Baxter Dury, Delilah Holliday, and Étienne de Crécy - B.E.D.

Baxter Dury, Delilah Holliday, and Étienne de Crécy - B.E.D.

It is rare that the offspring of a successful athlete/artist/whatever manages to step successfully out of the shadow of their parents. Yet Baxter Duty, son of the late wordsmith Ian Dury (the man who put ‘Sex and Drugs and Rock n Roll’ in the Oxford dictionary) is now reaching even higher levels than his father. An aficionado of electronic and experimental music, Baxter Dury injects a dose of independence and spirit into his latest music, taking it from enjoyable, past impressive, onto downright essential. Joining forces with French dance pioneer Étienne de Crécy and vocalist Delilah Holliday, Dury is on rare form for one of the more remarkable albums of 2018.

Subverting the idea that the beat should be the most important aspect, Dury’s deadpan spoken word delivery over the top of dark instrumentals makes even the dire and dour suitable for the club. The most intriguing part of the album is this choice to wax lyrical over what should be the driving focus of the LP. Dury’s voice aches with a believable pathos and could be the only suitable accompaniment to his observational, nihilistic storytelling. Dury seems to have inherited his father's penchant for making the stream of consciousness so palatable and urgent.


A seemingly effortless lyrical illustration of modern-day minutiae, and the dark underbelly of human emotion brings a hint of New Order and their post-post-apocalyptic dance party aesthetic to mind. Like all good electronic albums, however, there is a vast horizon of emotions. From the cocktail of broken hearts, lies and existential dread in Flying away to the cruel halls of Only My Honesty… which reads like a poem but hits like a heavyweight. The most impressive release by Dury yet, B.E.D. is razor sharp, witty and dripping in rancour. Synthy, industrial and flavoured with a hint of the tropics, this is the dancing track for the nukes falling. In the face on impending and unavoidable fate, you might as well dance. I know what I’ll be swaying to.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stayne - Parachute

Image
Stayne - Parachute Derry singer/songwriter Stayne makes a highly anticipated return to the ‘new releases’ column with ‘ Parachute ’. A self-described pop artist who brings “something a little different,” his newest single pulls no punches. On his latest, the ‘I slay ’ performer tackles everything from alcoholism, spirituality and needing someone to hold on to a 'human parachute.’ Know to fuse his lyricism with introspection and self-worth before sending them out into the world, Stayne’s newest is his best so far. The warm gruff vocals of the walled city resident flow into range, telling a tale of victory and failure. A stripped back arrangement of keys and ghostly strings help elevate the vocal message, ultimately committing addition by subtraction. Wallowing in a more subtle sound than would be expected from pop allows Stayne to bring his voice to the forefront, giving lines such as “I’m a whole different man when I’m holding a beer” a new gravity. With this being
Read more

Stone Broken, Those Damn Crows + Baleful Creed - 10th February 2019

Image
Stone Broken, Those Damn Crows + Baleful Creed - 10th February 2019 As I make my way down fountain street, my breath materialises in front of me. As it dissipates into the night, a low rumbling grows. It’s emanating from the top floor of local music hostelry Voodoo, which plays host tonight to a contingent of hard rock fanatic and headbang enthusiasts. The scuzz is palpable as I make my way through the door. First onstage is Belfast’s own Baleful Creed . The heavy rock quartet, known for their weighty riffs and ruthless demeanour, are having some fun tonight onstage. While sticking to the meat and bones of their gruff sound, we are treated to some wavey psychedelic blues in between licks. These deviations don’t last however, and it’s not long before pounding drum fills are shaking my back wall table and gruff, leathery textured vocals are searing the paint of the wall. Ripping up the stage with a prehistoric sound steeped in the blues (a wild harmonica appears for a moment),
Read more

The Hunna - Dare

Image
The Hunna - Dare  Hertfordshire four-piece The Hunna have returned with their newest endeavour Dare, an album that screams “all filler no killer.” Most bands struggle with their second release and The Hunna are no exception. Just as Arctic Monkeys were the first ‘youtube’ band to make it big, The Hunna shunned the circuit for Facebook presence, which worked very well for them as regards to their fanbase. Unfortunately for the rest of us, this did not translate into good music. While I appreciate there are very few Alex Turner/Paul Weller types in the world, Dare is sonically and nigh unforgivably boring even in this era of repetition and dishonesty. There is a formulaic, synthetic feel to the album that sounds not only tiresome but outright disingenuous. Music is amazing because it's organic and primal, it comes from a place of sweat that travels ‘from heart to limb, to pen’ (Bryan Fallon, Handwritten, 2013). This is where the magic comes from, but Dare sounds more akin to
Read more