BACKRA MeN
©2008 SilveryRecords
1. Fabula (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
2. For Lee Miller (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
3. Map i. Spon ii. Ball Hill, morning iii. Anglia to Mercia (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
4. From the Spanish Gypsy (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
5. Duskfall (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
6. Bomb (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
7. Sistah (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
8. Deciphering the Eucalypts (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
9. On First Looking into Cecily Joness Engendering Whiteness (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
10. Disillusion (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
11. Lokis Song (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
12. On the Macclesfield Psalter (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
13. Iberian Baroque (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
14. Dobeš Snail (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
15. the new romanian poems* (Morley/Hayden/Haines)
"It's really nice to hear new music with real musicians, I do a lot of programmed music, but there is something organic about poetry and well tuned musicians. And Si's work is just great, the double bass playing is spot on... it really sounds like the musicians overstood the poetry. Nice one."(Performance Poet Benjamin Zephaniah/The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008)
"Poet laureate in waiting goes all the way to fusion and back - Ra."
"They're a rare breed, great poets crossing over to music, and with only a couple of names springing to mind, Jonathan Morley, an Eric Gregory Award winner who researches T. S. Elliot's stamp over Carribean literature at the University of Warwick, stands closer to Gil Scott-Heron rather than Leonard Cohen. His lines chime with jive, so Morley teams up with guitarist and composer Si Hayden and drummer Ben Haines to deliver them in style. Cue this album, a companion piece to "Backra Man" the book (note the singular as opposed to the plural in the record's title), a jazzy experience which starts creepingly with Hayden's piano rippling over Haines' shadowy cymbals and Morley's gloomy voice reciting strange images.
It resonates on many levels when the "Da Da dada dada" sets alliteration apace in "For Lee Miller", spanky bass brings funk into the "Loki's song" Gothic texture, and baroque country picking paints the "grass glares white" picture of "Spon". The music feels as strange as the poems but one fits the other perfectly. "Backra" means the evil white man, and this fusion of poetry and sparse melodies seems sinister indeed, yet it's not aggressive at all, save for the Rasta talk of "Sistah" that sounds melodius even without ragged accompaniment, whereas the "Duskfall" lace is pure elegance and "Iberian Baroque" gently takes a listener on an Indiana Jone-like adventure to the Indian pyramids. That's where the whiter shade of face re-appears. Haunting!" ****(Dmitry M. Epstein, Let it Rock)
"Backra Man by Morley Hayden Haines has certainly came in from the left-field... no doubt there will be people who appreciate whats going on here..."(Andy Reilly - Is this music)
"..the freshest sound i've heard in years..."(bbc's John Butler)
Poetry by Eric Gregory Award winner Jonathan Morley. All music produced, composed and performed by Si Hayden. All drums by Ben Haines. All poems except * available in the book Backra Man First edition 2008 © Jonathan Morley 2008 All rights reserved ISBN 978-1-906038-33-5 Published in the UK by The Heaventree Press, Koco Building, The Arches, Spon End, Coventry CV1 3JQ: Backra Man, the book: Eric Gregory Award winner Jonathan Morleys poetry startles with its originality and savage satirical voice. Polyphonic in its mingling of registers and with anomnivorous approach to poetrys formal heritage, Backra Man confronts the topics of race, class and history in fresh and unexpected ways. Protean and ebullient, this debut ranges confidently from the delightfully and deliberately graceless to the coolly satisfying, taking in some streetwise dialect along the way (Shearsman magazine). Recorded at IrvCabin, UK. Autumn 2008. Instruments used: (Ben Haines) Sonar acoustic drum kit, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks. (Si Hayden) Zeller upright double bass, Kawai MP5 piano, Aria TA65 semi-fretless/semi-acoustic guitar, Gorden Smith electric guitar, (Jon Morley) AKG mics, Focusrite pre-amps. No 'MIDI' (Multi-Instrument-Digital-Interface) was used in the production of this album. Cover photographs courtesy of the Old Windmill, Medieval Spon Street, Coventry © Paul Blakemore 2008/ Format: Compact Disk, Cat no: SRCD021, Packaging: Jewel Case, Release Date: 08-12-08, Sound Format: Stereo, UPC: 5060051619120 /Length:49:51
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