Nekra

***The international pit sisters pull up to their milestone of a decade in the game with the top down and the system blown-out blaring. Nekra is back, clawing in the dirt in search of a new world with press-ons and bared teeth. ‘Is It Really Living?’ explodes with all accumulated force of a band that has maintained maximum steez and minimal regard for men’s feelings. The ferocious howls and whiplash tempo switches is the Nekra you know, but there’s new exploration here in pacing and flow. Across nine minutes of boiled fury which stings like a chemical burn, they give the gender police a powerful shove, saluting Imane Khelif and all those who fight and resist under the sign of woman. They meditate upon the layered and contested meanings of Latinidad, and they chant for universal freedom of movement against the violence of borders. Transcending the vague romance of the hardcore girlgang, these songs have a backbone that sounds a lot like solidarity in practice: what it means to not only show up but stick around. The struggles remain unchanged, the reasons to lose your shit these days? Too many to count. Nekra have given you a timely shake-you-by-the-shoulders cue: assess what’s weighing you down, deep breath in, brace, and bench it. The times are intolerable. The girls? Unbeatable, still. (Bryony Beynon)