Super-sharp, angry and articulate, this is striking, vivid, social and political spoken word and hip-hop on a backdrop of cinematic electronica, dance and punk by the Middlesbrough duo of Kingsley Hall and Robbie Major – a scything sonic and verbal attack on western ills at home and abroad. It’s a gripping, dark, undeniably powerful listen, musically inventive with a musical landscape of menacing energy, constantly hitting polemic nails on the head as well as beats. There are parallels with Kae Tempest to Underworld, the latter particularly on one of the highlights, Blame. Images come thick and fast, from the arresting opener title track, Land Of The Tyrants (with Zera Tønin), and standout single Divide, featuring also rapper SHAAK, with passages on a dysfunctional, divided Britain such as: “Face down in the dirt, in the litter, in the shit, with the rats / Unfinished neck tats and petrol station, flowered posts/ And blocks of concrete, high street ghosts, /Treading bunting into the dirt/ And patriots, into the mire / Television pantomime fools/ As union jacketed lovers drool / Roll up to food bank queues and emptied church pews, weekend crews/ And there's strangers like statues on the kerb, I know, waving flags, dressed in rags/ Lines and lines and lines, of ruddy faced broken bile: ‘You're not from this town, never seen you around’”. Missiles meanwhile powerfully targets military evils abroad about which most of us are “comfortably numb”, sedated with with various modern life distractions, screens and recreations. And while we “dance like a prick while the world falls apart”, the second half of the album becomes less full of rage, melting more into the personal and introspective, with a ghostly appearance of background wails and indistinct singing by guest Pete Doherty on Relentless, suddenly breaking back into a jazz drum spoken word brainstorm soliloquy on Terror Forever, the hungover melancholy of Everything Is Going to Be Alright, to surreal, dream-like slowly sung closer Burnt Out Family Home. Dark, gripping, like a series of short stories, this is a rich landscape of emotions, problems, sensations and narratives, capturing the scary, confusing, complex times we live in, and deserving several listens. Out on Invada Records.
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