The Skoplje-based XAXAXA (written in the Cyrillic script, read as ‘HAHAHA’), a band with members of our protégés BERNAYS PROPAGANDA, who share with them their eagerness for touring and releasing records, return with a blast. Their second full-length ‘Siromašni i bogati’ (The Poor and the Rich) is an honorable successor to the band’s debut ‘Tango Revolucioner’ (Revolutionary Tango). With its monochrome cover art portraying a poverty-stricken girl, the record functions as a document of social turmoil and class struggle in modern-day Macedonia. Writing in their native language, the band touches upon themes of social inequality, the privileges of the rich, who sporadically impose social norms, and the carelessness of those in power. Musically, XAXAXA serve the listener with fast, melodic, gut-rocking tunes in the vein of Hüsker Dü, Dag Nasty, Wipers, and Rites of Spring – a captivating collage of 80s post-punk aesthetics and early 90s melodic hardcore with a contemporary twist.