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9 o’clock nasty – Rise Up
Release Date: December 10, 2022
Label: Independent
Format: Single | Digital
Genre: Protest Folk / New Indie
Origin: Leicester, England
New Indie goes Protest Folk
It is that time of the year again. Radio DJ*anes remember that George Michael once played in a Pop band with Andrew Ridgedley, families prepare for their annual debate on principles in the shadow of a decorated fir tree, and the players of capitalism drool gleefully. Of course, there are nice features to the last week of the Gregorian calender. On television, „Monty Python and the Holy Grail“, „Home alone“, or „Die Hard“ beautify the breaks between commercial breaks (at least in Germany), and neither gluttony nor day-drinking seem to be that sinful. Christmas time – the celebration of love, family, the birth of a child in a barn in Bethlehem – is a weird episode of the year.
Christmas is all about giving according to many people. But if you want to give something, you need to have something first. Of course, one might be extremily cheesy and allegedly only give from the heart and blah and burp. One could also get to the issue’s core and do something about it. Let us hence break the endless cycle of consumerism, and „Rise Up“!
Nothing is as Heart-Warming as a burning Palace
So, this year’s December, 9 o’clock nasty give us the Christmas Song that is no Christmas Song. „Rise Up“ is nevertheless a call for action, a cry for solidarity, a plea for boycott, and an anthem to finally stoprushing through the streets and malls like a swarm of locusts – and no, online shoppers are not better at all! Give the shop assistants, labourers or delivery people a little rest, step back from buying that super expensive new gadget, and take your pitchfork from the wardrobe instead.
Being the call for protesting an end to senseless consumerism, „Rise Up“ needs to be realised in the right musical way. Thus, 9 o’cock nasty have written a song in the ideal style for this kind of protest song – Protest Folk. The genre is experiencing a comeback since artists like Crazy Arm or Lunatraktors successfully keep it alive. Now, Protest Folk has finally been merged with New Indie.
Nothing to lose but our Chains
„Rise Up“ is carried forward by a sweet Folk lick that immediately invites the listeners to a joyful dance, pitchfork in one hand, torch in the other. Since this is a protest song for the many and not the few, 9 o’clock nasty add a catchy boy band sound to „Rise Up“. The vocals especially jump on the bandwagon with The Police’s ‚So Lonely‘ or Justin Timberlake’s ‚Rock your Body‘. The chorus then is one of the most onomatopoeic there can be. If you listen to the repeated „Rise Up, Rise Up!“ of the chorus and you do not feel the urge to stand up and break things, you might just be the class enemy.
Sydd, Pete and Tedd have done it again. Once more, the Leicester-based trio has provided us with the song we did not know we needed. Pursuing new avenues by adding Protest Folk to their New Indie inventory, they keep things exciting. And of course, ‚Rise Up‘ is not necessarily a Christmas Song – it just fits very well. It is hence a hence a catchy musical reminder that redistribution of wealth needs to be done by hand – in the UK, in the EU, in Iran, and everywhere else.
9/10 Mangoes
All pictures by courtesy of 9 o’clock nasty
