Stuart Curlett

The crisis of mental health has become a key issue. In an era of brutal cuts to welfare and public services, levels of mental distress and suicide are rising drastically among those out of work. This is as true for low paid workers, women and young people. The World Health Organisation estimates that by 2020 depression will be the leading cause of disability. In the UK one in four people will experience mental distress of some kind. With all that in mind this book could not be timelier.

The Underside of Power is four-piece Atlanta based band Algiers’ follow up to their powerful self-titled post-punk meets Southern gospel debut album.

The band take their name from the city at the heart of the Algerian revolutionary war that fought and won independence from France in the 1960s. And they are back with a whole new level of fiery energy and an even more defiant political message.

It has been five years since Polly Jean Harvey’s last and much celebrated album Let England Shake, which adopted a more overtly political approach to music, with haunting imagery of poverty and war.

Since then we have seen Harvey speak out through a song about Shaker Aamer, the British Guantanamo Bay ex-detainee held for over 13 years without charge.

If you haven’t yet been exposed to Fat White Family, they are a South London six-piece that have gained prominence in the last two or three years, mainly through their energetic (and very, very messy) live shows.

Known for their low-fi, dirgy sound, they seem to aspire to the filthy style, shocking lyrics and chaotic atmosphere of bands such as The Fall, Nick Cave’s The Birthday Party, Butthole Surfers and certainly Industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle. If that’s what you’re into, they do it pretty well.

The project of “21st century socialism” that Hugo Chavez espoused in 2005 seems very distant in Latin America today.

What we see instead is rising inflation, suppression of wages, increased dependency on oil as the main source of income and, crucially, an absence of the grassroots organisation that was the cornerstone of the Bolivarian revolution.