Best of 2020
A little fact for you: Special Interest's show in February at the Waiting Room was the last gig i bought a ticket for in 2020. I didn't actually end up going due to obvious concerns regarding C-19, which given what we know now might have been one of the more sensible decisions i've made and especially so when you consider that Special Interest make the kind of music soaked in bodily fluids. More so, this is music of the body, both aesthetically and ideologically. On a purely sonic level, Special Interest are a child of the Great American Punk Underground, the spirit of hardcore evolved through the various transgressions made by Wax Trax and Hospital. Power (structure) electronic(s) body music, if you like! Vitally, as on their equally essential debut, Special Interest speak of the black queer experience in compelling, uncompromising ways, cruically couching their dissidence (and dissonance) in the language of both resistance and inclusion - there's a war to fight but we can dance together along the way. Album centre point "All Tomorrow's Carry" is Special Interest at this apotheosis, "are we going out tonight?" the call-to-arms chorus as they describe a city collapsing under the poison of gentrification and social cleansing. There's a beautiful truth in the simultaneous expression of anger and pleasure, reminding us they're not mutually exclusive ideals. Which is to say, this is a record that raises the bar for everyone else. An important record, even.
