Sled Island Edition: Emma Goldman - all you are is we
Zegema Beach Records
Released on April 28th, 2025
Named after the anarchist Emma Goldman, the band Emma Goldman continues the anarchist praxis of satirical gestures in this recent album released by Zegema Beach Records: all you are is we.
This is a record that has quickly been picked up and brought to considerable critical acclaim, making its rounds through Brooklyn Vegan as well as being reviewed by Anthony Fantano (aka. The Needle Drop). So, I will start here: Does the album live up to the hype? ABSOLUTELY FUCKIN’ RIGHTS IT DOES.
With that out of the way, the band is comprised of Victoria, Felix, Hayley, and Pavel — the former two are notably former members of dad tights, which Vancouver emoheads might recognize in retrospect. This new band is also a skramz act, but with some pretty peculiar twists by featuring elements of electronic ambient tracks the likes of which may be found in New York breakcore and electronic acts such as Stice and Machine Girl — tracks like “an introduction to real-estate induced psychosis” and “canned response” are evocative of the sounds of these musicians’ sound respectively. But besides these departures of conventional skramz and emo, Emma Goldman’s all you are is we has plenty to offer to those who are deeply invested in these sounds and genres.
With satirical titles such as “at rock bottom I was a piss girl,” “I seem to be an adjective,” and “this is your brain on minimum wage,” there is plenty to rummage through — it is a classic “tag yourself” type scenario, and personally I am a bit of a “bellinis at the blockade” kind of gal. But as soon as the album really gets going, you will be met by some of the hardest skramz music that is out there. With dialogic back and forths, the vocalists are spitting bar after bar tearing apart the absurdities of neoliberal capitalism and the multifaceted layers of co-optation of radical aesthetics into a systematic machinic assemblage. Here is an example of fine lyric to be found in the song “it rubs the boycott ketchup on its brand new slacks:” “the politics / didn't matter / just the haircut.” But also at its most real, the lyricism in a track like “bellinis at the blockade” can captivate the current deteriorating state of global capitalism in lines such as: “a million screaming voices, they sigh and say / earth? land? soil? what's a synonym for 'ground'? / I think we're being eroded / do you hear and feel it too?”
This album is simply bound to become one of the canonical entries into the book of skramz. Emma Goldman’s debut LP has made its rounds for a good reason, it is simply an incredible album that manages to pack itself with political convictions and satirical humour on top of some incredibly creative composition within less than half an hour. At this point, I know I will be closely keeping my ear to the ground for any upcoming Emma Goldman or anything that its members release moving forward. Now go on and read Emma Goldman’s “Anarchism: What It Really Stands For” at The Anarchist Library before the cops find out.
Emma Goldman plays at Sled Island on Saturday, June 21st at Loophole Coffee Bar.
