Album Review: Big Noter – Songs in the Key of Wrestling

by DAN SOUTHALL

PUNK and hardcore in Australia has been seeing a revival of sorts, thanks to bands like Speed out of Sydney. Adam Briggs, known in rap circles as Briggs, has always spoken fondly of growing up in rural Victoria listening to metal and hardcore and just falling into the rap thing. Now he has taken that love of a different style of music than he is known for and built a project around it.

Little time is wasted as the band rip into “My Genocide” and immediately set the scene for the next half an hour of mosh pit madness. The band is quick to find a flow that is undeniable due to Briggs’ other musical output, sounding like a firm cross between Biohazard or Madball and any band from the mid-ninties NYHC scene with a half rapped, half yapped vocal approach.

Always a good sign of a good hardcore record is the energy level is never lacking, and Big Noter have big energy. Follow up tracks “It’s All Good Til It’s Not” and “Talk Straight” let you know exactly where the band stand in case you weren’t aware. Meanwhile, “Identity” is a call to arms for Indigenous youth, but can be taken on board by any and all listening on being the best version of yourself such is the strength of the lyrics.  

The political is obvious as well as all-encompassing, created to open the eyes of everyone. These biting social lyrics that also hide a firm tongue in cheek in the kind of manner that only us Australians can do. Proof of this is wrapped up in “F.M.D” and its companion “B.M.F.”.

The only time for a quick rest is  “A Message From Chuck” as Chuck D of Public Enemy has a quick rant about white supremacy and recognising it for what it is, leading straight into the smoothest track on the album. “By The Time I Get to Yorta Yorta Woka” sails close to Downset and Rage Against the Machine musical territory.

Songs in the Key of Wrestling is short and over all too quick, and I could run a play by play of what I think although I think it is important you listen in yourself. The album spends its time tackling Indigenous Australian issues, a subject close to Briggs as a proud Yorta Yorta man from Victoria. 

The passion in his message is raw, and as a bloke with no connection to the culture but a worldview informed by the passion and politics of punk and hardcore, I certainly appreciate the message and its ability to reach a wider audience. Hopefully with this release, Briggs can perhaps open a few more eyes and ears to do a little more of their own history lessons on the way that we as a nation have treated our First Nations people, and what little we know about the many and varied cultures that surround us.