I wrote in December, 2023 of the lead-off single: choppy organ chords, soaring flights of guitar, strident drums and percussion in a funky smorgasbord of sound and protest. “I am not a machine, I’m a human being, I will fight for my rights” exclaim Tim Jones and the C of H choir as they sing of media propaganda worming its way into our subconscious. The line-up is Martin Holder & John Simms: guitars (Martin is playing the rhythm guitar and solo at the end. John is playing the other lead parts and the power chords in the choruses), Yasuko Fukuoka: keyboards, Maxine Marten: backing Vocals, Tim Jones: lead & backing Vocals and Mark Dunn: everything else. James Jones created the wonderful cover image. It’s the second track on this, a new album that starts with ‘It’s All Leading Up to Something’, its synth/ guitar/ voice and vocal structures all familiar components of C 0f H music, with reverberating guitars and a chant-like ending.
At times there are detours into what can seem like a fairy tale world, but is in fact what is called a ‘microcosm’ as elucidated in ‘The Bad Guys’, a funky backdrop where the beauty of our immediate world (the trees, bees and butterflies) is emasculated by money and greed and the virtual world. ‘Simple Pleasures’ is a catchy ditty about what life could, and show be like, an idyllic tale delivered with surrealistic images of dreaming through clouds on a boat, and of mermaids: it might have been seen as a bit of quirky psychedelia back in the day! That is the thing about C of H music: despite everything, there is still a good to be alive feeling about it, and plenty of humour, sardonic or otherwise. ‘Love Song’ provides some touching pastoral relief, as we remind ourselves of the important things in life.
Of course, disillusionment with our rulers and politicians is never far away from the narrative and a cover of Whitfield/ Strong’s ‘War’ seems an inevitable choice for the mid-point of the album, concluding with a desperate request for truth over propaganda. The protest doesn’t get much angrier than on the wah-wah inflected funkadelic ‘Killing Time’.
And there we have it: who would have thought that all these years on we could still suffer so from misrule and C of H would still be singing about it? Still, as expressed in ‘Killing Time’ we must fight back against injustice and inequality and hope that the future holds the promise of better things. Perhaps next time there will be more songs about the natural world and more flights of imagination and boats on shallow seas! We can only hope.
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