In a month when Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists rose up all over the world, there was plenty of new music providing inspiration.听Here are the best new albums that relate to this month's political news. There are actually more than 10 - count them. What albums would you suggest? Comment on听,听, or听.听
1. NOOKY 鈥 JUNCTION COURT
At the start of the month, Australian activists toured the Darling River, where the appalling life expectancy of Aboriginal communities is being worsened by their water and power being cut off. The personal pain of loss in Aboriginal communities looms large on the new by Yuin rapper , released on October 11, which documents the devastating death of his , among others. The loss sent Nooky into a spiral of intoxication, but he managed to emerge on the other side with this triumphant record. The rapper and acclaimed producer likens the experience to a local creation story from his hometown of Nowra, south of Sydney. 鈥淭he white cockatoo, Nyalwal, flew through fire and was badly hurt, injured and burned 鈥 but he made it out the other side,鈥 Nooky . "As he was flying over the river, he noticed his reflection and was horrified at what he saw, but when he returned to his community, the people celebrated him."
2. VARIOUS ARTISTS 鈥 EXTINCTION REBELLION
When Aboriginal activist Bruce Shillingsworth returned to Sydney after organising the activists' tour of the crisis-hit Darling River, he hit headlines as part of the Extinction Rebellion protests that kicked off on October 7. The week of worldwide rallies brought an inevitable backlash from governments and the . Thom Yorke, David Byrne and Lily Allen were among musicians called 鈥渉ypocrites鈥 for supporting XR due to their lifestyles involving world travel. 鈥淒ear journalists who have called us hypocrites,鈥 they . 鈥淵ou鈥檙e right. We live high carbon lives and the industries that we are part of have huge carbon footprints. Like you 鈥 and everyone else 鈥 we are stuck in this fossil-fuel economy and without systemic change, our lifestyles will keep on causing climate and ecological harm." Other musicians responded with and of the defiant UN speech by 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg. 听
3. RAKTA 鈥 FALHA COMUM
Brazilian musicians speaking out against climate-wrecking president Jair Bolsonaro included female duo Rakta. 鈥淏eing a woman and occupying a space in the Brazilian music scene is a social and political act in and of itself,鈥 they , adding that, in Brazil, a woman is murdered every two hours. For them, Bolsonaro, who opposes gender equality and once taunted a female congresswoman that she was 鈥渦nworthy of rape鈥, is an open manifestation of Brazil鈥檚 history of misogyny. Their sprawling city of S茫o Paulo, meanwhile, offers the 鈥渃omplete raw and hard duality of being a human in a capitalist society鈥. Many of their fellow outspoken musicians were inspired by the Brazilian protests of 2013 that started against a hike in transport fees, just as protests in Chile did this month. The Chilean protests came amid a rise in political unrest across Latin America, including in Ecuador听and Bolivia. MORE>>>
4. NEIL YOUNG 鈥 COLORADO
Bolsonaro is known as the "Trump of the tropics", but it was the real Donald Trump that led Canadian musician Neil Young to declare he was finally becoming a United States citizen this month. Speaking about his new climate-themed album released on October 25, Young he was taking the oath because 鈥淚鈥檒l be able to vote". "We鈥檝e got a climate emergency, and governments are not acting,鈥 he said. On "Shut It Down", he sings: "Have to shut the whole system down. They're all wearing climate change as cool as they can be ... Start again and build it for eternity." On "Green Is Blue" he sings: "We heard the warning calls, ignored them. We saw the weather change, we saw the fire and floods. We saw the people rise, divided. We fought each other while we lost our coveted prize." And on 鈥淪he Showed Me Love", he sings: 鈥淚鈥檝e seen old white guys trying to kill Mother Nature ... I've seen young folks fighting to save Mother Nature.鈥 Those folks include the Honey Hahs. 听
5. LA NEVE 鈥 THE VITAL CORD听
Also fighting back is long-time activist La Neve, who released her political indie disco album The Vital Cord on October 14. La Neve, who also goes by the name Joey DeFrancesco in the political punk band Downtown Boys, : "It鈥檚 hard for the institutional industry to pay attention to people who look and present like this and make politicised music. It鈥檚 a constant fight, but there's inspiring stuff all over the place... You鈥檙e seeing protesting and action now on a level I haven鈥檛 seen before. What鈥檚 happening now with the climate protests, Black Lives Matter ... and the socialist movement... a lot of this is inspiring and led by young people ... Coming from my background as a labour organiser, it鈥檚 been so clear that queer, trans, and labour rights are all intersecting, and the labour movement must take the fight for queer rights seriously because we鈥檙e all workers. If we鈥檙e not serious about fighting for all of us, it weakens every other movement."
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6. LEE BRICKLEY 鈥 SONGS FOR ROJAVA
Kurdish people have been fighting to the death for such rights in their battle against ISIS, yet they were abandoned by the US on October 8, sparking an invasion by Turkish forces. On October 11, British musician Lee Brickley 鈥 who recently released a strong album about the Kurdish fighters in Rojava 鈥 published a about the conflict that went viral. "The people there live under a system called Democratic Confederalism which is based on workers鈥 rights, equality, , and ecology," he . "In principal, this version of democracy is far more democratic than any system used in a Western country today... The Kurdish people just can鈥檛 win. Every major global power uses them when it suits their agenda, and then they feed them to the wolves. The US won鈥檛 stand up for the Kurds. The Syrian government won鈥檛 stand up for them, and neither will Iran or Russia. That's why every single person with a heart reading this must raise their voice now!" 听
7. REFUSED 鈥 WAR MUSIC
While promoting Refused's aptly-titled new album last month, the band's singer, Dennis Lyxz茅n, : "We have this system set up 鈥 this capitalist dream that we want to export to Syria and the rest of the world 鈥 but people in America and Europe suffer from mental illness and fatigue and poverty. It鈥檚 a system that we can鈥檛 afford to live in, but we still want to force it on everybody." Discussing the music on Refused's blisteringly heavy new album, the revered musician : "I think the violence of the record, the propulsion of the record ... there's a sense of desperation to it, and I think it does capture the mood of the world right now in a lot of ways.
We managed to put out a pretty savvy representation of the turmoil that we live in right now. While it's a good thing to capture that, it's a bit of a sad thing that we will have to continue to try to capture that. But yeah, I think it captures of the vibe of 2019鈥2020, for better or worse." 听
8. ARTICLE 54 鈥 THE HUSTLE: A BREXIT DISCO SYMPHONY
Taking a more lighthearted approach to the global turmoil was musician Rhodri Marsden, with his mercifully succinct disco album about the never-ending Brexit negotiations. Released as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson limbered up for an electoral battle with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Article 54's The Hustle is both funnier and more successful than Britain's bungling PM. Writing about it, Marsden : "I set about shoehorning the modern-day saga of Brexit into 35 minutes, using Chic-style guitars, disco strings and a chorus of four women (including my long-suffering girlfriend) ... With the uncertainty of Brexit having caused me no end of anxiety, this labour-intensive task worked out cheaper than cognitive behavioural therapy ... Of course, none of these songs听 mine, nor anyone else鈥檚 鈥 will change the world. As a form of mild protest, they either serve to remind listeners that they鈥檙e not alone with their feelings about Brexit 鈥 or, conversely, to wind them up." 听
9. WHISKEY AND THE WENCH 鈥 AFTER...听
On October 22, Australia's Sky News tried to wind up New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern by reporting that she'd called shock jock Alan Jones 鈥 who recently suggested she should be assaulted 鈥 a "git". But as website Junkee , she'd done so in 2012 after a tribunal found that Alan Jones incited the Cronulla race riots and he also said the father of Australia's first female PM, Julia Gillard, died of shame. Far to the left of Ardern are Kiwi folk-punks Whisky And The Wench, who launched their new album two days later, on October 24. "Politics is a big part of what Whiskey and the Wench is all about," they . "Hard-line, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-sexist, leftists." Asked about the recent local elections in their hometown of Dunedin, they said though "electoral politics is insufficient", 听"Aaron Hawkins' win for mayor 鈥 the first ever Green Party mayor in the country 鈥 that could be a very good thing for Dunedin and the New Zealand left." 听
10. KANADA DAY 鈥 THE QUIET WAR
Embodying the disappointment many people feel with electoral politics was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the one-time golden boy who was fighting for his political life as he went to the polls on October 22. The oil pipeline-supporting Trudeau had been hit by multiple scandals, including photos of him dressed in blackface and accounts of him an indigenous female minister on behalf of big business. In the run-up to the election, indigenous musician Adrian Sutherland protest song "Politician Man" after his Cree community declared a state of emergency over contaminated water, reminiscent of Australia's water crisis. It followed the new from Toronto-based grunge musician Kanada Day, which proclaims: "Your food is made of poison. Your water dulls your mind. Your credit cards are all maxed out. You crave the tie that binds. The Silent Weapons are loaded. Armed by our hands. Take a look all around you. This is a business plan."
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mat Ward has been writing for听91自拍论坛 Weekly听since 2009. He also wrote the听听Real Talk: Aboriginal Rappers Talk About Their Music And Country and听makes听.听This year, he released a new听听about surveillance and an听EP听with Aboriginal rapper Provocalz. Follow his artist page听on听Spotify听.
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