The whole paradoxical tangle of guilt and innocence is summed up in four familiar words – a single, weighted question at the heart of a riff-fuelled, two minute blast of vitriol.
For this year’s Record Store Day, Matt Johnson has released his first new material for 15 years – a one-sided 7″ single called We Can’t Stop What’s Coming. In fact, as he reveals in the new documentary The Inertia Variations – a film essay that uses Johnson’s experience to investigate the notion of creative stagnation resulting from anxiety – it’s the first time he’s written a song or even sung one in a very, very long time.
Often credited as one of the godfathers of rap music, Gil Scott-Heron didn’t set out to be a singer-songwriter. He started his career as a youngster writing poetry but a cult legend was born when jazz producer Bob Thiele – recognising the raw charisma of Scott-Heron’s vocal delivery – set Scott-Heron’s poetry to music for the first time. These early recordings included The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, a scything indictment of white America’s blind ignorance of racial issues.