Big Joanie: Going Home (bandcamp)

The British punk thunderclap of the Stranglers, Sex Pistols, Damned and Clash in 1976-77 and the post-punk era of the Eighties they heralded saw many women artists on the field of play, more so than in the Sixties and early Seventies

In came Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene, the Paulines Black and Murray (of The Selecter and Penetration respectively), Chrissie Hynde, the Slits and other independent, distinctive voices.

London's black feminist trio Big Joanie – singer/guitarist Stephanie Phillips, bassist Estella Adeyeri, drummer Chardine Taylor-Stone – is in that lineage but also stand proudly alongside the likes of contemporaries Wet Leg and Dry Cleaning.

Their gritty 2014 debut EP Sista Punk sounded equally indebted to the Ramones, Ronettes and Pretenders.

A subsequent single Crooked Room was “inspired by a talk [American academic and author] Melissa Harris-Perry gave where she compared the way black women have to negotiate our racist, sexist, classist, homophobic society while maintaining a sense of self as trying to find your vertical in a crooked room.” 

They've also covered TLC's No Scrubs (live at Brixton's Black British Feminism Conference in 2015) and a guitar-driven version of Cranes in the Sky by Solange (Knowles, Beyonce's sister) so mix messages with melody.

This second album Back Home offers snappy pop-punk (the blistering Happier Still) but mostly comes off more like minimalist Pretenders than phlegmatic punks in 12 short songs dealing with relationships, notions of “home” and belonging, and some careful rhetoric woven through.

With organ, synths and violin adding colour to their pared-back dance-punk and subtle ballads (the droning I Will), Big Joanie are smart, important and – we hope -- in for the long haul.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here