With protests against systemic racism and police brutality dominating the news, a call to elevate the voices of Black artists has come to the fore of the cultural discourse. Montreal's Pentagon Black, the high-concept, design-focused Montreal label notable for its paper compilation series, has helped further this conversation through the release of Black Dots: An Afropunk Primer. The document features an essay by Halifax musician, writer, and DJ Chris Murdoch, and is available as a pamphlet through Pentagon Black's store as a fundraiser for Nova Scotia's Black Lives Matter Solidarity Fund. As of this writing, the label reports nearly 900 copies of the pamphlet sold.
The label described the project in a press release:
"In the first instalment of the Pentagon Black Information Pamphlet series, noted Halifax musician, writer, and DJ Chris Murdoch distilled his critical 2017 Black Dots presentation into pamphlet form. What's it about? When Black first met punk in the UK, the USA, and Chris' own life, and along the way its scant 2800 words catch large quantities of DIY spirit, noise, fury, skateboards and weirdness. Mentioned in the pamphlet: the Bad Brains, Death, Toni Young, Minor Threat, Don Letts, Red C, Nicky Thomas, Fire Party, Black Flag, Bubba Dupree, Void, Chuck Treece, Mike Cornelius, JFA, McRad, Thrasher mag, Ray Barbee, Underdog, Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex, Neville Staple, Lynval Golding, the Specials, Ranking Roger, Simone Thomas, etc. Released in June of 2020, this eight-page pamphlet includes five illustrations by Raymond Biesinger. Mandatory reading."
Murdoch's history as a Black musician in the Haligonian punk scene includes a stint as the frontman of the hardcore group Word On The Street, tours as a part of Weekend Dads, and a current gig behind the drum kit of the trio Souvenir.
Pentagon Black's run by Raymond Biesinger and Drew Demers of the noise-punk duo The Famines. Word On The Street last released Street Spirit in 2014 on Sewercide Records. Souvenir released the Beating Into Dust EP in February.
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