Swaraj Chronos: Gibberish Madness
(Coda Fanzine)
CD | DL
Out Now
The latest EP from London DIY punks Swaraj Chronos is a melting pot of styles, punching up against racism, hierarchy and privilege.
The second release from Swaraj Chronos, this CDEP is a co-release by the band and European music label and fanzine Coda, offering up 3 new songs and 2 reworkings of numbers from their album. They have an eclectic style, mixing up various influences. The melting pot has elements of grunge, proto-punk, goth and fast punk. Aside from the stand out vocals, this time round the guitar seems to have taken centre stage whereas on the previous release it was more of a bass driven affair.
Gibberish is nearly 5 minutes, with an indie/grunge/proto-punk guitar tone. It varies in tempo from a mid paced lollop to little sprints at hardcore speed. Cheeky switches of cadence are part of the Swaraj Chronos DNA.
Broken Doll carries a feminist message from an individual viewpoint, starting slow and moody with some playful effects. It is imbued with a Banshees-esque feel by Vanessa’s vocals – which lead the song – and the drums pattering away on the toms while the bass leaves the guitar in the background. Those vocals deserve special mention for Vanessa’s range, as I noted when covering their debut.
An intro not unlike Black Sabbath starts Tick Tock before settling into a mid paced plod. Not a song about TikTok the social media phenomenon but the onward march of time. It manages to take in the tyranny of wage slavery, the exploitation that keeps people rich, riotous reactions and the fate of “veterans dying in doorways”. Life sucks and then you die. Mid-way through the speed of the clock picks up, before a few more of Swaraj Chronos’s characteristic tempo changes.
The two songs from their album share a theme of colonialism and racism. The Unremembered concerns forgotten commonwealth graves Dar Es Salaam. The role that troops from Africa and Asia played in the first world war has remained a hidden secret, coming to light in recent years through the work of historians such as David Olusoga. It is billed as a “reconstruct” of the song – a slow meander with a swampy flanger laden guitar backed up by sedate drums and bass.
We Can’t Breathe has a funky sound with a Ron Asheton guitar floating over the top, and salient samples. Racist policing has not gone away yet, because it is a tool of a system which is still colonial, racist and classist at its core. Swaraj Chronos list some of the people from black and minoritised communities who have died at the hands of the cops, not just in America but in the UK too. “Say their names” they implore. If any song deserves a reprise it is this one: they don’t want you to forget those names.
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Words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive over here.
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