15th January 2023
Christopher Nosnibor
As Joni Mitchell sang on ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ ‘Don’t it always seem to go / That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?’ This will surely prove to be a true summary of the music press, which has been utterly decimated since the turn of the millennium, and seems to be vanishing at a rate faster than the Amazon in the last few years. Suddenly, there is outcry and all kinds of furore following the announcement that Pitchfork will be absorbed into GQ by magazine monoliths Condé Naste – or Condé Nasty, if you will – as publishing becomes ever more focused on profits and the bottom line. John Doran has today published an essay in The Guardian. It’s good, but it’s perhaps too little, too late. I don’t recall the same level of discontent over the demise of Sounds, or Melody Maker, or NME, but perhaps this is the straw whereby people finally realise that, after decades of slating music critics as pond life and scum for unfavourable reviews and scabbing free CDs and guest list, the music press is actually a vital wing of journalism. The prose may not always be Shakespeare or even Hemingway, but the press exists to raise awareness and engage in dialogue around acts people may not have heard of, or otherwise only encounter via the hype. And the press is also low-cost advertising. It costs a hell of a lot less to bung a CD in the post (if only that was still a regular thing) or grant entry to a live show than the expense of pissing away hods on sponsored links on social media.
Algorithms are no substitute for ears and the critical faculties of a functional brain, and ultimately do nothing but narrow the path of engagement. I know, I know, many people over thirty-five bemoan there having been no decent new music since they were twenty, but that’s simply not true, and what happens when people reach a certain age and disengage from the world. Some simply can’t be saved. But it’s wrong to deprive those who can from the whole world of exciting new music that’s out there, and there is absolutely stellar new stuff emerging every single day.
And because I’m still here, and because this site operates completely independently, on a zero-budget basis, and it’s just something I do by compulsion and on top of the dayjob which pays the bills, I can bring you this belter double A-side release by The Silent Era. ‘Heven/Hell’ is sharp, sassy, a beefy blast of post-punk energy propelled by loping drums and driving guitars and it lands between Evanescence and All About Eve, a collision of goth and melodic metal with blistering results. Is it epic? Yes, yes it is. It’s hard, it’s heavy, but it’s also tuneful.
The same is true of virtual flipside ‘Scorpio’. Recorded live at the BBC, the sound quality is as good as a studio recording, and it captures the band bringing low-slugging riffy weight atop some deft bass fretwork and a powerful vocal delivery.
This is exciting and exhilarating stuff, but you’re unlikely to find coverage of The Silent Era in the page of GQ. And that’s probably for the best, but… they deserve it. But since it won’t happen, you can thank me later.
AA
Aural Aggravation 