A desperate disease – wrote Guy Fawkes – requires a dangerous remedy, and if the disorder in question is an acquiescent, self obsessed music culture, the shot in the arm might just be Mongrel.
Conceived by Reverend and the Makers totem Jon McClure, the circle is joined by UK rapper Low-key, Arctic Monkeys drumming engine room Matt Helders, Babyshambles guitarist Drew McConnell, original Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson and Joe Moskow, also of Reverend.
This concentration of vital British artists have deployed a creative imperative that is both political and artistic: their core musical pulse beats as much to the percussive nightmares of a homeless teenager in Rafah, as it does to the baffled, disempowered anxieties of a tabloid reader in Rotherham.
A sonic appeal for greater awareness becomes all the more hypnotic when delivered in undulating, often calming tunes. Acerbic, accusing, weapons grade castings from half-Iraqi London rapper Low Key remove any convenient fog of war, revealing the stark firelights of McClure’s lyric and vocal.
Whilst Mongrel are not a voice in the wilderness, the clarion call to musicians, artists and latent activists to articulate and express meaningful questioning of the status quo is as deafening as the silence that has prevailed since the ill-fated events of 2003, and long before.
McClure has conjured a spirit of coming together and artistic uprising without compromising his infectious sensibility. Suffused in the sound is an alert, agitating shout, under-pinned by a heart charging chant of Arabic, Irish and urban English heritage. A clean, dynamic gearing has hurtled together a harmonious soundscape - at once representative of societal diversity – yet still forged by the fractures and failures of 24/7 contemporary Britain.
The Mongrel vibe snarls, stands fast and raises the alarm. But it also soothes and excites. The uniqueness of contributions from some of the most finely tuned musicians in Britain - and one of the most talented rappers of a generation - render Mongrel an urgent, vivid and in these times, essential collective.