{"product_id":"mick-harris-martyn-bates-murder-ballads-drift","title":"Mick Harris \/ Martyn Bates - Murder Ballads [Drift]","description":"\u003cp\u003eFormat: 2LP Marbled Vinyl\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCatalogue No.: SRV506\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBarcode: 5411867335061\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRelease Date: 23rd July 2021\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eGenre: Ambient\/Drone\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePost-Isolationist - Deep Ambiance \u0026amp; Folksong re-emerge in this first vinyl outing of the classic 'Murder Ballads' (Drift) by M.J. Harris \/ Martyn Bates \"Leaving nothing behind but the wild birds to moan\" Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten\u003cbr\u003eto cancel each other out - let alone create something even more meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within\u003cbr\u003ethe seminal Murder Ballads (Drift) by Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza, \u0026amp; parallel solo career) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Lull, Painkiller, Scorn) creates just such a world. Murder Ballads (Drift) evolves Martyn Bates vocalisations \/ storytelling song-voices, by turns expressed as labyrinthine layers, calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resulting in a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. Murder Ballads (Drift) created the post-isolationist frame of reference, innovating and extemporising into a truly original dazzlingly unique form. Mick Harris traffics in the isolationist ambience of Lull, while Martyn Bates is the emotive voice of literate cult-pop duo Eyeless in Gaza.The unlikely pair - one given to terminally frigid drone, the other to impassioned, bittersweet voicings - finds common ground in folk music's most macabre tradition, the murder ballad. These ghoulish parables are awash in blood and tears, the strands of love, hate, birth, death, sin, and salvation entwined within like the roots of an ancient tree. Mothers callously kill their children; suitors slay their maidens without remorse; and fate exacts its cruel price from all. The archaic murder ballads that leak from Bates' vocal cords are intensely sad and carnal. They tend to leap off cliffs of hollow effects or drone darkly, offering neither a robust delivery nor an element of irony to take the edge off. The archetypal characters that live and die in them give life's full tragedy back to Harris' electronically numbed \"post-isolationist\" dreaming.\u003cbr\u003eDrift (originally released in 1994) plays out an unbreakable and timeless cycle of bloody folklore (people) and hypnotic soundscapes\u003cbr\u003e(the god who watches). The effect is chilling yet engrossing. Where most ambient music has barely enough courage to ring the doorbell\u003cbr\u003eand run, Murder Ballads slips through the cracks of the unconscious and does its work with remarkable ease.All the more reason to listen thoughtfully.In 2021 - re-emerging nearly twenty years after its initial inception - somewhat surprisingly, Murder Ballads (Drift)\u003cbr\u003estill remains\/exists in an area overlooked by other artists, an area that truly still remains the sole province of M.J. Harris \/ Martyn Bates.\u003cbr\u003eTracklisting Side 1 01. The Death Of Polly \/ 14'06 Side 2 01. The Fowler \/ 18'28 Side 3 01. Lucy Wan \/ 14'38 Side 4 Long Lankin \/ 16'02\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sub Rosa","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40174039597212,"sku":"SRV506","price":25.18,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0130\/8714\/6043\/products\/mickharrismartynbatesSRV506.jpg?v=1623746112","url":"https:\/\/www.horizonsmusic.co.uk\/products\/mick-harris-martyn-bates-murder-ballads-drift","provider":"Horizons Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}