Worst Generation by Nakama

Socrates said «The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise». This quote seems as legit today as it probably was back then. Maybe it is an innate human mechanism to feel a certain disgust and devaluation of ones younger peers and/or feel disrespect for ones seniors. Maybe Socrates was pointing to, unaware of it himself, a characteristic in humans which from generation to generation evolves us into a less and less compassionate, caring and respectful species.

If we look at the world today – what has it all come down to? All the negative effects that human kind is having on the globe – deforestation, extreme pollution, mass extinction of species, climate change, threat of nuclear war... The list goes on and on. Clearly, humans are the ones to be blamed, but is it possible to put blame on any single group of individuals? Is it «The Lucky Few», «Generation X» or maybe even the most recent generation; the «Plurals»? Or do we have to go further back down the line, to the generations comprising the industrial revolution around the 1820s, or perhaps as far back (and maybe even further) as to the generation that Socrates so ferociously scolded, just to find that the blame is just a series of extractions of human behavior degrading over the course of time.

On the other hand new generations also bring with them a sense of hope. Who knows, maybe they’ll get it right this time? But although many generations represent positivism and a sense of change and revolution (some of them even have changed and revolted) none of them have been able to resolve the overhanging negative trends of the situation.

In today’s western world there still lives a total of 5 historically distinguishable generations. The titles on this album is named after them. If it really is so that the bad manners and disrespect that Socrates was talking about has been accumulating in each successive generation since the first human societies, then these five generations must truly be the «Worst Generation» ever in human history. They are all part of our current situation and have all contributed to the current state of affairs.

In our modern society music is one of the most distinguishable factors which separates a generation from its previous one. No matter how abstract, it seems that music is created out of love and/or passion. Still music is often the very thing which separates generations from each other, and even influences a generation so much that their behavior changes into one of «disrespect». Nakama’s music might do the same. Just putting music like this out in the world might broaden the gap with not only our older generations, but also create discord within our own generation. Tearing a rift within the community of our own peers does not intuitively seem to make things better. But at the same time it is this very questioning of the mainstream - in all areas of our lives, not only music - which is the catalyst for change. This album is our comment, and the music our heritage. Who knows - the minority might just have a point, after all. On this album we are solidifying who we are as individuals and as a group, and if that is the worst generation so be it. When we look back in the end the worst generation might just turn out to be the best one.

«Worst Generation» is Nakama’s first fully improvised album, and was recorded as part of a live concert in studio during their first European tour.

Nakama Records was founded as a musicians’ collective in 2015. The label arranges concerts and releases selected projects of the collective’s musicians, each of whom are connected to the expansive band Nakama. Nakama is a non-hierarchic label, respects each member’s musical agenda, and has a goal to feed the world with interesting, ground breaking, alternative music.

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