Syndicalista

Syndicalista is a new wave band from Oslo who describe their musical ideal as ‘going with Siouxie & the Banshees to the club where Blondie is playing, Bowie is mixing death-defying cocktails of transcendance, wonder and heartbreak, and you run into people like Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Regine Chassagne from Arcade Fire'.

Howl (out May 10) is their first release as a five-piece. The song mourns friends who gave up on their wild, lovely dreams and became «bastard sons of the bourgeoisie», yet insists there is still hope – if you only «come with me in rockland». The lyrics are vaguely inspired by Ginsberg’s legendary beatnik poem, but whereas his «rockland» was where friends got lost to hallucinogens and asylums, here it is a land of liberation.

Syndicalista's debut release (then as a duo) - The Spirit of Ninety Six - was a melancholic, trumpet-led rendition of The Alarm’s 1980s anthem Spirit of ’76, with lyrics and music rewritten as a hommage to author/painter Ari Behn who chose an early departure to the great beyond.