REVIEW: Al-Thawra ‘Edifice’ (Subaltern)

Globalisation, that old bugbear of the vomit-caked

shirking classes that make up the crust punk underground, has painted every double-arch in gold leaf and sold the idea of primo latte frappucinos to people who don’t even have running water, but perversely, it’s brought us ‘Edifice’, a lo-fi nugget of such profoundly sincere spirituality and vision, caked in rage that’s open-wound sore and informed by the world’s relentless blitzkrieg of injustice. Globalisation brought together caustic, doom-fired d-beat, born in England and perfected in Sweden, the teachings of Muhammad and the teachings of Marx, traditional Arabic instruments and a hard-touring quartet from Chicago, and stewed them in purpose. Where the band’s debut, ‘Who Benefits From War?’ was untutored savagery, ‘Edifice’ is an immersive sonic whole, dragging you slowly down into a warm bubble bath of hypnotic, swirling instrumentals and rhythmic barking, driving crust riffs and dubstep bass fuzz like Anti-Sect’s unintentional ‘two-track’ rock opera ‘In Darkness There Is No Choice’.

Beyond the music, Al Thawra, one of the original disciples of Taqwacore, are providing this scene’s arteries with a throbbing adrenaline shot of individuality, not a trite strip-minding of some ’exotic’ belly dancing melodies, but an organic sum total of this quartet’s multicultural identity, the atypical and the typical. In a genre, which despite its pretentious to dissent and inclusivity is still defined by its WASP archetype, its empty cage-rattling to a set of prescribed first world white middle class problems, Al Thawra are a reminder of how much clout punk still has in its dual service to challenge and empower.