Gazelle Twin and NYX are fascinating artists in their own right. Together, they’re like matches and an effigy of Boris Johnson.
Deep England is the flipside of welcoming Britain: the jingoistic, Union Jack waving, bigoted side where otherness isn’t just anathema – it’s enough to get you chased out of town.
A companion piece to Gazelle Twin’s Pastoral, Deep England takes us to a Brexit nightmare, where Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins host a black and white minstrel karaoke, as the entirely white audience feverishly applaud. It’s like an interminable rural horror film playing on a loop, as sacrifices are offered up basted in chip fat and real ale.
Elizabeth Bernholz teaming up with Sian O’ Gorman is a dream collaboration- NYX are a drone choir who add polyphonic menace to Bernholz’ already dark visions. The result is as beautiful as it’s unsettling.
Fire Leap, the children’s chant taken from classic British horror film The Wicker Man, is sung in an eerie round, as asthmatic recorders wheeze in the background.
Deep England itself is pitch shifted into a gutteral roar, and even Jerusalem sounds unholy.
The beats of Pastoral have been replaced with beatings. Better In My Day is a pit bull incantation, perfect for that football hooligan barbecue you’d been planning, when you could toast the pre-woke ‘good old days’.
It’s a warning, a howl of rage and a plea for tolerance as divisions widen and the world becomes engulfed by the flames stoked by fear and ignorance. It’s terrifying, but with a real purpose. Piers Morgan would hate it: I can think of no finer recommendation.
Hit The North 