Glasgow-based Jackal Trades are back with a new single, produced by Konchis, the lead track on a new album due out in June.
As is the way with Mark McGhee’s dark rap project’s previous releases, it is a scabrous lyrical takedown of current affairs, over a suitably doomy instrumental backdrop.
The words just stream out of him, juxtaposing images of Covid, conflict, class war and surreal observations – this man is on fire! The title may or may not appear to the first year of lockdown, well it probably does… Conspiracy theories, self-isolation, confusing Zoom calls – it is inevitable that there will artistic responses to the Covid crisis but this is one of the most direct and best as yet.
‘March To March’ ends with an acoustic verse which if anything is even more chilling than the rants which proceed it – “We have grown apart”, “dreaming of the old days”…
This is probably best characterised as the ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ of the Covid era.