With the country deep in recession and austerity cuts hitting the poorest in our society, where are the artistic responses? Where are the protest singers? ‘Greedy Magicians’, singer-songwriter Matt Hill aka Quiet Loner’s third album, is such a response – a collection of contemporary protest songs seething with disgust and shot through with melancholy at the state of our coalition-led nation. It’s an album which reflects on recent events and rewrites them as chapters in a long and historic struggle of the many against the few. ‘The Captain's Diseased’ is the second single to be taken from the album. Picking up on the oftheard mantra that 'we're all in the same boat', this rollicking sea shanty casts David Cameron as a deranged and syphilitic sea captain. The captain decides the sick and frail aren't working hard enough and casts them overboard. The allegory isn't subtle, at a time when the coalition is cutting billions from the benefits of disabled people and carers. Despite the serious subject, it pokes fun in the long tradition of satire, with its boozy accordion and cries of "he's syphilltic and riddled with fleas". Nevertheless it makes a powerful point.
MP3 $1.98
04/01/2013
With the country deep in recession and austerity cuts hitting the poorest in our society, where are the artistic responses? Where are the protest singers? ‘Greedy Magicians’, singer-songwriter Matt Hill aka Quiet Loner’s third album, is such a response – a collection of contemporary protest songs seething with disgust and shot through with melancholy at the state of our coalition-led nation. It’s an album which responds both personally and politically, reflecting on recent events and rewriting them as chapters in a long and historic struggle of the many against the few. Rejecting the securities of a conventional recording studio, Hill instead recorded in an 18th century church in Salford, an area steeped in radicalism. Over a single evening in May 2012, Hill turned the recording process itself into a sixties style ‘happening’. Lit only by candles and fairy lights with around 100 people present to witness it, Hill and his fellow musicians (with members of Samson & Delilah and Last Harbour) recorded the songs totally live in single takes. These are songs of politics and protest. ‘Kneel and Comply’ is a satire on the excessive policing of protest and dissent and ‘The Captain’s Diseased’ a sea-shanty that casts David Cameron as a deranged syphilitic sea captain throwing the sick and disabled overboard. There are personal songs too. ‘The Ghost of Oswald Mosley’ laments the rise of the far right in the former coalfield communities where Hill grew up and ‘Unmarked grave’ is an anti-war song, a soldier’s tale inspired by...
MP3 $9.90
11/19/2012
Quiet Loner is the pen-name of songwriter Matt Hill. His recording and live work as Quiet Loner has won him many accolades, including Americana UK Album of the Year 2004 for his debut LP 'Secret Ruler of the World', and he has played with kindred spirits like Lambchop, Joe Pernice, Neko Case and Chris Mills. Inspired by the storytelling traditions of American folk and country music, Hill's songs also have a distinctly British lyrical bite. His new album is a stark and honest collection of performances recorded deep in the English countryside during the big freeze of January 2010. Produced by Mat Martin (Kirsty McGee, The Brute Chorus) it contains eleven songs of experience and wisdom, and features contributions from Inge Thomson (Bonnie Prince Billy, Broken Family Band), Roy Dodds (Fairground Attraction, Hank Wangford) and long term collaborator Alan Cook (Jackie Leven). 'Spectrology' is, as the title suggests, an album filled with ghosts, but not the ghosts of childhood nightmares or gothic fantasy. They are simply the ghosts of the people (living and dead) and the experiences (joyous and scarring) that shape our lives. As the opening song 'As Precious As Life Gets' alludes, the album reflects on decay and death, ultimately shunning them in favour of hope. 'Spectrology' celebrates the cycle of life where renewal, and even redemption are found in the small simple intimacies of life - a morning lie-in, an evening stroll or a slow dance with a lover. Whilst some of the songs hint at darker...
MP3 $9.90
11/08/2010