“It’s a great time to be alive – if only you got some funds”. That’s the declaration from Austin, the lead singer of UK post-punks Snapped Ankles, whose full name I cannot tell you. He’s wearing a ghillie suit – his entire band has them, in fact. Somehow in the digital age, Snapped Ankles have managed to keep their identities almost entirely a secret. All we have is Austin and his four bandmates wearing, at minimum, full-head, shaggy, verdant masks that render them unrecognizable save for the occasional outline of a forehead or a nose through the dark mesh. In an interview with All Things Loud there’s a buried factoid that the band go by their surnames – there’s a Chestnutt, Harry, Russell, and Zampirolo as well; but who’s who is anyone’s guess, as they can only be reliably identified by the instruments they play, and in addition to Austin there’s a fifth whose ghillie suit has sprouted antlers, a glowing red cyclops eye situated between them.
The band truly commit to their existence as mysterious creatures of the forest, the woodwose as they are known in parts of England, and at the front of the stage are two logs that are linked up to synthesizers by some esoteric mechanism and fitted with further LED lights. They’re even signed to The Leaf Label – although this seems to genuinely be a happy coincidence for the forest creatures since that label predates the band by more than 20 years.
“It’s a great time to be alive” is an odd sort of declaration to make in this time, but for those who have indeed got some funds, it sort of is. Over the course of the last two years, even despite global economic uncertainty, the wealthiest people in the world have somehow managed to expand their earnings rather than see them shrink. And in truth, this is merely the continuation of an age-old trend, and that’s the reality that Snapped Ankles, in a time when the Amazon is burning and being cut down, engage with directly on recent single ‘Barbecue in Brazil’. Over their ghillie suits, Austin and his antlered compatriot are wearing long trenchcoats, the former also sporting a jumpsuit – even on their bodies, nature is being subsumed by more modern accoutrements, just like their trees have been rigged to trigger synths when struck.
But while the band’s music chiefly deals with the sub-optimal conditions of modern life in the banality of late capitalism, it’s also proof positive that not every technological development need be unhappy. Even out of songs around the alienation of labor (‘I Want My Minutes Back’), endless corporate development (‘Rhythm is Our Business’), and pollution (‘Tailpipe’) the band’s music is so danceable and infectiously bouncy that it’s almost easy to forget this dance party takes place and the end of the doomsday clock. As a stray line from their Bandcamp page reads: “The woodwose have discovered electricity and they’re not afraid to use it.” They’ve learned to weaponize the instrument of gentrification to advocate against it. Amidst the grooves of Forest of Your Problems, there’s a loose concept album examining how the forest is not all it once seemed, as environmental consciousness itself becomes a marketable skill.
Born and honed in clubs around London, Snapped Ankles’ performances show is every bit as lively as their recorded material. Austin emerges into the crowd at Somerville’s Crystal Ballroom – the irony of the chandeliers in the ceiling not going unnoticed – and holds out his mic mounted to his log and cajoles some members of the audience to tap the contraption with a drum stick as he’s been doing, the tiny LED at the apex of the log a beacon as he moves further and further into the crowd, giving away a shaker instrument, before returning to the stage, bounding back up via the use of a chair.
The band has garnered many a comparison to The Fall over the years, and there’s a reason for that – the vocal distortion Austin employs often recalls the late Mark E. Smith’s intonation, especially when he’s in character, sounding like he’s coming down the phone line of a corporate call, but there’s even more at work here than that. Snapped Ankles are part of an expansive, eclectic London community synthesizing electronica, funk, and jazz to create something truly new even as its motoric rhythms call back to post-punk. They’re already part of a more modern legacy including once-Leaf-Labelmates Melt Yourself Down and The Comet is Coming, leaning into one set of influences or another at different times to create a whole new style that’s quickly becoming one of England’s most exciting musical exports.
The band plays well into the evening in Somerville, songs stretching long spans of time, growing and changing as the crowd dances on. The final cut, ‘Jonny Guitar Calling Gosta Berlin’, plays itself as the band members exist on the stage, a final distorted loop of Austin’s vocal becoming more and more corrupted and dissonant until it passes into the ether and the lights come up in the ballroom, the forest creatures nowhere to be seen. The dancing is finished for now, but with the inspirations for their lyrics still causes for plentiful concern, it’s only a matter of time before the woodwose return to bear witness.
Review and Photos by Collin Heroux
