Wicked
Women, Wicked Men and Wicket Keepers (All The
Mad Men)
Josef Porta
is a genuinely remarkable talent. His drumming is tight, dynamic, propelling
the rumble pop vehicle Blyth Power down a narrow twisting path with
no margin for errors. While his voice is rich with the generous tones
of the West Country and deep with the anger of the aggrieved. And his
lyrics brim over with every sort of fascinating twist, turn, allusion
and sneer.
Blyth Power emerged from the ashes of anarcho punk heroes The Mob. But
Josef's views are different, doused in a potent diesel fuel blend of
libertinism, selective Ludditism and sheer poetry.
Reaching back into the past and mythology for inspiration, he wraps
his vision in a tailor made imagery of trains, cricket and Olde England,
so that, say, the Wat Tyler rebellion becomes a rolling patchwork quilt
of mystery, beauty, bile and injustice.
While the ruling classes wear diamonds, silk and velvet, the poor are
given sacking and nettles, and told it's God's Will! Whose God, asks
Blyth Power. What God? And they turn the whole thing into a modern morality
tale.
An oath of desperation stifles tears of bitter rage. Josef Porta's vision
is five parts Mary Magdelene and six parts Vietnam. His genius is precious,
but his future is unsure. Though 'Wicked Women' is a powerful, heroic
concoction of humour, anger and tragedy, it's an album Blyth Power should
have made a year ago.
Let's hope it's the dawn of a new age.
Roger
Holland
Sounds