deux furieuses

British agit-punk outfit Deux Furieuses, whose name translates as Two Furious Women, pairs a lean, unadorned guitar-and-drums assault with lyrics focused on social and political themes while nodding to sounds from the eighties and nineties. Scottish vocalist and guitarist Ros Cairney joined forces with Greek drummer Vas Antoniadou to launch the project in London during 2013, united by mutual admiration for PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, eighties post-punk, and nineties alt-rock as well as shared anger over mounting worldwide political tensions and societal imbalances. The pair began composing material and performing concerts, selecting their moniker after a Belgian magazine review described one of their shows. Working once more with former PJ Harvey drummer Rob Ellis at the controls, they captured their stark first album, Tracks of Wire, and issued it themselves in 2016; the release earned swift praise and drew comparisons to Harvey, Savages, and Nirvana. While openly championing feminist and left-wing positions, the duo backed those beliefs by donating all proceeds from their 2017 singles “Time to Mourn/From Fear to Fury” and “Everyone Knows”—both tracked via mobile phone atop a London rooftop—to a refugee charity. Deux Furieuses joined the Xtra Mile roster in 2019, and the label put out their follow-up album, My War Is Your War. Again produced by Ellis and fronted by the single “Year of Rage,” the record leaned harder into post-punk textures, featuring denser production values and strongly melodic vocals soaked in reverb that evoked eighties goth figures such as Siouxsie and the Banshees.