Battle Lines

Homemade VIDEO, shot on summer 2021 tour: https://youtu.be/Cb2j3lcyiZs

Streaming platforms: https://ffm.to/ze2gpp0

London-based 7-piece Cable Street Collective’s latest single, ‘The Wolf’, is an upbeat banger guaranteed “to make you dance your beep off”. 

The track, which features their signature combination of thumping dance rhythms, African-influenced guitars and an addictive chorus, was written during lockdown, with demos flying back and forth over Zoom calls – and an early version of the band playing it “together” appeared online in March 2021, with each member recording their parts from home. 

Despite the knock-on effects of lockdowns on the live music sector, Cable Street Collective road tested The Wolf extensively this summer, playing at Latitude, among others, on a 17-date summer festival tour. The band recently announced a further UK tour for February 2022.


While the music of The Wolf is upbeat, the lyrics deal with darker themes. “It’s about subconsciously seeking out toxic relationships as a means of self-flagellation,” explains singer Fiona Jane. “That absurdity, when you’re most comfortable in relationships that are bad for you, is fascinating.”

The Wolf

“Tender is the lie that grows, we say it’s just the truth transposed…” Battle Lines’ final track ties together many of the album’s themes, using a simple chord structure and instrumentation that builds steadily - from a solitary acoustic guitar figure over a 90s trip hop-style beat into a full band wig-out, complete with discordant brass and screeching guitars.

1000 Cuts

Despite opening up with a discombobulating intro in 9/8 time, this track quickly reveals itself to be a dancey banger. As with Life on Repeat, the lyrics address the seeming impossibility of breaking out of certain behaviours or thought patterns, with a repetitive, call-and-response chorus that’s turned it into a live favourite.

Do It Again

Wide-eyed wonder at the universe, and curiosity about what lies beyond, underpin what’s essentially a love song - an appeal to a partner (in love, crime, or creativity) to simply sit and enjoy the here and now. Musically, the track tips its hat to the dub-inspired beats and basslines of The Specials, The Police and The Clash.

Above Or Below

Written in collaboration with Gregg Kofi Brown of the “Afro-rock” pioneers Osibisa, Speaking in Tongues again mixes the personal with the political. First released as a single at a time when fierce battles were being fought over monuments and their meaning, the song excoriates culture warriors who cling religiously to a single interpretation of history – comparing them to babbling fanatics.

Speaking In Tongues

(Interlude)

Underpinned by another driving bassline which emphasises the ‘and’, Sew Up Your Lips calls out a person who’s been caught lying, barefacedly and repeatedly, but somehow still seems to get away with it.

Sew Up Your Lips

Addressing an ex directly, Throw Down Your Feather’s lyric picks over the “bloody battle fields” of a failed relationship in its jagged, insistent verses, before resolving itself into a surprisingly sweet and redemptive chorus.

Throw Down Your Feather

An early Cable Street Collective track (and long a live favourite) this soukous-inspired banger compares an imagined America - and, by extension, the American dream - to life in London, and finds it wanting.

Americana

Built around a jangly guitar line and a drum pattern that bears a passing resemblance to Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way, this earworm is a lament about the all-too-human tendency to repeat our own worst mistakes. The verses suggest parallels between individuals’ self-destructive behaviour and the destructive behaviour of society as a whole, as we blunder blindly into the ever-worsening climate crisis.

Life On Repeat

Guitars and bass weave a polyrhythmic pattern around the drums and percussion, while the lyric speaks of a need to escape. Look out for that old pop-song staple, the key change, cunningly disguised beneath a bongo solo.

Bells & Whistles

Opening the album with a blast of brass, this bright, upbeat tune contains a surprisingly dark lyric. Subverting fairytale conventions in an Angela Carter style, it uses characters from childhood to talk about toxic relationships and unhealthy desires.

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Wasted Hours

Built around a jangly guitar line and a drum pattern that bears a passing resemblance to Fleetwood Mac’s "Go Your Own Way," this is about the human tendency to repeat our own worst mistakes. The lyrics draw parallels between our self-destructive behaviour as individuals, and the disastrous behaviour of society as a whole, as we blunder blindly into the climate crisis.

Life On Repeat (Single Edit)

Written in Spring 2023, Sold on a Rhyme is a song about the idea that we grow up force-fed a dream (successful career, big house, family) that has become increasingly harder to achieve. 

Musically it's inspired by Stevie Wonder's Master Blaster, Walking on the Moon and London Calling, with Cable Street Collective's trademark African guitars and big bass lines.

Sold on a Rhyme

Earlier this year we got into the studio with the virtuosic Otis Lumumba Tabasenge, Congolese guitarist extraordinaire for Kasai Masai and international superstar Kanda Bongo Man. 

Otis’s playing is nothing short of inspirational, and we loved it so much this track turned into a raucous, joyous five and a half minute ode to the music we love.

Funny Old World is a song for anyone trying to make sense of a loss in their life. Or, equally, anyone struggling to come to terms with events thousands of miles away, that nonetheless affect us all. A song for all those who feel alienated by the partisan politics that seems to have become the global standard.

Because however bleak it sometimes feels, the world keeps turning. And we need messages of joy and positivity more than ever.

Funny Old World feat. Otis Lumumba

All We Got Left

Eight Days a Week

London-based 7-piece Cable Street Collective return with their brand new single, Speaking in Tongues, featuring Gregg Kofi Brown, from the legendary Afro-rock band Osibisa. 

The song, which features their signature combination of thumping dance rhythms, African-influenced guitars, and a catchy chorus, was co-written with the Osibisa singer and guitarist, who also contributes backing vocals. “Lyrically, it’s about what happens when relationships and trust - both personal and political - break down,” says the band. “Gregg suggested the chorus line about speaking in tongues, which made us think of wilful misunderstandings and religious levels of fanaticism. That felt like a pretty good way of describing the way the UK’s been led in recent years.”

Lyrics

You think, leaving’s easy
But you never saw
What we could’ve been 
Welcome to our uncivil war

You say a break will free me
Without a second thought
Why so cavalier?
Can’t get my head round it at all

You’re speaking in tongues
I can’t understand the sound
You’re speaking in tongues
That’s what you do

You say believing’s easy 
That it’s just a sport
This is not your playing field
Eat your Eton mess out in the hall

You think, it all comes easy
And you’ve not been bought
Crown yourself a king again
You’ll be the first against the wall

Is there a meth-head in this madness
It’s not the time for calming down
Level out their towers, and stop the babbling
Take their twisted tongues and rip em out

Speaking In Tongues feat. Gregg Kofi Brown (Osibisa)

Bells And Whistles

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Cable Street Collective make rhythm-driven, African-influenced sunshine music that they call Carnival Pop.

With an ear for a catchy tune and a stomping beat, they have been tearing up dance floors and festival stages up and down the country over the last 18 months.

Their music draws on influences like Congolese Soukous and South African Kwela as well as sounds from closer to home such as Primal Scream, the Stone Roses, Major Lazer, the Beta Band, Tune Yards, and the Happy Mondays.

CableStreetCollective

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