Silenced by the Roar single launch at The Islington
By Adam Williams A Model of Control "A band I’m much more familiar with is deux furieuses, who have been playing live in London for sometime now, and building quite a reputation for their explosive (and loud!) live shows, and also their vehemently political lyrics. It still amazes me just how loud the band can be live, too. Vas’s drum set-up appears to be for maximum power, while their sound mix always allows Ros’s voice and guitar to be heard perfectly, too – something many other bands with more elements onstage could do well to pay attention to. This scorching power only adds to their fury delivered within their lyrics, particularly within the pummelling Can We Talk About This?, something that more and more strikes me as the band’s mission statement. Determined to ask probing questions of their audience, and anyone else that they may confront. Elsewhere, their searching questions reach their pinnacle in the extraordinary Are We Sexy Enough?, where a brutally direct voice details exactly how bad things are for women in society, where women can be raped and/or abused with impunity. As a male onlooker, it’s an uncomfortable song to hear, and to be honest, so it should be. What else was interesting this week was the timing of this show. The recent single Silenced By The Roar, another song asking searching questions and dealing with the political chaos that has engulfed our country over the past year or so, has rather been reflected by the unexpected positivity of the election result last week (for overseas readers, where the left-wing Labour Party staged something of a resurgence, and we ended up with a hung parliament where no party has a majority to Govern). What is perhaps surprising about such a political band is that they are not relentless negativity. They have a knack of asking the right questions, framing them in a way that goes “what are you going to do about it?” rather than just “this is shit, everything is terrible”. And this is what perhaps sets this band apart from the few others that are engaged within politics right now. It isn’t about just shouting about how shit things are, it’s about being involved and asking “why?”, and “how?”. One of the best live bands in London, still, and you should go and see them next time they play." A Model of Control