The sorcerer King Krule and his antidote to catchphrases

Four songs, for a total of eleven minutes of ghostly vocalizations, distorted guitars, sax solos that emerge from the mists of ghosts. The sorcerer King Krule is back to offer us his antidote to catchphrases. The P “Shhhhhhh!”, just published, is a breath of fresh air arriving in the middle of the anticyclone No, not the one that is setting Italy on fire these days, but that of the summer hits that have already monopolized the charts.

Archy Ivan Marshall, this is the real name of the 29-year-old singer-songwriter from Southwark, arrives to sweep him away: you just need to be willing to immerse yourself in listening to the four tracks published on the platforms, already contained in the flexi-discs that the artist had sold during the concerts of last year’s tour (those who had purchased it are now reselling it on Discogs, a site for vinyl enthusiasts and collectors, .at the modest – so to speak – sum of 1000 pounds).

We start with the industrial of “Achtung!”, a not exactly reassuring title, then we continue with the punk rock of “Time for slurp”, with the ghostly lo-fi bossa nova of “Whaleshark” and we arrive at the psychedelic jazz of “It’s all soup now”. The EP arrives a year after the musician’s last album, “Space heavy”, which established King Krule as one of the most original and interesting singer-songwriters of his generation. It represents a sort of anticipation of what the artist’s next work could be: the boat in which in the video clip for “Time for slurp” – shot in black and white and directed by Josh Renaut – Marshall and his bandmates, the saxophonist Ignacio Salvadores and drummer George Bass, delve into a swamp appears to be a metaphor. A invitation to a journey to be discovered, beyond the Pillars of Hercules of pop, towards who knows what shores, what dimensions.

It might take a while, to listen after the EP “Shhhhhhh!” new music from King Krule. After all, the musician – who with that unique and imperfect sound, mirror of the boredom and malaise of British youthhas always positioned himself as an antithesis of the pop stars of his generation and for this he has been praised by critics, carving out a large niche following: on Reddit the one dedicated to him is one of the largest communities on the platform – he has always taken the its spaces and its times, between one album and another.

Between “The OOZ” of 2017 and the subsequent “Man alive!” of 2020 three years passed and thirty-six months also passed between the release of the same “Man alive!” and the subsequent “Space heavy”.

In an interview with The Creative Independent he said, cryptic and enigmatic as he is: “I want to have fewer notes and more spaces. Spaces, not silence. Space is resonant. I want to enjoy that resonance, feel it grow, then the next sound can come”. And he reiterated to Clash: “I cannot compromise my art for capital. I feel like there’s a line I don’t want to cross and won’t cross. I think it’s quite important not to become something grotesque to people who respect you”. More King Krule for everyone, thanks.