Bratakus – Hagridden Review 04/02/2026

It’s been quite a journey for this pair of Scottish sisters Brèagha Cuinn (Guitar and vocals) and Onnagh Cuinn (Bass and vocals) since forming Bratakus in the middle of nowhere in Tomintoul in 2015. With no drummer available, they just plugged in a drum machine and away they went.

A resolutely indie anti-label ethic with their own label named after a line in Crass’s Shaved Women – Screaming Babies records and solid gigging has seen them build up a healthy grassroots foundation over the decade.

The back story is all well and good, but what’s the music like on Hagridden? Ten short, sharp prime cuts of punk delivered at pretty much 100mph covering, as the PR sheet says, “feminism, animal rights, media brainwashing and how normalised sweatshops have become in our society.”  It’s music to slam dance while spilling over and onto the stage, or for me, downhill mountain biking over jumps and taking curves and inclines at ludicrous speed while grinning insanely.

No ifs, no buts, it’s full-on punk rock and intense with twin vocals delivered in a throaty Brody Dalle Distillers rasp. If that puts you off, then tough titty because I love The Distillers.

If I have a criticism, the songs can sometimes feel too relentlessly intense over the first 2/3 rd of the album, which is why I love tracks like Drowning that change the tempo and mix it up, and Tokened with its seriously heavy riffage! There’s also some seriously tasty, dirty, distorted bass in there as well!

Love the cover too – You’d probably expect to see the girls on the front to help sell it or put a visual to the band. Well, you do but in these hideous baby masks the girls picked up years ago from a supermarket, I think from the Halloween aisle, along with a selection of other macabre-looking artefacts collected by the girls over the years.

A great album with the promise of even greater things to come for Bratakus.

Out soon on Venn Records. Buy here

---

---