What goes around comes around. A cliché maybe, yet it’s hard to disprove the belief that things come in cycles and rear their ugly heads on more than one occasion. Take the Brixton Riots for example. Along with the Miners’ Strike and the sinking of the ‘Belgrano’, this flashpoint brought about by unemployment, racial segregation and police intimidation is still seen as one of the most controversial events of the Thatcher years.
The riots of April 1981looked as thought they might open the floodgates. That summer, it wasn’t so much London but the UK as a whole that was burning as a result of the action in Brixton. Up in Liverpool, the Toxteth Riots brought similar scenes of social unrest, while in Manchester’s Wythenshawe area the infamous James Anderton’s police officers quelled further riots. Who could dare predict just how tight the icy grip of an uncaring Conservative government would soon become.
Having spent some time there myself last autumn, I can personally vouch for the fact Brixton is a far more harmonious, not to mention culturally vibrant place these days. Yet in other ways the situation has come full circle. As the 30th anniversary of the riots looms into view, Britain is again staring into the eyes of a cold Conservative government oblivious to the effects of financial meltdown and mass unemployment.
Thus, it’s clearly the time for voices of concerned dissent to be heard. Cue Iranian-English producer HIATUS and revered dub reggae poet LINTON KWESI JOHNSON (well known for his previous anti-oppression rants like ‘Reggae fi Peach’): two men who call Brixton’s former mean streets their home and graphically tap into the uncertainty of the times with their new single ‘Insurrection.’
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Opening with LKJ’S smoke-fuelled fire’n’brimstone preaching (“It was in April 1981/ down in a de ghetto of Brixton/ Babylondon caused such friction that it bring about a Insurrec-shan”), the track itself is a stark, sparse and brooding electro-Dub mash-up and a vivid smack in the face for those who still believe Pop and Politics have no right to walk hand in hand. It’s coupled with a handy dance-enhanced remix by Aaron Audio and if you dig Tricky’s uneasy paranoia or last year’s under-rated Gil Scott Heron LP you’ll not be disappointed.
Hiatus and LKJ, then, have thrown down the gauntlet. ‘Insurrection’ is an all-too lonely voice of dissatisfaction right now. Let’s hope it opens the gate for a wave of protest songs as this precarious year plays out.
Hear Insurrection on Soundcloud
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