It’s an intriguing proposition when you see the names of some of your fave acts listed as references in an artist promo and it gets even better when the author turns out to be correct in their assessment of the group’s connection to these said artists, musically-speaking of course. On the bill today is music for lovers of such legends as Ian Dury, U.N.K.L.E., Ian Brown and Talking Heads. How could we also not mention UK trip-hop pioneers Sneaker Pimps, for whom the principal author of the music featured here today is also the writer. We are talking about Ian Pickering, who also writes songs for Vancouver-based Front Line Assembly.
Now based in France, his duo The Noise Who Runs is gearing up to release the ‘Preteretrospective’ album on April 21, whetting our appetite with the final single from this record ‘2poor2die’, addressing the growing inequality in society and the struggle of the unheard / unseen decent people without voices and increasingly without hope. The record’s spiritual centrepiece, ‘2poor2die’ is, at once, a celebration of ordinary bravery in the face of the daily grind of routine and a condemnation of the eternal ideology that sees working people as cannon fodder, only to be told “Shut up and get on with it, nothing’s gonna change”. Call it a tribute to the folks who are barely considered worth considering.
Certainly, ‘2poor2die’ pulls no punches. Here loud, noisy guitars and pounding drums and bass are set against a deceptively simple lyric, almost nursery rhyme-like in its repeated refrain:
Rip it up, strip it down, over again
Pack it up, wrap it up, over again
Sick it up, spit it up, over again
Rip it up, tear it up, start it again
This follows two remarkable singles from the album – the anthemic lead track‘Beautiful Perhaps’ and‘Takes a Long Cold Look and Then The Kitchen Sink’ – the impossible, illegitimate child of solo album-era Syd Barrett and immediately post-Talking Heads David Byrne.
Ian Pickering (co-author of such Sneaker Pimps hits as ‘Spin Spin Sugar’, ‘6 Underground’ and ‘Tesko Suicide’) wrote this material simultaneously to material for the latest Sneaker Pimps album. Formed four years ago upon relocating from Hartlepool, England to Lille, France, The Noise Who Runs is now a duo with Brazilian-French guitarist Felipe Goes.
“Around three minutes into the video, we use a quote from Richard II, King of England, following the Peasants’ Revolt around 1381, and it’s not difficult to understand how clearly that remains the prevailing view of the establishment when it comes to the people and any hope that fairness is gonna somehow trickle down to us all here at the bottom. And it’s a terrifying quote really. And that’s why we have The Noise Who Runs, to challenge all that,” says Ian Pickering.
“You wretches detestable on land and sea: you who seek equality with lords are unworthy to live. Give this message to your colleagues: rustics you were, and rustics you are still; you will remain in bondage, not as before, but incomparably harsher. For as long as we live we will strive to suppress you, and your misery will be an example in the eyes of posterity.”
A literal translation of ‘O bruit qui cour’, a French phrase meaning ‘gossip’, The Noise Who Runs was also the name of Pickering’s favourite restaurant, where the ideas for this project fell into place.
The Noise Who Runs’ is rooted in the shared principles and approach to making music of punk/new wave and early hip-hop – both the mentality and the message. This brand of indie-electronic rock is heavily shaped by the 1970’s experimental electronic scene in Sheffield, the 1990’s guitar-house mix of the Manchester scene, Primal Scream’s guitar-electronic sound after 1997’s ‘Vanishing Point’, and 2000’s XTRMNTR.
‘2poor2die’ is out now via Bandcamp, where ‘Preteretrospective’ can already be ordered. As of April 21, the full album will be available across digital music platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music.
ALBUM CREDITS
Written by Ian Pickering
Produced by The Noise Who Runs
Recorded, engineered and produced by Claudio Spural (Mauco Records)
Additional production, mixing and mastering by Colin Cameron at The Cell Studios
Felipe Goes – electric guitars and keyboards
Ian Pickering – vocals, electric guitar and keyboards
Artist photos by Théo Valenduc
Other images created by Ian Pickering with additional photography and video clips courtesy of Dreamstime
Fascination, fun and fab sonics via The Noise Who Runs
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