MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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‘Artists are their nightmare because we bring consciousness’
Brazilian singer LUCAS SANTTANA'S latest record is a call for resistance to the Bolsonaro dictatorship, he tells Chris Searle
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
“WHO wants to speak out? Raise your hand!/’Who wants to take a stand? Time to rise up!” is the message from Brazilian singer Lucas Santtana that resonates well beyond his country.
It’s a line from his new album O Ceu e Velho ha Muito Tempo (The Sky’s Been Old for a Long Time) and, he tells me, the struggle against the Bolsonaro government in his country is “the struggle for life.”
Fascist governments are “cultures of death,” he says. “Bolsonaro permits weapons of death, poisonous pesticides, burning in Amazonas, cops with licences to kill. With his government everything ends in death.
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