Gnod
JUST SAY NO TO THE PSYCHO RIGHT-WING CAPITALIST FASCIST INDUSTRIAL DEATH MACHINE

Probably 2017, despite Donald Trump (or perhaps precisely because of Donald Trump, in the sense that his inauguration as President of the USA also signifies a certain disinterest from the country's counterculture) has seen much more fury and reactions and declarations of dissent towards the current socio-political context globally in Europe rather than in the United States. In this regard, I definitely place the United Kingdom first, which, especially after the 'Brexit' events, has seen what can be considered a democratic regime literally crumble in favor of an authoritarian and autarkic turn and a historical phase characterized by uncertainties and conservatism. This situation, superimposed on what was already a difficult context, has clearly provoked reactions in the most marginalized strata of the population, which so far, however, find no responses in politics. Nonetheless, alongside a certain underlying resignation, dissent realities characterized by content have also emerged, expressed in various artistic forms, in this case with musical works that, taking up a tradition considered more characteristic of the US in recent years and the more typical content of punk music, but without that characteristic nihilism that made the 1977 movement a half-revolution, propose themselves vigorously to listeners throughout Europe and the world.

We have, in different contexts, talked about Sleaford Mods, a reality already affirmed for some time and which this year (not by chance) has probably achieved its definitive consecration, and more recently about the Idles phenomenon and their debut LP 'Brutalism'; Arrows Of Love ('PRODUCT: Your Soundtrack To The Impending Societal Collapse', I'm Not From London Records) probably represent the most nihilistic wing. More expressionist phenomena like the Housewives recover more expressionist forms of dissent and in the form of real cultural manifestos. In the case of GNOD, a formation from Salford in Greater Manchester, instead, noise and experimental tendencies are fused with a hardcore-punk approach from formations like Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Fugazi, or even The Fall.

Formed in 2006, so far GNOD (Chris Haslam, Paddy Shine, Marlene Ribeiro, Neil Francis) had never ventured this far both in terms of sound and concerning the conceptual content of their music, but this album, which is perhaps less experimental than previous ones (but at the same time less vacuous), as presented by the band's own members, aims to be at the same time a manifestation of dissent against what has been defined as a capitalist and fascist drift of the forces representing the political system's establishment and at the same time a kind of call to what could be a new opposition movement. The album, released on Rocket Recordings, is significantly titled 'JUST SAY NO TO THE PSYCHO RIGHT-WING CAPITALIST FASCIST INDUSTRIAL DEATH MACHINE' (all strictly in uppercase) and right from the first track, 'Bodies For Money', it conveys a direct message: 'take it or leave it'. Characterized by a typically post-punk fury ('Paper Error') which is already typical of Idles, a powerful bass sound in the style of This Heat ('People') and loaded with Jah Wobble’s hypnotism, obsessive interpretations of Public Image Limited ('Stick In The Wheel') and sharp Mark E. Smith guitars, the album also contains that drone component which has become a peculiar characteristic of bands from the United Kingdom or more generally from Northern Europe.

Someone will probably object that clearly albums are not enough to change things, but this is certainly not a revelation. Yet, at the same time, music - like any form of art - concretely represents the ideological content of significant segments of the society we live in. In this sense, these, expressed with vigor and consistent strength as in the case of this album, certainly do not go unnoticed and uncompromisingly go straight to the point of the matter with convincing results both musically and on a more strictly ideological level.