Streaming: Big Special – “Plaintive Native”: Brutal Honesty in Everyday Ruin

Big Special are a British duo from the West Midlands, combining punk, hip-hop, electronica, and spoken word into a bruising, electric mix. Fronted by Joe Hicklin and Callum Moloney, the pair lay bare working-class disillusionment, internal unrest, and national malaise over jagged riffs and corrosive production. Their debut album Postindustrial Hometown Blues captures the sound of frustration and empathy colliding — a bold, poetic portrait of modern British life.

“Plaintive Native” is raw, wounded, and audacious — an indictment disguised as confession. Big Special channel emotional grit through dense instrumentation: abrasive electronics, pulsing rhythms, and Hicklin’s voice battered but defiant. It’s the sound of someone trying to reclaim their place in a world that’s already forgotten them — a thunderous testament to vulnerability, anger, and survival.

Band Page: https://www.instagram.com/bigspecial_/