It's quite unusual for me nowadays to become genuinely excited upon first hearing a young British musician or band. Mostly, the new stuff I hear that really excites me comes from somewhere else. But it's good to hear that something fresh from the place I call home can still do it for me. Like this for example.
I first heard Billy Nomates last night, by chance on BBC evening radio. The track played, Hippy Elite, leapt out at me as a slightly new take on familiar themes, so I hunted down the eponymous debut album, just out, by the same artist and it had a similar, thrilling effect on me.
Billy Nomates is a young musician from Southern England, called Tor Maries . She's releasing this album on Jeff Barrow's (Portishead) label Invada Records. Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods guests on the record and has been voluble in his support for what's she's doing. So has Jon Robb, Punk stalwartand man behind the Louder Than War phenomenon. Marc Riley, BBC DJ, is also a fan.
So Billy Nomates has excellent credentials and testimonials. But what does the record sound like? It sounds like Punk. It sounds like Pop. It sounds terrific. It's stripped down to the bare bones. It itemises the minimum wage, down at heel humdrum, dead end job existence of British 'have not' life, which has always been here and if anything only seems to be getting worse. But it does so in a way that's sparky, energetic and pure fresh air, in a moment that needs it.
Bobby Nomates has eleven tracks, and only one of them goes much beyond the three minute mark. Bobby / Tor is pushed straight to the front right from the off. She can drawl, she can sing, she can do hobo street poetry, she writes and writhes and rants about the here and now and is clearly angry, but knows enough to channel her energy into something that's entertaining and fun first and foremost.
Being of a certain age myself, she reminds me of early Patti Smith, particularly Piss Factory one of Patti's finest and definitive statements. The picture on the album cover is perfect. Pure '77 cool. Shades, bowl of chips, coffee, definitive, miserable English seaside caff. A realisation of what actually makes these isles great. Not the given narrative.
There are other connections to be made. The Sleaford Mods ones makes sense. There's quite a lot of this kind of stuff around at the minute. Fed up, but up for a fight. Engaged.
So much going on here. No particularly seems like a manifesto. In interview Maries has said that she really started getting somewhere once she started saying No. Always a good idea when it comes to producing art that goes against the tide, an attitude which generally produces much of the best, proper art and always has. Probably always will.
Billy Nomates is currently biding her time, her career on hold as so many lives are right now what with Covid-19, she's moved back in with her Dad on the Isle of Wight and is doing her best to spread the word about the album via Zoom chats and the like.
Needs must. Anyhow the record is here and I love it! I'll be her mate if she needs one. I imagine I won't be the only one.
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