Single review: Brigada Mercy – Roto Chico

Are Brigada Mercy Italian? Brazilian? Spanish? With that name? With that title? No, they’re from bloody Yorkshire! “Roto Chico” means “Broken Man” and the band come from the ashes of a local punk outfit.

Old farts produce cracking music? Well, kind of. Although the band sound like Cut The Crap-era Clash being mugged by The Levellers, Brigada Mercy do at least have the virtues of passion, commitment and spirit in their cliché-ridden melting pot of musical styles. Clunking rhythms match acoustic guitar riffs and a voice going the way of Shane MacGowan. On a bad day Brigada Mercy could well fall into the pit of pseudo folk-punk that occasionally bedevils Rev Hammer; on a good day they might climb the heights that The Levellers seem to have foresworn.

“Roto Chico” leans on musical cultures as diverse as gypsy folk, Eastern European jazz, Latin American rhythms, English political folk and, inevitably, the sore-throated cod-rebellion of punk. I get the feeling that Brigada Mercy are not only musical magpies, but they’re going to go down a storm as buskers and find their true home in the festival/free festival circuit, where their shouty working man’s laments will gain great favour.

“Roto Chico” is great advertisement for Brigada Mercy, but it has to be followed up with a cracking album.