Richard Dawson & Circle - Henki - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Richard Dawson, the black-humoured bard of Newcastle, returns to his sixth solo album 2020, his first since the critically acclaimed Peasant. 2020 - out on 11th October 2019 - is an utterly contemporary state-of-the-nation study, that uncovers a tumultuous and bleak time. Here is an island country in a state of flux; a society on the edge of mental meltdown.

The title of Richard Dawson's new album End of the Middle is a suitably slippery contradiction, one that invites multiple interpretations Middle-aging? Middle-class? The middle-point of Dawson's career? The centre of a record? Centrism in general? Polarisation? The possibility of having a balanced discussion about anything? Stuck in the middle with you? Middle England? Middling songwriting? End of the Middle is a wonkily beautiful peer into the workings of the family unit, perhaps several generations of the same family InchI wanted this record to be small-scale and very domesticInch, Dawson explains, Inchto be stripped back, stark and naked, and let the lyrics and melodies speak for themselves and for the people in the songsInch. By paring things right back what is revealed is a suite of remarkably poised, oddly elegant, beautiful music.

Henki is the epic joint record from Richard Dawson, the diminutive Geordie troubadour, and Circle, the genre-straddling pioneers of The New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal. Unlike any metal album you have heard before, Henki's seven tracks deal with special plants throughout history, making it the greatest flora-themed hypno-folk-metal record you'll hear this year.