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We seem to talk about artists being game changers as if to imply that everyone is playing the same game, as if everyone is following the same rules, and even to suggest that there were any rules to begin with. When an artist known for more compromising and conformist sounds suddenly breaks out of the box, they are carried around on the metaphorical shoulders of the music press and the movers and shakers. However, some artists push the boundaries whenever they put pen to paper, hand to instrument, or song to tape. John Beckmann is such an artist; Mortal Prophets is his exotic musical vehicle.
ICNCLST/ is what you get when you use electronica to tear a hole in a rock and roll landscape, when digital deftness is allowed to dance with analogue traditions, or when the echoes and ethos of pre-war bluesmen are translated into more modern expression via the sound of krautrock and chamber-pop, Bowie-esque designs, Scott Walker’s rich delicacies and social observation intent on shining a light on the dark shadows gathered in the corners of American society.
“Flowers For You” is a snarling, gnarly opener that blends arabesque guitar lines with dark, clinical sonics, a squalling sound, and a maelstrom of music that sets the listener up for the following mercurial creations. But not everything is as sonically wailing and gnashing of teeth as that. “Bang Bang” is a song full of Doors and, to a lesser extent, Nancy Sinatra references, and via the echo of Kurt Weill’s “Alabama Song”, harks back to theatre styles from a century ago.
And then there are songs such as “So Real,” which are simultaneously gothic and soulful, groove-driven and slightly menacing, searing and somehow serene. Such are the strange blends of sounds and styles being woven together here.
As Mortal Prophets, John Beckmann makes some of the most exciting and exploratory music of the moment. Not only does he gather all manner of sonic threads together – from pop to psychedelic, electronica to blues, roots to rock and everything in between – but he paints such wonderful vignettes, scenes and scenarios from the ordinary and everyday, just small snapshots of the millions of moments that make up American life.
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