It’s loud, it’s brash and it’s brilliant… Big Special’s latest single, “SH!THOUSE!

Genre-bending is nothing new and offers exciting opportunities for music. It’s a guarantee that nothing is more fascinating to see a blend of two musical genres that you’d never think of joining forces and creating something that you can’t stop thinking about. In recent years we’ve seen the likes of cutesy J-pop and heavy metal coming together, early 2010s Kesha-esque lyrics with a backdrop of metal, or a combination of every genre possible so that no song sounds the same. If you can guess which three artists are being referred to, congratulations, you’re cool, and we can be friends.

And now here’s the next best thing. A combination of slam poetry, punk, and electro, otherwise known as duo BIG SPECIAL. The duo, who hail from West Midlands, in their own words are: “Sending up a flare for working class music and poetry.” Anyone who has listened to slam poetry will already have an inkling of what we’re in for. Much as is traditional with poetry it is the telling of someone’s feelings and stories woven into a way that extends your imagination, only this time it’s loud, it grabs your attention, it shocks you, and you feel every emotion possible.

This is almost a nutshell of BIG SPECIAL’s latest release SH!THOUSE. The track opens with the ambience of a confrontation, or the start of a fight, in a bar with everyone arguing over each other as some try to calm the situation. This happens as a knocking electronic beat is played in the background before the vocals kick with the loud and brash, “Never in a million fucking years did I think I ever think I’d see your fucking face again!” Of course, this enough to make you stop in tracks, as if you were in that bar itself witnessing everything go down. The moment when it all kicks off and you’re sat there in shock, frozen and unsure what to do.

Listen to SH!THOUSE by Big Special on Spotify:

This is how BIG SPECIAL decide to open their song and its certainly attention grabbing, whether it’s something you like or not it’s enough to make you stop and listen. As the track goes on, we are left recounting the duo’s story of confrontation. Whether a confrontation of someone is has very seriously wronged you or a confrontation of the societal ills that make life simply unfair and harsh is up to your imagination. There’s no set structure in the verses and choruses, it sounds a bit clanky but that’s the whole point. The track is not meant to be comforting.

SH!THOUSE is reminiscent of both early days punk that you would see with The Sex Pistols as well as modern punk that would see in Slaves. It’s loud, it’s brash and it’s brilliant. BIG SPECIAL are certainly as their name implies. They’re exciting and an incredible force to be reckoned with, and one can only be looking forward to their next release.

For more info on Big Special, find them on Facebook and Instagram. We also just interviewed Big Special which you can find here. If you enjoyed this, check out more reviews from IAMUR here… You might just find your new favourite artist!