Belfast feminist queercore four-piece Problem Patterns – Alanah Smith, Beverley Boal, Bethany Crooks and Ciara King – had already been playing together for a few months before their “collective fury” at a high-profile rape trial was the catalyst for them to become an actual band in 2018. “We were so full of anger and sadness and needed a positive output for those feelings,” says Smith.
With an admirable sense of collectivist fluidity, a distaste for hierarchies and a willingness to take on different roles, they have no front person, instead changing instruments from song to song. “We made a conscious decision to remove the traditional format of having a front person, as we wanted everyone to have a voice.” Their music recalls the ferocity of Bikini Kill, and their potent sound has drawn praise from Kathleen Hanna herself (leading to an invite to support Le Tigre earlier this year) and Henry Rollins.
Coming at a time when music sometimes feels curiously apolitical, their forthcoming debut album, Blouse Club, acts as a bracing antidote, Lesbo 3000 tackling homophobia and Poverty Tourist railing against the “cosplay” of middle-class bands “who align a working-class background with being perceived as more authentic”. Righteous anger has rarely sounded so engaging.
• Blouse Club is out on 27 October on Alcopop! Records. Problem Patterns play Sebright Arms, London E2 on 17 November and Glasgow and Belfast in December
