Siksa

Taking their name from a Yiddish-derived slur for a young woman percieved as vulgar, inexperienced and immature, the Polish duo Siksa—consisting of poet and singer Alex Freiheit and bassist Buri—adapted riot grrl for contemporary, culture war-torn Poland, stripping feminist punk down to uninhibited theatre-inspired performance and message. Freiheit's confessional and political autofiction has echoed profoundly in the country's and Europe's increasingly conservative cultural landscape, through which Siksa has been touring constantly since their inception in 2014, gaining a surprising amount of traction for an experimental act and sowing the expectedly divided reactions. The duo has released six studio albums so far, their latest being 2022's Szmery w sercu.