28th July 2023
Christopher Nosnibor
Funny how time goes. Precisely two weeks short of a year ago today, I reviewed Bedroom Tax’s debut single ‘Kin’, against a backdrop of a heatwave and wild fires in the UK, and increasing level of panic over fuel costs ahead of the winter in prospect. And we thought things looked bleak then. No heatwave in the UK this year: instead, we’ve spent the last three months swinging between regular summer weather and days that more closely resemble October while the rest of the world burns, and we long for the days when it was only the cost of energy and Lurpak that were heading into the stratosphere.
Bedroom Tax are one of many bands with sociopolitical leanings who have adopted names which set their stance out in the simplest of terms. I’m thinking BDRMM, Bedsit, Benefits, bands born in many ways out of frustration and necessity, and their very existence is a statement about the crushing economic climate we live in – at least if you’re a regular person and not in the executive echelon, or otherwise comfortably off thanks to inherited wealth, a backhander from a mate in government, or an MP.
The so-called ‘bedroom tax’, introduced in 2012 is one of many examples of the tory government shafting the poor and the disabled, and as Michael Rosen pointed out in an article for The Guardian in 2014, the bereaved, was found in 2019 to be discriminatory by the European Court of Human Rights. No wonder the government are keen to ditch the ECHR: they keep ruling that their inhumane policies are illegal.
Since releasing ‘Kin’, Bedroom Tax have spent their time reflecting and refining their sound. It’s been time well spent.
‘Bad Behaviour’ is a magnificent melding of post-punk and post-rock with ‘urban’ elements, and possesses both beauty and bleakness simultaneously. Chiming guitars and programmed beats provide the backdrop to the incisive yet flowing rap of the lyrics, poetically dissecting social division and the hand we’re dealt due to privilege or lack of. It’s got bounce and groove, and even a certain noodly indie jangle that’s seen the sound of The Smiths cast through a more current prism that’s still more 2006 than 2023, but there’s a joy in witnessing the bounds of genre time being dismantled, and knowing that Morrissey would fucking hate it.
It’s a progression from the kitchen-sink reflections of ‘Kin’, but at the same time, there’s still that gritty realism, with echoes of The Streets, and the reason Bedroom Tax are so appealing is because there’s no pretence, no artifice: they’re telling it like it is.
And just as punk and post-punk emerged from the desolation of Thatcher’s Britain, so the current wave of acts who hark back to that but with the addition of more contemporary twists are coming from parallel circumstances. Austerity may not be the buzzword of the present, but we never left it: cuts upon cuts by cunts upon cunts are why we are where we are. And acts like Bedroom Tax articulate the everyday realities of life right now. We need these guys.
Aural Aggravation 
Watch: ‘Please Reply’ by 404 Error
Posted: 6 August 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPsTags: 404 Error, creepy men, Electropop, Fad Gadget, goth, Heaven 17, inboxes, memes, Please Reply, Sexism, Single, social commentary, video stream
Released on Monday (29 July 2024) ‘Please Reply’ is the third promo single release from UK “synth and darkwave firebrands” 404 Error, taken from their debut album, Scene Killers. Hailing from Newcastle upon Tyne in Northern England, 404 Error is the semi-anonymous project of an artist known as 36663. ‘Please Reply’ meanwhile features an animated black and white lyric video, by someone credited only as Arif.
Known for sharp social commentary and provocative takes on goth scene politics, Please Reply is a pastiche drawn largely from the cesspool of unsolicited messages. Drawing from the biting social satire of Fad Gadget and Heaven 17, the lyrics sketch a man in his mancave, desperate and crude, yearning to be a woman’s submissive partner. His attempts to get her attention are filled with insincere promises and disrespect. He calls himself a nice guy, but his focus is selfish, driven by his own needs and desires, completely ignoring her boundaries or interests.
Watch the video here:
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“I think it’s terrible that women get messages like these. And I know many receive much worse, but I didn’t want to make the song too vulgar. I know a lot of women, especially goth women, who get strange guys addressing them as Mistress, or wanting to be their slave – even if there’s nothing they’ve said or done to signify that they’re even into fetish/BDSM. Some have had open propositions for pictures of their feet. And of course, many of these guys also try to guilt trip, hence the line “It’s so hard for men like me, nice guys just want a chance”. As if there’s anything ‘nice’ about propositioning a stranger.”
“I find it hard to say whether I even wrote this song, or if the lyrics are just the contents of far too many inboxes.”
The digital single on Bandcamp includes two bonus “virtual B-side” tracks: ‘Hawk Tuah’, and a cover of ‘Chop Suey’ by System of a Down.
“Hawk Tuah was a bit of fun that I didn’t know if I’d release. The problem with viral memes is they become old very quickly. But given the person in question is currently living her best life getting paid big money for club and TV appearances, I’d say people are still interested. Gosh knows how many messages she’s had from ‘Please Reply’ guys.”
‘Chop Suey’ meanwhile continues 404 Error’s tradition of rendering nu-metal covers barely recognisable (albeit, arguably more intelligible than the originals): a pattern established with a rendition of Slipknot’s ‘Wait and Bleed’, included with the debut single ‘ETHAL’. And where ‘ETHAL’ featured a guest vocalist known as J.A.N.E., ‘Chop Suey’ features vocals by one MXVC.
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