7
Smote occupy a territory that fits comfortably alongside the darker reaches of Lankum, ØXN and Rún, a marker that is lent more weight by the guest appearance of Ian Lynch of Lankum on Uillean pipes on their latest album Songs From The Free House, described as their deepest and most fully-realised album to date.
Their latest single, Snodgerss, is aptly described as a flute-led jig-turned-pitch-dark-ritual. On the track, Smote’s primary creator Daniel Foggin, who played and sang almost everything on this record (alongside guest appearances from Sally Mason of the Smote live band on vocals and the above mentioned Ian Lynch), says,“Snodgerss roughly translates to ‘smooth grass’ or ‘long grass’. Waves and layers dance around each other and modulate against the wind, each blade moving individually but still in harmony with the rest. Such is the nature of the 3rd track on the album, blown out percussion dances around flute melodies and explosive guitars alike, each playing its own part in the movement.”
This wouldn’t have been out of place at this year’s Supersonic Festival.
Daniel Foggin has spent the majority of his adult life working as a landscape gardener, frequently pursuing his trade in conditions of either baking heat or freezing cold and, as he puts it “more often covered in mud than not”. Yet the primal, meditative aspects of this work, the act of communing with nature, its histories and its depths have fuelled his art on a profound level. As Daniel himself relates; “I think the music is a direct reflection of this feeling that I haven’t quite managed to define yet, it is dirty and hard but there is an overwhelming comfort to it.”
Harnessing the elemental force of the earth, Smote’s Songs from the Free House is a deeply rooted journey into sound. The album marries drone-based heaviness, reminiscent of Earth and Om, with the melodic structures of folk and the crumbling force of electronic music. Recorded with Sam Grant (Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs), the album’s sound is more expansive than previous releases, without losing its primal core. Songs from the Free House is a powerful testament to the beauty found where the physical and the metaphysical, the ancient and the modern, collide.
Upcoming Smote live dates:
17 Oct / Falmouth / KCM Church
18 Oct / Bristol / Down Stokes Festival
19 Oct / Preston / The Ferret
20 Oct / Glasgow / Hug and Pint
23 Oct / London / The Lexington *sold out*
24 Oct / Derby / Dubrek Studios
26 Oct / Newcastle / The Lubber Fiend
13 Dec / Todmorden / The Golden Lion
13 May / London / The 100 Club
Songs from the Free House is released on October 17th via Rocket Recordings
Pre-Order (Vinyl/Digital): https://rocketrecordings.com/products/songs-from-the-free-house
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source klofmag.com ’
