Few Manchester music fans are strangers to the disquiet deliverances of The Dirt’s wordsmith, Jack Horner, who has been storming stages with his abrasively arresting recitations of the tolls of PTSD and orations of the graffiti on the toilet walls of iconic Manchester venues.
Standing alone, Horner’s words in his solo spoken word project, Leon the Pig Farmer, carry enough metaphoric weight to leave a bruising mark on the psyche. The curveballs in his conceits open a collective of wormholes for the mind to venture down before perceptions shift around his vindicating socialist manifestic narrations. As a part of the dualistic powerhouse, the juxtaposition between his no-prisoners poetry and effect-layered guitars is enough to tear the rug from beneath you and plateau you on a new kaleidoscopic tapestry.
The Dirt’s debut LP, Agitator, starts with a true-to-form snarled spoken word piece, which prises your eyes open in Clockwork Orange style to the systematic failures of our belligerently nefarious government. Right off the bat, the strength of the dystopic imagery sends you into a spin as the psychedelic guitars, courtesy of Sachiko Wakizaka, whirl around the repression rebellion.
From definitively Madchester instrumentals to desert rock droning originations, the soundscapes psychedelically curtail the spoken word conviction just enough to make each of the eleven tracks a palatable mind-altering cocktail. It’s hard to name a favourite, each single has its allegorical merit, but being driven to tears by the existentially delicate single, What’s the Story, had to be a personal highlight before the euphoria surges through Ignorance is Bliss, which transgresses entropy into rapture.
Grab a copy of Agitator via the Golden Believer Records Bandcamp page and watch the live launch on April 14 at the Peer Hat.
Review by Amelia Vandergast