Punk has always thrived on causing discomfort, and Ghent’s Nimbus Cart are clearly in no mood to make you feel at ease. Privilege, their second single after the well-received Rather, is two minutes of controlled aggression that asks awkward questions and doesn’t wait for answers.
The band’s secret weapon is their charismatic frontwoman, Janis, whose voice sits somewhere between a sneer and a defiant cry. She delivers pointed observations about race, class and safety, things that most people take for granted precisely because they have never had to think about them, without ever sounding like she is preaching. It’s a difficult balance to strike, and she nails it. By the time the chorus arrives, hammering home that single word – “PRIVILEGE! PRIVILEGE!” – it feels less like a chant and more like someone shaking you by the shoulders.
Musically, the track wears its influences proudly, without becoming trapped by them. The riot grrrl DNA is audible, from Huggy Bear‘s righteous racket to Bratmobile‘s scrappy irreverence, but it has been updated with a tighter, more contemporary drive. The intensity is reminiscent of Petrol Girls at their most urgent, and the band’s raw, unselfconscious swagger has more than a hint of Amyl and the Sniffers about it. Closer to home, the explosive DIY fury of fellow Belgians Cocaine Piss feels like a clear kindred spirit, and Privilege confirms that Belgium’s underground punk scene is producing something genuinely vital right now.
There’s no virtuosity or polish for its own sake on display here – and that’s entirely the point. The band describes its sound as ‘razor-sharp punk riffs, untamed drums and basslines that hit like a punch in the gut’, and, for once, this self-description is accurate. Privilege is proof that the right message, delivered with enough force, needs nothing else.
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