Labels: Framework
Review by: Alex Hannan
Thank Christ. Not “gothnarco”. I’m glad there’s still someone out there making modern anarcho punk without having to turn it eldritch. NO SIR, I WON’T avoid reliance on imitation of the giants of the genre musically, combining varied textures for a sound which is aggressive but streamlined. The clean design of the sleeve and yellow-themed interior allow a little wriggle room in the aesthetic straitjacket. The extensive lyric sheet, multiple between-song samples hammering points home, and wordy rants bursting out of the gaps between chords, on the other hand, all put them in the lineage of anarcho: points to get across, words which have faith in their power to change. From “Elevators”:
“Human dignity and self-respect cannot be constrained by the laws of nations / Nor can they be destroyed by the soulless technology with which we surround ourselves / Progress is just one more empty notion thrust upon us by this society / While we drift further and further from the essence of a compassionate life / We think we’ve got the answer / But we’ve got to face reality / We’ve got it the wrong way around / Invention is the mother of necessity.”
Three of the tracks here come from their 2011 demo, all of which has now appeared on vinyl at some point or other, some songs, like “When you gonna realize?”, heavily rearranged.
Beginning with a longish sample about how in America “the individual is finished” first track “No sir, I won’t” quickly transitions into chunky-basslined punk sprinkled with guitar leads. The riffs are not particularly striking, but the energy is infectious, and the songwriting works well, presenting a lot of different musical ideas but maintaining a coherent structure. Also noticeable are the big lyrical gestures: “Do you really believe in the system that makes you a slave?” / “The time has come to ask what it means to be alive!” / “We must never give up until each of us is whole!” delivered in Brit-ified dual vocals which I find sort of charming…
“No more poetry” has one of the best lines on the record: “No more fucking poetry, that world is done / We’ve sold off all the metaphors, we’ve pawned the moon, the sun and layed them in the ground…” But the idea of devaluation of words and ideas hinted at here has a few parallels in some of the band’s own lyrics for me, on the odd occasion when black-and-white thinking hits well-used anarcho-punk concepts. Rhetoric takes the lead in lines like “they’ve inserted their machines into every aspect of our lives” (“Harry Harlow”), “The halls of power echo with the adman’s brittle laugh” (When you gonna realize?”), or “Do you really believe / in the system that made you a slave?” (“No sir, I won’t”). Is this just rabble rousing language to get people moving, or does it also make sense when sober the morning after the gig? But there are many good points made, like the central analogy of “Elevators”, (elevator that never goes up / technology not making our lives any better) a song in which the lyrics also reference the created “needs” of accelerating technology. The odd moments of vagueness or reliance on cliché are outweighed by what’s good elsewhere. Some sentiments I don’t agree with – as when “Harry Harlow” posits animal experimentation as the evil that opens the door to human degradation, dehumanization, sexual mistreatment – but I respect the thought that’s gone into it.
Closer “When you gonna realize?” is an ambitious three-part song, starting out hard-hitting with echoes of the DEAD KENNEDYS’ more dissonant style before moving into a piano-led melodic section that recalls CHUMBAWAMBA circa “Never mind the ballots”. A bouncy bassline eventually breaks the solemn mood, guitar leads bursting out for a flag-waving closing section which seems at odds in mood with the final lines – “We never asked to be part of this / I don’t want to be part of this / We never asked to be part of this / I refuse to be part of this”.
I’m glad to see NO SIR, I WON’T are tackling big ideas with original twists. Sounds great, and has strong songwriting, which could be converted to killer if the riffs were a bit more memorable. If you’re in the mood for punks setting the world to rights, pick this up.