The Proletariat - Soma Holiday LP

While NO TREND have been immortalised by numerous eBay bootleg t-shirts and MISSION OF BURMA entered public consciousness via a very bad MOBY cover, it’s a shame THE PROLETARIAT, an equally interesting North American “post-punk” group are yet to have the widespread attention they deserve! A Boston group with a powerful, tense, minimalist take on punk that merges the restraint of UK groups like WIRE and early PiL with the fury of disenfranchised youth under Reagan. While not the only group of the era to embrace Marxist, class conscious and pacifist themes it hits a little different to your English art-school types. Coming from a group of working class (mighty mighty) Bostonians in the midst of the whole violent straight edge tough guy scene it took some real cojones to spout this stuff! Their debut album Soma Holiday has become an all time favourite. It’s got that big phat X - Aspirations bass sound and has the ability to distill righteous politics into profound and human lyrics, right up there with FLUX OF PINK INDIANS. A record I have vowed to have in stock at all times. -Nic