Last month, we shared news of Revelators Sound System, the new project from MC Taylor (Hiss Golden Messenger) and Cameron Ralston (Matthew E. White, Natalie Prass) of the Spacebomb house band.
Today, they share a new track titled Grieving, which ties into the album’s core theme. When discussing the intuitive interplay between himself and Taylor, Ralston says, “This record is about grief. Grief, and whatever comes after. We were looking for a way to communicate that musically.”
Ralston is credited for the new video, which, like the initial video for George the Revelator by Moses Sun and Bill Jones, maintains that psychedelic feel, but the appearance of a gun which we see recoil from being fired, is unexpected; its presence is reflected in the dark and fearful chaotic movement of the music.
This record is described as a deep meditation on community, an emotional record and that’s abundantly clear – “the running soundtrack to a world in confusion”. As reflected in Ralston’s comments earlier today, those feelings are running deeper than ever.
Following the recent Elementary School shooting in Texas, it was reported by The Guardian, that over the recent memorial weekend from 5am on Friday to early Tuesday, 156 people were killed and 412 injured as a result of shootings in the US. This included six injured by gunfire at a high school graduation in Anniston, Alabama, and the killing of three children under 10.
In 2018, in response to the Parkland, Florida shootings, Hiss Golden Messenger released a single ‘Hiss Golden Messenger Meets Spacebomb‘ with Ralston, Matthew E. White and other Spacebomb players. The benefits from that release went to Everytown, a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. The notes to the release included a very personal and emotional message from Taylor calling for gun laws to change.
Earlier today, Ralston made the following comment on Instagram:
“Grieving”…is about what it feels like to be an American today. There was a massacre at an elementary school 8 days ago. As the only nation where this singular brand of horrific trauma happens on a regular basis, we’ve somehow decided to accept it as a necessary thread weaving through the fabric of our American reality. No. Take a closer look.
We are lost as a people. Numb. Paralysis has set deep into the bone. I feel it, too. As a “great society”, why are we willing to sacrifice schoolchildren in order to uphold a privilege to own and carry assault weapons? Absolute gun rights are clearly more sacred than the lives and well-being of children in this country. How do we mentally/emotionally/intellectually/spiritually get there? How do we reason it? Nobody can answer. That’s the deal we’ve made, and we’re bought in. These events will continue to happen again and again and again and again and everyone of us knows it. We chalk it up as a cost of doing our business and we all move forward, continuing to sell our shit here and elsewhere. Since we appear to have already processed and moved on, predictably much quicker this time around, it seems inappropriate, if not apathetic, to be engaging in anything that feels like self-promotion. But, the emotional core of this track resonates with me today just as strongly as it did a couple of years ago when we made it in the throes of our uniquely American chaos (Trump, Covid, George Floyd). I recognize my own hypocrisy, but I can at least affirm that this feels artistically relevant to this moment….and that’s worth something I think.“
This may be an instrumental but their voice has never been louder.
Ten percent of the proceeds from the sale of this record will be donated to the Know Your Rights Camp.