Sidecars "It's a 'shock' when you go on stage and meet people with masks"
Preview: 10 artists who will become great in 2021
One of the few good things that can be extracted from a process as messy - and essentially sad - as that of the
United Kingdom's exit from the European Union
is that local artists have reacted to the event with fury and creativity.
A
response movement that crosses genres and generations
and that has been filtered through direct references (the songs
I Love EU
, by Gruff Rhys;
Full English Brexit
, by Billy Bragg;
Take My Country Back
, by Enter Shikari or
Everything's on the Up With the Tories
, by Brian Eno), full albums and even a new wave of young bands that, how could it be otherwise,
have added Brexit
and its economic, political and social consequences
in his speech
.
Shame
If there is an adjective that can be applied to the majority of young rock groups in the UK it is
"angry".
Shame, of course, they sound like that.
Raw, at full speed, unpolished.
Their debut album,
Songs of Praise
(2018), put them on the map.
Very long tours and a second album,
Drunk Tank Pink
, released this same 2021, have consolidated their status within the music scene of the islands.
Now they
sound even more powerful sonically and personal biographically
, as is apparent in
Born in Luton
, the opening of the recent album.
The Good The Bad & The Queen
The
supergroup
that make up
Damon Albarn
(Blur, Gorillaz),
Paul Simonon
(The Clash),
Simon Tong
(The Verve) and the recently deceased African drummer
Tony Allen
(mythical collaborator of Fela Kuti) dedicated their second album (
Merrie Land
, 2019) to Brexit.
They did so by drawing an
analogy between the referendum and a failed love relationship
.
As usual in Albarn, he draws a love / hate letter to his country, always wrapped in a halo of magnetic and exciting melancholy.
Sleaford Mods
Hailing from Nottingham and with an innate knack for capturing the spirit of their time, Sleaford Mods function as
observers for the b-side of the country
.
In his last two albums (
Eton Alive
, 2019 and
Spare Ribs
, 2021), the pre and post Brexit society sneaks into each of his verses.
The group's format is also special: Andrew Fearn is in charge of the
beats
- live, to hit play and have a few beers on stage - and Jason Williamson, to recite
lyrics halfway between punk, rock and hip hop
.
In
Out There they
sing: "Let's Get Brexit Fucked by an Horse's Penis until its Misery Splits."
Find your own translation ... if it is needed.
Slowthai
If you combine the sound of grime that you have been listening to since childhood with the rawness of British punk, you will find Slowthai.
His real name, Tyron Kaymone Frampton, explains that
Tyron
that gives the title to his most recent work.
Tracks like
Nothing Great About Britain
, a name shared with that of his debut album, speak for themselves.
His
very fast and charismatic
flow
and his ability to
capture the small details of the daily life of his country have made him great
.
Darts also appear in his lyrics against Boris Johnson, the monarchy, the implicit racism in the UK and against the ancient British class society, as well as other demons of their own.
Idles
Perhaps the great leaders of the last "pen?" (In the UK there is always a new scene forming) regeneration of British punk.
Idles are
raw, powerful, and they sound angry
.
Dozens of references to the culture of our time sneak into his music.
At
Well Done they
furiously exclaim, "Why don't you get a job? / Even the Queen has a job."
His imaginary and his relationship against Brexit are perfectly manifested in
Great,
taken from his second LP,
Joy as an Act of Resistance
.
Nadine shah
In December 2017 he tweeted: "Brexit is stupid. Breakfast is great."
Sometimes a phrase can perfectly summarize a feeling and an opinion.
Nadine Shah is a good representative of multicultural Britain that some try to see as a danger.
He has
Pakistani and Norwegian origins
and works almost as an activist through intensely personal rock that is sometimes elegant and other times furious.
The
nationalism and Islamophobia are some of their targets
.
As she says: "My job is to document the time we live in."
Kae tempest
Poet, composer, playwright, novelist ... Kae Tempest (as she calls herself now, removing a letter from Kate, her former name) is one of the great voices of British popular culture of the last decade.
Tempest
manages to be smart without being indoctrinating
.
Exciting without falling into the sentimental.
Furious without losing subtlety.
Brexit has been looming for years like a threatening shadow over his work.
Explicitly, as in his song
Europe Is Lost
, but also in LPs like
The Book of Traps and Lesson
(2019) whose cover, a passport, was
a warning to sailors
.
Bob vylan
No, the name is not a typo.
Bob Vylan, first of all, they are a duo.
And originally from London, not Duluth.
Halfway between punk and hip hop, they take no prisoners
.
Their songs are very short and they go to slaughter denouncing injustices related to racism suffered in the first person (
We Live Here
), police brutality (
Pulled Pork
), socioeconomic inequality (
England's Ending
), extreme nationalism (
I Heard You Want Your Country Back
) and accurate anti-government proclamations (
Intro
).
Goat girl
Let no one be fooled by the color of his photos and the eclectic of his music.
The true soul of this quartet of Londoners resides in their lyrics, which are
not afraid
- quite the contrary -
of being confrontational
and
telling the truth
(their truth).
They had already made it clear that theirs was interesting in their debut namesake.
But they amplify ambition and talent on the very recent
On All Fours
, a follow-up album from that one.
In their song
SCUM they
do not go around with metaphors: "How can the whole country be / so short".
Skepta
It seems like forever, before the referendum and Brexit was finally a reality, Skepta (real name: Joseph Jun Adenuga) released an album titled
Konnichiwa
that catapulted him to the fore on the British rap scene.
The new life of this musician of Nigerian origin living in the London neighborhood of Tottenham has not prevented him from forgetting his
origins, racial tensions and the reality of the
United Kingdom.
On
England Lost he
collaborated with Mick Jagger himself to make his particular anti-Brexit statement.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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