costa, enter shikari, EU, gentrification, Ghould, Ghouls, gig, Great Britain, Imperial Leisure, interview, James Routh, King Prawn, Laila K, live, metal, Mobb Deep, Mouthwash, MTM, music, music that matters, Nick Horne, No Man No Right, O2 Academy, performance, petrol girls, politics, punk, race, racism, rage against the machine, Random Hand, Remain, series, show, ska punk, social commentary, Sonic Boom Six, subway, The Clash, The Specials, The Tuts, Truck Store, uk, Warped Tour, women in music, Zodiac.

Content Warning: Racial slurs, homophobia

by Chris Jarvis

A few minutes’ walk from the dreaming spires for which the city is famed lies East Oxford’s Cowley Road – the hub where ‘kids of the multiculture’ grow up. An area undergoing rapid gentrification, it still retains its working class heritage, ethnic diversity, and unique character under the strains of the expansionist middle classes settling, with students and university professors increasingly filling the nearby terraces.

Cowley Road is home to the O2 Academy. Previously the Zodiac, the venue is emblematic of other changes in the area – a corporate takeover of a formerly independent music venue. Across the road sit branches of Subway and Costa, but a little further down is the Truck Store – the pivot of the local independent music scene. Here, at Oxford’s O2 Academy, Manchester-born Sonic Boom Six get set to tear up the stage on a Friday evening. Continue Reading

IS THE GOVERNMENT KILLING YOU?

Posted on March 14, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged civil war, Congress, Donald Trump, Duma, dwp, Ecuador, famine, government, Guantanamo, house of commons, mental health, policy, rage against the machine, reproductive rights, Roe v Wade, Russia, South Sudan, structural violence, Texas, UN, US, Vladimir Putin.

by Gunnar Eigener

Content warning: mentions violence, execution, massacre, abortion, domestic violence

‘For example, what does the billboard say,
Come and play, come and play
Forget about the movement’

Freedom – Rage Against The Machine

A UN-declared famine is threatening the lives of over a million people in South Sudan, with 100,000 of those facing immediate starvation. It has been six years since a famine was last declared, but the difference is that this famine is the result of structural violence.Continue Reading

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.

NOT YOUR PUNK – AN INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI JONES OF KING PRAWN

Posted on April 10, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged asian dub foundation, Babar Luck, babylon whackers, bob marley, crass, dead kennedys, east end trinity, hardcore, hip hop, King Prawn, music, music that matters, politics, public enemy, punk, rage against the machine, Random Hand, Ska, the king blues.

By Chris Jarvis

In 1993, a new icon was born. King Prawn’s incendiary sound emerged from London, and paved the way for countless other bands on a burgeoning and ever developing scene. Over the next decade, they would lay waste to notions of genre as album after album would reinvent punk, ska, hip-hop and hardcore blazing a trail for many others to follow. Sonic Boom Six, Random Hand, The King Blues all built upon the legacy of King Prawn. So diverse and innovative, they coined their own label to define their music – Wildstyle, and their rebel rousing songs combined with their flagrant disregard for musical convention led to comparisons with American rap-metal pioneers Rage Against the Machine.Continue Reading

KNOW YOUR ENEMY – AN INTERVIEW WITH JAKE OF SHOCK ! HAZARD

Posted on April 3, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Music That Matters and tagged ac/dc, Beyonce, enter shikari, Green Party, jeremy corbyn, justin bieber, Labour, labour party, led zeppelin, motley crue, music, music that matters, one direction, owl sanctuary, people's assembly, politics, rage against the machine, rock, rock and roll, steel pulse, stop the war, Taylor Swift, The Clash, x-ray spex.

By Chris Jarvis

For most, Norfolk boys Shock ! Hazard will appear as something of an antilogy. Their sound and aesthetics are clearly rooted in and influenced by early heavy metal pioneers like Led Zeppelin and the less flamboyant hair metallers of the 1980s – thumping riffs, extended guitar solos and screeching vocals galore. More than anything, this sound and this scene has been known for its bone-headed hedonism, its sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll attitude, and the carefree and unrestricted antics of its participants; hardly the place you go to find revolutionary calls to action or heavily politicised lyricism. Putting aside the question as to whether participation in a counter-culture is an inherently political act for a minute, unlike other musical movements, from punk to folk to hip-hip, this straight-up, hard hitting, in your face rock and roll, has made its name in part for being almost overtly apolitical.

rage against the machine

20 BEST RADICAL MUSICAL RELEASES OF 2017

THE CULTURAL IS POLITICAL – THE REUNIFICATION OF LEFTISM AND CULTURE

IS THE GOVERNMENT KILLING YOU?

THE 20 BEST RADICAL MUSIC RELEASES OF 2016

NOT YOUR PUNK – AN INTERVIEW WITH NIKOLAI JONES OF KING PRAWN

KNOW YOUR ENEMY – AN INTERVIEW WITH JAKE OF SHOCK ! HAZARD

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