In an unflinching mission to keep the traditions of folk storytelling alive, the Texan ensemble Go Metric USA has unveiled their tribally hypnotic sense-awakening serenade, Old Books No One Remembers. You can practically hear notes of opium drift through the production in the arcanely atmospheric alt-country vignette which allows poetry to acquiesce with seraphic folk melodies.
With an evocative potency which tears through the centuries, Old Books No One Remembers is inexplicably efficacious in its ability to consume the psyche. It is only when you reach the outro in the Legendary Pink Dots-reminiscent production that you realise how intertwined you’ve become in the eloquently enlightening narrative which can hold its own against Robert Frost’s poetry.
Old Books No One Remembers is now available to stream on SoundCloud.
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.
Taken from the debut EP, I Cannot Go on Reaching, LÌONADH’s achingly artful lead single, European Man,consumed us with the emotion it was eloquently constructed through. The poet-fronted Glaswegian ensemble with a classical string section at their disposal may be fresh from their inception, but they are already garnering critical acclaim and causing catholic outcries.
Before the launch of their debut EP, the poet, Sean Lìonadh, shared his viral poem, Time for Love, which has amassed over 16 million streams, been published by BBC Scotland and driven the petulantly pious to frenzy by speaking for the LGBTQ+ community. Anyone that upsets the archaically moralistic applecart is instantly venerable in my book. There’s no taste quite like the salty tears of zealots.
As for the single, with the chill-imparting spoken word verses, around Nick Cave-Esque keys and operatic vocal grace, LÌONADH delivered pure art. If you thought that Arab Strap’s comeback album was something, delve into the hymnal sanctity of European Man.
World music composer Dave Manington found the perfect chanteuse for his latest release, Fones, in the singer-songwriter Lara Eidi. Her mystique-filled transcendent vocal timbre resounds around the lines taken from the poem of the same name by the Egyptian poet Constantine P. Cavafy.
After a Waitsy brooding bassline intro, the celestial-ism seeps-in through the luminously rich harmonies and nostalgic guitars, which breed sepia tones under the soaring harmonies. The exoticism within the multicultural jazzy experimentalism makes it all but impossible to capture the true essence of the flamenco laced release. Lara Eidi & Dave Manington truly are among the very few artists that can claim that their sound is completely original. We can’t wait to hear what follows.
Fones was officially released on April 29th; it is now available to stream and purchase via Bandcamp.
True Gospel Bookstore (aka TGB) was formed by North Carolina native Don Edwards to record his poetry work and to bring it alive again through music. Now based in sunny LA, he also works with singer-songwriter Angela Michael, who helps brings his music to a whole different level. ‘Fades Into Blue’ is the 9th single release and this is an alt-rock song about that lost love.
The steady start flickers like a memorable time in your life when things were way more peaceful. In these dark times we need a hero to step up and help us gain that perspective again. His voice is strong and confident and the name of this band says it all really. He wanted to have a bookstore when he was at college and this would of help house a church too. Sadly he couldn’t get the lease he wanted and ended up working at various jobs instead. The idea stuck with him and now through music, it has come alive.
This is about that love you can’t get out of your mind. You were drinking your beer and life was going along decently. From that moment on however, things all changed and you couldn’t get enough of that smiling face. Sadly things didn’t work out and they left so there is so much regret sprinkled in here as you lost your faith for some time. You wanted to be together but the stars had other ideas.
His voice is full of life stories from that special moment that is now just a memory but also a pleasurable one. ‘Fades Into Blue’ reminds you of those memories that you love so much, but are now fading rather quickly into the dust. True Gospel Bookstore is a classic music creation that has been brought to life through lots of love and determination. This is a man who realized that hardly anyone appreciated real poetry anymore, so he evolved and made it into music instead; to reach a global audience. This is a true inspiration to those out there who have given up and need a humble hero to look up to.
Take a listen to true class on Soundcloud and follow the story via IG and Facebook.
Rap at it’s finest, Jahi Mankah Trotter has dropped his new single‘‘December Nights’’. It’s hard-hitting and one that when you listen to each lyric you really feel for it, you connect with it and emphasises feelings that we’re often too scared to speak out about.
Jahi embarks on a path of writing down his feelings, adding a solid beat and portraying how he feels through his talented ways of rap, keeping it real and telling the listeners this story he has in an incredible way.
Even though at the beginning it sounds like more of a classical music tone, within a few seconds this powerful tempo takes the lead.
It’s straight to the point and the lyrical approach was something that is moving, this track has so much meaning and just from the poignant words spoken, you share this connection with the artist as he takes you on this emotional journey.
You can listen to Jahi Mankah Trotter’s December Nights on YouTube now.
America is more than diversity and pride and celebration. America is physically vast and this is often overlooked from the tight quarters of a dense city. This is why people truly love Americana. It is a musical style that maintains storytelling as a focus with specific themes borrowed from poetry and art that culminate in something that always feels simple and familiar despite all it can encompass. In the case of The Television of Cruelty, it borrows from several places. Orchestral awe and psychedelic influences creak in and out of a story of travel.
What makes this song stand out among similar peers is definitely the feeling of travel that’s embedded in the mix itself. There are times when you can hear the crowd and other times when you can swear the singing is studio-based. For all we know, this song was recorded in a car while quietly driving down a highway. There is a very pure sense of distance covered by the end of the track. For a song about traveling companions, it’s fitting that one feels as if they’ve arrived somewhere different than when the song began. Road Movie is a trip worth taking again and again.
