'Racialised Aggravation' by Wallace & Vomit
Review
I'm pleased to share with you the release of ‘Racialised Aggravation', the debut EP by Wallace & Vomit.
Featuring an extended version of previously released single "County Lines" (well you get 12 additional seconds of an admittedly pretty short song in the form of a sampled intro) plus "I Drew Muhammed (PBUH) On The Back Of The Bus Stop (And The Bangla Boys Ain't Happy)", "River Or Skip", "White Devil Bitches" plus a live version of "Fight Your Feelings".
It's hard to think of a set of songs I've heard in recent years which is quite as unrelentingly provocative. Louis Scheuer, Alex Vale, Matt Cameron and Jaymes Milner appear to have set themselves up to combat racial prejudice very proactively and directly & the route they've taken is one of getting up close with stereotyping and attempting to skewer it. This manifests itself in various contexts throughout the EP.
The basic tool to do that is through irony, amplified by the passion and vitality of the delivery: all valid techniques: in a war you need weapons & ideally puissant weapons.
The danger of course is that, as Elvis Costello said "irony is lost on pinheads": first generation punks tried this and songs like "White Riot" and "Tommy Gun" by The Clash (it was in relation to the backlash against the latter that EC was speaking) or "White Noise" by Stiff Little Fingers were taken literally by some (not bothering to double check against the avowed stances of the bands) : essentially the reverse of the writers' intentions.
I would never argue against the use of irony or another grown up lyrical approach, but it does need managing I suppose. Equally to hold a mirror up to racial prejudice in the context within which the members of Wallace & Vomit live is important: I was saying to someone just the other day (it was in fact Duck Thief Justin Wing Chung Hui who is helping run the ‘Love Music Hate Racism' gig on November 22nd at the Priory Visitor Centre at which Wallace & Vomit are playing alongside such artists as Roddy Radiation and Stereotypical: tickets are available via https://www.eventbrite.com/e/love-music-hate-racism-coventry-tickets-1783212599889) how in the original heyday of ‘Rock Against Racism' (when I put on my first gig), the violence from the likes of the National Front, British National Party and other assorted nasties was appalling: even lethal. However the prejudice was to some extent corralled within relatively small groups of general political toxicity, led by creeps who usually ended up humiliated and/or in gaol. Now sadly much of the venom has seeped out into political contexts which actually embrace electoral success. So yes we need bands like this to express how prejudice works in 2025 and if they do so as forcibly as Wallace & Vomit do with ‘Racialised Aggravation' then that's fine by me. Some things need shouting & not whispering.
