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| Photo by Bea Dewhurst. |
One of the key ideas of the Situationists was of ‘the spectacle’(1), which included the concept that subjects within an industrialised capitalist society are immersed, via the state, corporations and media, in a seamless representation of reality that serves the interests of those in power. This representation is so all pervasive that the economics, politics and social organisation of late capitalism are experienced as natural rather than construct. The Situationist’s ‘spectacle’ tied in with Gramsci’s theory of ‘cultural hegemony’(2) and with Althusser’s idea of Ideological State Apparatus (3).
Recently this train of thought was explored by Mark Fisher in his excellent 2009 book Capitalist Realism: Is There Really No Alternative (4) where he explores the comment by either Jameson or Zizek that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is the end of capitalism. Psychiatrist Frantz Fanon pointed out that colonisation was not just the occupation of a territory and the reordering of that society/economy to the interests of the coloniser but also involved the colonisation of the oppressed subject’s minds (5). The colonised adopted the cultural views, values and attitudes of the dominant colonial power including it’s view of the colonised. According to the concept of ‘the spectacle’ the working class has been colonised by neoliberal capitalism’s view of the world, it has internalised a world view that serves the interests of a hostile class.
The Situationists suggested that one of the ways to free ourselves of the mesmeric effect of the ‘the spectacle’ is through direct participation in situations, to break free from passively consumed mediated experience and to become co participants in situations experienced directly, situations that disrupt and challenge the top down narrative. That internalised narrative is of an individualised, disempowered, fractured working class struggling because of its own poor choices. Its a narrative that pits the working class against each other through scapegoating and by convincing us that our problems of financial insecurity, anxiety, precarity, poor mental health are individual not structural. It tells you the problems lie within the working class and are not the result of policies and governance by the powerful for the powerful.
Wonderfully described by Ged Babey as looking ‘more like a terror cell than a rock group’(6) Girls In Synthesis’ music and practice is an effective and positive site of resistance to this top down narrative.By dealing lyrically with working class experience of fragile mental health, social immobility, a sense of powerlessness, precarity, anxiety and the corrosive effects of a hostile society GIS enable us to join the dots and realise that the framing of these experiences as individualised dysfuctionality is false and that these are shared experiences that are often far more to do with politically constructed conditions and structures of oppression. There is a relief in that; to hear someone singing ‘Living in a world that wants to destroy you’ (Internal Politics) is strangely heartening, encouraging, empowering. ‘So it's not just me then? Well fuck ‘em. I won’t give them the satisfaction!’
Musically GIS have found a sound that simultaneously conveys both a sense of nervous anxiety, of tension and of adrenaline fuelled exhilaration. If you were looking for an antecedent maybe The Ruts would be the obvious one, another band who were (and are) able to transpose social tension and the intensity of urban life into music.
Relational aesthetics is a term used to describe art that enables collaboration and is completed by the participation of both the initiating artist and those who would often be seen as the ‘audience’. It is an art form that extends the opportunity for direct participation and the construction of, at least temporary, community. In other words it’s an art form that ticks all the Situationist boxes for breaking out of passive consumption of spectacle and moving into direct involvement and contribution to the moment. GIS live is relational aesthetics, an ongoing art experiment that draws the would be viewer into the creative act. They relinquish a degree of control in the belief that those present have something worth contributing, that the net effect will be a plus and it’s something that GIS have become expert at, their live shows are a celebration of solidarity, community and, interestingly, responsibility.
Girls In Synthesis are of course, primarily, a rock band but by fulfilling the Situationist’s ideal of disrupting the top down discourse of individualised dysfunctionality, breaking the spell of ‘the spectacle’ and deliberately creating environments of participation they may be one of the few bands that have come close to fulfilling punk’s potential.
(1) Debord, G. (1968) ‘The Society of the Spectacle’. Black and Red, USA.
(2) Thomas, M. (ed)(2012) ‘Antonio Gramsci: Working-Class Revolutionary’, Workers’ Liberty, London.
(3)D’Alleva, A. (2012) ‘Methods and Theories of Art History’, Laurence King Publishing, London.
(4) Fisher, M. (2009) ‘Capitalist Realism: Is There Really No Alternative?’, O Books, Winchester UK and Washington USA.
(5) Mesch, C. (2014) ‘Post Colonial Identity and the Civil-Rights Movement’ Art and Politics; a small history of art for social change since 1945′, I. B. Tauris, London & New York.
(6) Babey, G. (2018) Girls In Synthesis: Fan the Flames EP review, Louder Than War, https://louderthanwar.com/girls-in-synthesis-fan-the-flames-ep-review/
6pm. Made it! I'm in London, not an easy trip from rain soaked Suffolk, flooding meant all trains on the Lowestoft to Ipswich line were cancelled. First casualty was the William Blake exhibition, as my train's delay turned into cancellation I realise that no way am I going to get there! In fact Girls In Synthesis is looking far from certain. Some friends decide to drive to Ipswich, they have tickets for the England match, 'Do I want a lift?' I certainly do! Ipswich had real moving trains!
7pm. And eventually I meet up with a couple of friends at Liverpool Street, we set off down Bishopsgate towards Great Eastern Street and the Old Blue Last. A Pole, a Spaniard and a Brit. One of them puts on DIY punk gigs, the other has played in three bands I know of. You can't measure the grass roots cultural positives of being in the EU, the re-energising effects of fresh enthusiasms, new styles, the hybridities that come with the movement of people. I have far more in common with these two than I have with Boris Johnson.
7.30. The Old Blue Last. Never been here before, nice place. Toilets? Easily spotted. The Great Escape Festival has put on a series of gigs to showcase some of the bands they have next May, Girls in Synthesis are on with The Cool Greenhouse and Do Nothing. It's sold out. I spot someone I recognise from previous GIS gigs, very nice guy, the four of us stand chatting about music. New and old. We all mention bands the others haven't heard of. How much good music is there out there?
8pm. The Cool Greenhouse are on and I'm starting to relax with the help of a couple of drinks. Intriguing band, a bit Bodega maybe? Art Rock perhaps? Their bandcamp page describes them as 'lo-fi, repetitive post-punk with a social conscience'. They've had three releases since June '18 and to me they seemed pretty good, which is mild praise compared to The Quietus who commented about EP Crap Cardboard Pet, 'enthralling', 'oozes delight and is so very infectious in its charm' (1).
8.45pm. Time to start positioning ourselves, it will probably get more difficult to move freely quite soon. What's the word for a lot of photographers? Whatever it is, there are. Which shows good taste in my opinion.
8.55pm. I think it may have been Mark Fisher who commented that late capitalism is like an ever open, moribund, shopping mall, devoid of purpose and community. Alienation, isolation, lack of meaning, anxiety, the individualisation of mental health issues-as though they happen in a vacuum. One of the hallmarks of post modernity is meant to be the death of the meta-narrative, stories we told about where we are and where we are going. Marxism has one, capitalism used to have one. Now all neoliberal capitalism can offer you is precarity, anxiety and the assurance that things could be worse.
9pm. Girls In Synthesis take to the stage. The atmosphere changes to electric expectancy, we're teetering on the edge of the rush! And then it happens, 'Arterial Movements', 'Pressure, 'Tainted'. John and Jim have long since given up the stage, positioning themselves and their mics within the audience, it's a deeply sophisticated move that carries within it a symbol of solidarity, the praxis of intentional community, the preparedness to divest themselves of architectural power and to trust the crowd. This is the realisation of relational aesthetics, art as an ongoing collaboration with all the attendant risks. The whole area in front of the stage is now a wild celebration of solidarity, of community, of life. In the middle of it all, like astronauts in constant communication with base, John, Jim and Nicole - who somehow holds it all together - periodically catch each other's eye, nod, synchronise watches. I don't know what effective protest looks like at the moment, (Extinction Rebellion?) but this feels like part of it because it's an affirmation of what makes us human, reminds us of what life is meant to be about. Community, trust, hope. In these fucking awful times of brutal top down class war those three things enable us to keep going and Girls In Synthesis help us to remember that and to invest in them. This band is important. They remind us that neoliberalism is construct not nature, it's corrosive effects can be resisted.
9.35pm. They've finished! What do you do now? Watch the last band? I can't, I need to get a train, if it's running! I talk, to my friends, to someone from a previous gig, to the band. I dance around to something on the PA then leave.
10.30pm. I spend the journey home smiling.
Bibliography.
Cashin, C. (2019) 'The Cool Greenhouse: Crap Cardboard Pet', The Quietus, https://thequietus.com/articles/25968-cool-greenhouse-crap-cardboard-pet-ep-album-review
An afternoon off work, three trains in and I'm reading Hatt and Klonk on Hegelian art theory, interesting but ultimately a load of speculative semi teleological bollocks really. I'm on my way to Nottingham, to the Sumac Centre to see Echoes and Dust favourites Track Not Found who are playing as part of a benefit gig for homeless girls in Sierra Leone, ‘getting them off the streets, away from the pimps, and into school’ as someone put it on the night. Twisted East/P4TH had put on Track Not Found’s first UK gig in July ‘18 and I was looking forward to catching then again.
It’s a fair walk from Nottingham rail station to the Sumac and as I wandered past an art gallery a painting caught my eye, the person closing up turns out to be the artist as well, Lauren Paige. Good strong body of work, diverse, some of it autobiographical, all of it interesting. I took her card. Away from the flagship retrospectives there seems to a thriving, vibrant grass roots art scene which is often more interesting than a lot of the big gallery stuff. If you live in the Nottingham area her stuff, on Mansfield Road, is well worth a look.
The Sumac is as wonderful as ever, a DIY anarchist social centre that revives my hope in humanity ever time I go there.‘The Sumac Centre promotes co-operation, non-hierarchy and grassroots groups promoting social and environmental justice. We are not-for-profit and run by volunteers’.Tonights gig is an interesting mix of spoken word and music and kicks off with Pixie Styx, now I hadn’t heard of her before so didn’t really know what to expect, she turned out to be a singer songwriter of unusual sensitivity and honesty. Normally singer songwritery stuff isn’t really my thing but here was a depth, a vulnerability, and an engaging self deprecating humour that meant the often sobering subject matter was sensitivity presented. Somehow she balanced the different elements of her set effectively. Really good!
Next up was a local poet Jesse Eden Freeman, spoken word and powerful with it she set about racist hetronormative patriarchal capitalism and gave it a good going over. (Com)passionate and articulate I would guess her poetry is the distillation of a lot of reading and studying. She returned later in the evening with a piece about the lived experience of being a woman in a sexist society, living with a constant sense of tension. More men need to hear her. Grass roots DIY progressive politics as poetry; as punk as it gets!
She was followed by Jo and Dickon, doing an accompanied spoken word set, a compilation of other poets work, really good arrangements and quite emotional.
I’ve seen Nieviem a few times now and every time they deliver, the quality control for their gigs is bang on, doesn’t matter where they are, or that they have a new drummer, or how much preparation time they get Nieviem are always good! And they were particularly good tonight, whether it was the mix or just me but they sounded the best I've heard them. Think melodic hardcore, think Rise Against with female vocals. Bart Stanczyk’s guitar playing was prominent tonight as he alternated between quintessential punk riffs and more complex, intricate playing over pulsing bass and drums while Hope’s vocals were bang on as always. Quality band, everytime I see them they’re impressive.
Activistas have continued to evolve and develop into a really interesting thing, from a four piece into a six piece and into a really tight band with looser dual vocals over the top. For some reason I can't really explain or work out I kept thinking The Fall even though there is very little in common musically. Political and bothered with songs like ‘Chip Shop Fascist’ and ‘Boris is a Twat’ they make a terrific 'patchwork punk' racket! I saw them a while ago and they've moved on hugely, it will be interesting to see where they go next!
Next up was Headstone Horrors from Nottingham, now I’d seen their name about but never heard anything by them till tonight, and they were good. Tight catchy horror punk, with an energy and panache about them that made them well worth a watch. Apparently they formed in 2012 and have been playing live since ‘13, it showed, they really are very good indeed. The east Midlands and Lincolnshire seems to have more than its fair share of quality punk bands and Headstone Horrors are one of the best.
Last up were Track Not Found and I was wondering how they would do after Headstone Horrors performance, stupid of me of course because TNF are nothing like conventional punk, they’re out there somewhere doing their own thing, sometimes it overlaps with punk, sometimes with grunge, sometimes blues rock, although you might occasionally recognise a passing resembance to some style you’ve heard before, they take it all and reconfigure, realighn it. All those component parts you think you know have been customised, synthesised with intelligence, wit and bravery to create something new and exciting. Think Kate Bush with a punk sensibility, imagine she grew up listening to Nirvana and Riot Grrrl hooked up with Natasha Khan and started a band. You remember that phrase about ‘the future of Rock ‘n’ Roll’? Well it’s here and it sounds very exciting indeed (sorry, Bruce)! They start with the atmospheric ‘Luna’ before they go into ‘Fuck, Fuck, Fuck’, ‘Oxygen’, ‘Run Me Down’, their set is made up of a string of inventive, intelligent nimble tracks that, judging by the response of the people around me, grab the listener and demand their attention. A few tracks later they finished with new single ‘Everybody Hates Track Not Found’, or at least they would have finished if the guy next to me hadn't muttered ‘That’s next level stuff’ and started the calls for an encore, we got ‘Code Red’ off their 2017 EP, excellent end to a stunning set. A year on from their first tour in the UK TNF have a new drummer, Toby, and have developed musically and visually, Grace was on the newly vacated tables within two songs, finished the set on top of the drum kit, while Maisie wandered into the audience wearing a surreal pair of feathered angel wings. Catch them live as soon as you can.
Great evening for a good cause, don't let people tell you punk is dead, it's alive and well and thriving in a multitude of forms.
