This brilliant compilation album, released to accompany the Tate Britain exhibition Women In Revolt! has a couple of bona fide UK punk classics in The Slits’ Typical Girls and X Ray Spex’ Identity, but there are also some gems from more obscure artists like Ludus , Poison Girls, Mo-dettes and The Gymslips, all of whom played a major part in the DIY punk scene in the UK.
Suddenly, diversity was emerging. Punk labels democratised new releases,meaning major labels no longer had the monopoly on the British music scene. Exhibition curator Linsey Young and Music For Nations’ head Julie Weir have been judicious in their choices here, avoiding more obvious songs. Saying that, you can’t ignore the two classics- they were, and are, such anthems of empowerment.
All these women had important things to say about life in the UK, in an increasingly difficult political and socioeconomic time. Poison Girls’ Vi Subversa broke the mould, as an older artist making music that was predominantly made by very young people. Even the Strawberry Switchblade track, Trees and Flowers, one of their lesser -known early singles, has a soft, psychedelic wooziness to it, rendering it strange and otherworldly for its time.
What’s most striking though, most of all, is how timeless this music sounds in 2023. The majority of the songs here could have been recorded yesterday, particularly with recent artists like Current Affairs, Corinne Bailey Rae and Death Valley Girls owing so much in terms of influence to punk and postpunk. Great music never grows old, especially when symbolic of resistance.
Out via Music For Nations. For more information about the exhibition, read my previous post on Women In Revolt!
Hit The North 