It’s fascinating how a landscape and the communities that dwell there can form such a rich source of creative inspiration for some. The Thames estuary often crops up on this horizon – one steeped in a rich history; at its dense centre, musical mudlarks like Stick in the Wheel sift through artefacts, reconnecting and contrasting modern day with the past…while further out towards the mouth of the great river, photographer Christopher Harrup, captures the traces of modern life on walks around Westcliff-on-Sea. His work Essex Topographic, in turn, inspires Trains, Trees, Topophilia…an album by Junkboy who write memories onto the landscape via train journeys between Seaford and Brighton in Sussex to Southend on Sea in Essex’. It’s the latter which also inspires M G Boulter.
Boulter’s new album Clifftown, which features the iconic Southend On Sea ‘Olympia’ on its cover, uniquely charts the characters, personal histories and stories of growing up in English seaside suburbia. Its songs are both observant and affecting; here you will find the neon lights and burnt sugar smells of a Saturday night seafront but also the solitary Essex noir of the salt marshland. Listen to album track Midnight Movies below, our Song of the Day:
So evocative has the project been for M G that he has created a podcast series (‘The Clifftown Podcast’) exploring the culture of this often-overlooked experience of British seaside life. M G creates vignettes of suburban lives and seaside communities and is a contemporary voice in the long tradition of the singer-songwriter.
The album is described as his most complete work to date creating an immersive world rich with ordinary lives glimpsed through fairground grease and mindless 9 to 5 jobs. As much social commentary as an honest picture postcard of his hometown, Clifftown is an exquisite and life-affirming exploration of modern suburbia and the British seaside by one of the UK’s finest songwriting talents.
We’ll be bringing you more soon on Clifftown which is released on 23 April 2021 via Hudson Records.
Pre-Order Clifftown here: http://www.smarturl.it/clifftown
Website: http://www.mgboulter.co.uk/
Photo Credit: Jinnwoo