Not Waving ‎– Tremendous​ / ​S​.​M.

Closing out a banner year with a club-ready boot up the ass, Not Waving follows those divergent 2019 outings with a wildly driven lunge for the strobes, balancing pure escapism with a reminder to dance and laugh at the populist peckers that dominate global politics right now.

The A-side’s Belgian new beat-styled détournement ‘Tremendous’ makes ironic use of a foamy-mouthed but blithe Tr*mp speech about the Paris attacks, sliced and jacked into a strapping mix of jagged EBM arps and Italo/Detroit chromatics with a naggingly playful aesthetic that harks back to Belgian new beat and UK rave’s mix of politics and subversive escapism.

The B-side ’S.M’ then opens with a rabble-rousing recording of Italian students chanting “Salvini, merda” against Matteo Salvini – Italy’s immigrant-hating far-right former deputy Prime Minister – over a bucking, pulsing electro groove that sounds like CoH jamming Ro Maron.

Acts of subversive defiance such as this, encouraging dissent and ridicule of pompous right wing blowhards – and no matter how small in the wider scheme of things – have never been so vitally required in the modern day.