In the south of our country, there is a lively punk revival centred around a number of bands with a healthy edge. The playful alt.noise rock band marcel is the most striking representative of this new Walloon wave. Since 2021, this quartet from Arlon has been making extremely generous music that sits somewhere between the Dead Kennedys, Talk Talk, Nina Hagen and Jacques Dutronc. marcel has a pronounced preference for poetic, chilling lyrics about the strangeness of earthly existence. They effortlessly balance on the thin line between the sublime and the absurd, between Breughelian populism and Poelvoordian chaos, and excel in a corrupted, experimental, unorthodox form of punk that will appeal to both your anarchist grandmother and your 12-year-old, rather right-wing nephew.

Their second album was released in early 2025 and was produced and mixed by Ben Hampson (Lambrini Girls, among others). Over the past year, they have had the opportunity to present it throughout Europe and even in the UK. The title “ô fornaiz” — incidentally, old Walloon for “ooh, you damn fire” — is like sharing a bed with a flame that burns you while sticking its tongue in your ear. Don't worry if you don't understand it, neither do we, but according to Eurobarometer, 76% of adults who have seen them live claim to have experienced a tingling, thrilling joy. We can wholeheartedly agree with that!