Black Skies by Louise Distras (with Steve Ignorant)

This is a stunning return to recording from Louise Distras. Check out her website below.

This is the introductory text about the single from Louise

"Black Skies" mixes revelry with mindless violence against the backdrop of the new Great Depression. Harking back to centuries-old traditions and rituals of targeted vandalism and arson that want to “turn the world upside down”.

It's about being stuck at home in Yorkshire during lockdown with the apocalyptic notion that small towns like Wakefield are just an end-state for humankind. There's a sense that England in 2022 is at the end of something. The idea of my life-cycle expiring and artistic atrophy, for which the dystopian wastelands of a burning Grenfell tower provided the perfect visual metaphor...

Black Skies celebrates all of life's soul-sucking emptiness, its lawlessness, its traumas, violence and dread, its funny tragedies and all the inertia of hopelessness into an explosive 190 seconds of no-holds-barred extremism and freewheeling experimentalism.

After the introductory poem against a burning black and white backdrop from Steve Ignorant, Louise comes in with a reggae style first section, but still quite heavy and then it runs into some speed metal for what is the instrumental pre-chorus (but there are no words) the main song resumes before the final coda/chorus complete with a screaming chorus that takes us to the end. It is an amazing experience.

This is a welcome return from Louise, the first new music in three years and you can purchase it on all the main platforms but for convenience, you can follow the link below.

If we don't buy music then it will die and the irony here is you can download this for a quid, that what a single cost in 1975, so in reality you should be paying a tenner for a single (though that's probably what a seven inch vinyl copy would set you back).

This is an amazing journey in under four minutes taking you into, a vicious soundscape that takes you through a mincer and makes you come out actually thinking "Where Have I Been and What Have I Learned?" and you have been led there by Louise's voice and song.

This is the purpose of art, to open our minds even if it is not what we agree with. If it has an effect then it has served its purpose and it is time to take on board what you have learned and to progress.

This is an amazing experience as stated below.

Louder Than War declared: “Louise Distras is like that first vicious punch to the nose; you may feel it, it may hurt, it may be aggressive. But it’s the first time you’ve experienced anything like it, and secretly, you rather enjoyed the thrill.”

I have been a fan of her music since I first saw her three years ago and am currently trawling her back catalogue and thoroughly enjoying recapturing the whole mood. I do intend a review of her complete Bandcamp collection including the album "Dreams From The Factory Floor" and the singles "Land of Dope and glory", "Outside of You" and "Aileen". "Street Revolution" is reviewed below but you can visit her Bandcamp page if you can't wait.

If you would like to hear more of Louise's music here is a review of her excellent "Street Revolution" E.P.

And here is my interview with her in which she also videos her answers (that was her idea) an absolutely stunning interview from Louise, and it caused a work colleague to buy a tiny xylophone for meetings. You have to watch it now, don't you?