Scream Blue Murmur 'Belfast Sun'
The artists formerly known as the Belfast Poets who kicked down some great poetic collaborations in Melbourne way back when … Scream Blue Murmur are now kicking poetry around inside musical grooves and it’s really cool to hear these artists pushing their form so decisively.
Aisling Doherty, Chelley McLear and Gordon Hewitt have smooth voices and rough stories to tell. ‘Breaking the back of a long winter’ plays like a perfectly formed folk tune, catchy and multi-layered, at the same time inviting you to lie down and listen, and stand up and fight; ‘Cassius Marcellus’ makes me think of something I heard back in the … on the scratchy old … driving somewhere … feeling full.
You can approach this EP from a musical perspective or a poetry perspective and both ways it works – like the best folk. You’ve got to get under the skin of the songs for the important and hefty stories. The songs get under your skin, making it easy. From a difficult and complex political place, poets telling difficult and complex stories in forms they know you want to hear. That’s the tastiest recipe.