Mongrel

Mongrel -

· n. a dog of no definable type or breed.
· Any other animal resulting from the crossing of different breeds or types.

Dictionaries rarely lie, and neither does this particular music journalist so I can honestly say I've never seen a more aptly named band. It's 2009, we've become almost Aryan in the uniformity of all our popular media. We have nice, bold markers in-between each genre (which you cross at great risk to your career), we have entertainment pumped at us with a torrent of colour (ending up more dull than the black and white days of old) and put quite simply our musical sensibilities nowadays compared to the not too distant past are as diluted Ribena is to freshly extracted adrenaline.



And so, as we enter our handbrake turn from the 00s to the 10s a group of some of Britain's most popular Indy music songsters at the moment team with Poisonous Poets' Lowkey for something we haven't had in our popular music sights for a long time now. After a couple of promisingly eclectic support acts Jon McClure and his band of merry revolutionaries took to the stage Opening with a nice slate of atmospheric musique concrète which eventually gives birth to a nice phat beat, this is already precisely what I didn't expect from a band with members whose CVs include Arctic Monkeys, Reverend and the Makers as well as Babyshambles. A small but dedicated amoeba of fans moved in individual unison, and the atmosphere was... existent, which in itself gave the concert something its plastic brothers have of late overlooked.

Once this promising, but frankly not too interesting, slice of dance-rock had commenced things really began with the introduction of hip-hop to the music stew, physically manifested in Lowkey. He spouted technical rhymes, proving himself to be an adept syllable-smith all evening, each couplet a juicy and fresh joint of meat thrown into the frenzy before him, swiftly gathered by a salivating audience.



As with most things McClure's involved in it didn't take long for things to get political. For me, a very politically minded person anyway, this is a particular highlight, especially when he’s getting young people to sing along to choruses featuring lyrics like "Free free Palestine!" (any McDonalds big wigs reading this should probably stop now). Exposing the commercialism of it all, Johnny Rotten and Iggy both get a nice dissing for their recent bending down and taking it from 'the man' at the expense of everyone's respect. This works as a respect booster for McClure, at least for me.

Overall it was a very interesting, well put together and thought out set. When it comes to musicality and originality it's a little... well, stale. But the fact is that we now have something that genuinely is multi-layered in our recent influx of colourful teenage shit-pop. We have something that us beard scratchers can think about while we enjoy the beat. So, to get back to my point on the Mongrel dictionary definition, I can't call this band indy, rock or punk. It has rap but I can't really call it hip-hop, the beats are cool but there's too much guitar for it to be dance or electro. Mongrel are the definition of their own name, and they do what they do and say what they say with passion and sincerity. With any luck, this is just the first in a long line of popular musicians to bring the exploration and wonder of their art back into the limelight after our decade in the fog. Go and see Mongrel, and witness Britain's future popular music scene.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.