Calming River - Macdui (Self Release)
- The Slow Music Movement
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Calming River is another shadowy artist who prefers to let his music do the talking. Known to his parents as Joshua Malcolm he's based in Brighton, and despite his experimental fusion of fingerstyle guitar, tale telling and ambient textures, he's been well received by radio and open minded concert bookers the world over.
On Macdui, his new album, Malcolm has decided that noise speakers louder than words and he's decided to rest his vocal chords on this series of recordings made between 2023 & 2024, although the words of Michael McCarthy's novel, Fergus The Silent apparently played a huge part in shaping the tone of the album. I'm not aware of the tome, but apparently its themes are environmental collapse, greed and populism, which in this age of Anthropocene acceleration, rise of the broligarchs and emotion fingering alt-right movements sounds like essential reading.
As you'd expect the weight of the world weighs heavily on the recordings, mainly via the somewhat gloomy and occasionally doomy ambient shadows that wrap themselves around Malcolms accomplished guitar work. Fortunately his intricate guitar work often acts as a ray of sunshine peeking between the neoliberal clouds - loving and optimistic. At other times it's introspective, rightly concerned and somewhat forlorn in the face of the seemingly overwhelming odds, CCTV networks and increasing criminalisation of protest. At other times minimal guitar picking or isolated motifs are barely audible above the gusting electronic winds of change that are rapidly ushering in a post-truth dystopia that no one voted for.
All is not lost but time is fast running out. The revolution will not be televised but there is strength in numbers and the music is better in the resistance. Get involved.
Playlist Companion
Find Calming River adding some brutal realism to the Slow Folk Playlist.