New music review with singles from Bratakus 'Tokened' and Pretty Inside 'The Person That I Hate'
- Julia Mason aka The Decibel Decoder
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her new music review with singles from Bratakus Tokened and Pretty Inside The Person That I Hate
Artist: Bratakus
Track: Tokened
Bratakus release their ferocious new single Tokened, the second on their new label home of Venn Records (the label run by Laurent ‘Lags’ Barnard of UK punk band Gallows, and previously the home of artists like High Vis, Bob Vylan and Witch Fever).
Once described by the BBC as ‘the most remote band in the UK’, Bratakus was formed in 2015 by two sisters Brèagha Cuinn (guitar and vocals) and Onnagh Cuinn (bass and vocals) outside a small whiskey village called Tomintoul in the Scottish Highlands.
Fiercely DIY since their inception, the band ran their own label Screaming Babies Records and with no music on streaming services and no booking agent, they have already taken the band as far as Japan, supported The Hives on tour and have secured airplay from the likes of BBC Scotland.
Lyrically, Tokened challenges the perceptions that many female musicians still face to this day where they are often made to feel like ‘the token girl band’. The instrumentation matches this frustration with the wild guitars whilst the vocals are unsurprisingly savage in their delivery due to the encounters of tokenism the band, and others have encountered.
“It's based on many experiences we've had as women playing music being thrown on first at gigs so that the cis male line up appears more equal” states Brèagha. “Also, festivals that put all the bands with women on the Thursday, before the actual festival starts, and bill it as a day to ‘empower’ us.”
"Acts like this feel like a massive cop out to save people from tackling the real issues,” continues Onnagh. “There's some awareness of the need to address the gender gap in the music industry but so much of what's dressed up as genuine attempts at progress end up feeling like you're getting thrown crumbs in what are still hugely male dominated spaces. We're then told we should be feeling grateful about it. It's about wanting to be booked based on genuine recognition of what you're doing as a band and the music you're making, rather than feeling like your opportunities are coming from an empty form of box ticking so that guys feel like they can pat themselves on the back for putting in minimum effort."
The song’s life-affirming video was filmed with some of the participants of 2024s Girls Rock Glasgow, an organisation dedicated to empowering girls and gender-expansive young people through music, creativity, confidence-building, and community. Their mission is to narrow gender imbalance in the music industry while contributing to the overall mental well-being of all participants by instilling life skills, resilience, and fostering a strong sense of identity.
"Our first ever gig was at the first Girls Rock Glasgow fundraiser back in 2015 and we've both volunteered as teachers ever since, so it felt very special to have them involved. Like a total full circle moment. We're still here, they're still here and we're all fighting against tokenism together,” explains Brèagha.
"It seemed really fitting that it was for this song in particular. It's exhausting sometimes feeling like you're constantly fighting for your space as a band and can leave you feeling disillusioned, but being involved in a project like this is totally hope-restoring. These kids are the future of music, and we feel so privileged to be working with them and to have the opportunity to be involved in a community of women and gender expansive people that totally support and empower each other and make great music and art while doing it! It's an organisation we hold very close to our hearts, and we knew as soon as we were starting to plan our videos that we wanted to have them involved,” says Onnagh.
"A particular highlight for me was the spontaneous conga line that the kids started while we were playing, I'm definitely going to request conga lines in the pit from now on” laughs Brèagha.
* * *
Artist: Pretty Inside
Track: The Person That I Hate
Formed around frontman Alexis Deux-Seize (Flippin' Freaks Records co-founder), Bordeaux-based band Pretty Inside first made a name for themselves in 2021 with garage rock and power pop debut album Grow Up!.
After a second record, slowed down by creative and personal struggles, Pretty Inside return with The Person That I Hate, the first single taken from upcoming album Ever Gonna Heal set to be released on December 12th 2025 via several French indie labels: Flippin' Freaks, Howlin' Banana Records, Les Disques du Paradis, Tête Froide Records, Outatime Records, Permanent Freak and Hell Vice i Vicious Records.
It's a track which opens with twitchy anxiety but powers into a wicked combination of snarling vocals, hypnotic rhythms and gritty guitar hooks. The vocal becomes increasingly aninmated as the track progresses, dramatically layering with the edgy funky vibes for a continuous undertone of tension.
The track pokes fun at the thin line between the narcissism of our screen-addicted era and deep self-loathing. While the theme might sound dark, do not be fooled as the upbeat rhythms have nod to the heyday of Madchester. The single is accompanied by an appropriately twitchy video directed by Alexis Deux-Seize and Eddie FZone.
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