Today marks the release of ‘What Will Become of England‘ (available now on Bandcamp), the new single from Jim Ghedi. He has also collaborated with Poor Creature – friends Ruth Clinton (Landless) and Cormac MacDiarmada (LANKUM) – on a music video for the track, working with apocalyptic/alternative reality themes which has resulted in creating something truly unique; watch it below.
Jim shared the following:
“It felt uncanny that this was recorded in 1953” says Jim. “Everything about it feels like it was plucked from the times we’re living in at the moment, the collective sense and existential anxiety of: how much worse can things get? or what’s next?” Jim Ghedi found the song in the Alan Lomax Archives from a field recording of an English singer & farmworker called Harry Cox taken in 1953 at his home in Catfield, Norfolk, Harry recalled learning & hearing it from a bloke in a pub who used to play a tin whistle and was the only singer he knew who sang it, originally it had 8 or 9 verses but Harry could only remember two of them.
It really resonated with Ghedi, an artist who has a unique talent for tapping into the rich history of folk music to extract and create timely, political and contemporary alternative folk music. Although this is perhaps the most direct and potent example of this skill to date. Not only do the lyrics hit with a devastatingly relevant blow – “What will become of England, if things go on this way / There’s many a thousand working man, that’s starving day by day” – but Ghedi’s sonic world has expanded, encompassing a brooding, darker, more electronic tone to capture the visceral tone of the piercing lyrics.
“I thought it could be an interesting and creative approach to try and portray this apocalyptic imagery,” Ghedi says. “Almost a David Lynch-like alternative reality, while also taking inspiration from the 1984 film Threads set in Sheffield – where an apocalyptic attack destroys everything. I wanted the track to emulate the feeling of a place being destroyed and crumbling away.”
This results in a track that is rich in thick, engulfing textures, ominous drones and an arresting marriage between the heavy twang of guitar strings, sweeping fiddle, rumbling double bass, pounding drums and the subtle pulse of synths. The contributions come from Neal Heppleston, David Grubb, Guy Whitaker and Dean Honer. The latter of which is a renowned Sheffield electronic musician and producer (I Monster, All Seeing I, Eccentronic Research Council, The Moonlandingz, International Teachers of Pop).
“I’ve been wanting to work with Dean for a while now and this seemed the perfect fit,” Ghedi says. “I’ve been into a lot of old Sheffield synth bands, like Cabaret Voltaire and Artery. I’ve been wanting to combine that history of Sheffield into my own music for a while but never found the right project for it, but the new songs I’ve been writing feel like a great link to reference some of that post-punk synth scene – merging industrial synth elements with folk materials.”
Download the single via Bandcamp: https://jimghedi.bandcamp.com/track/what-will-become-of-england
Jim Ghedi is on tour during October, details of which can be found here: http://www.jimghedi.com/tour