(Credits: Far Out / Album Covers)
Sun 21 September 2025 14:30, UK
Try as it might, but capitalism’s rapacious maw hasn’t completely swallowed the independent music community, yet.
It’s never been harder to eke out some vestige of sustainable musical activity, however, let alone a livelihood. It’s all ancient history now, but once upon a time, unemployment benefits without the seething curtain twitchers, plentiful council houses and low rents, and the cherished post-war institute of the art school, were all provisions granted by the social contract which afforded working-class eccentrics, mavericks, and dissidents the breathing space to conceptualise, hone their craft, and forge a path toward taxable income in the music industry or wider arts.
Free time. Remember that? To anybody born in the late 1980s and beyond, the luxury of exerting all physical and mental energy on surviving on wages that barely cover living costs has quashed many a musical dream, and it’s a fucking heartbreaking tragedy. The wonders of the free market have created an impossibility for up-and-coming bands and artists, navigating a hellscape of closing venues and precarious work that’s robbed the country of so many potential stars.
Never forget what they took from you.
Despite its challenges, music continues to soldier on, determined to create work that’s vital and speaks to the contemporary malaise that stubbornly fogs the Western World. Some confront head-on, exoriating the political class and their economic dogmas. Others spit gritty reportage of the daily grind’s weathering of the soul. Or, one may pen a number celebrating the small but nourishing ways one may fuck over their boss. However anybody who finds their rebellion against the corporate straightjacket or leeching landlord, capitalism’s end times horror indeed inspires countless numbers taking a stake to its vampiric heart.
While there’s a litany of bands out there sharpening their lyrical barbs toward the failed consensus, we plumb for an arbitrary five, in no order, that’s taking a square aim at eternal wealth extraction and never-ending productivity.
Five anti-capitalism anthems from new acts:
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