Blah Records’ bossman Lee Scott dons God’s boots for a brand new album, ‘Friend, Come to Me and be Saved’. With heavy religious overtones, our swegged-out saviour follows the quality of previous acclaimed albums ‘Nice Swan’, ‘Lou Reed 2000’ and ‘Somewhere Between Here and There’. The project is produced solely by Group BraCil’s Morriarchi, who is coming off the back of two scene-shaping albums with CLBRKS.
‘Friend, Come to Me and be Saved’ has been in the works for five years, with the pair finally putting out the finished product of seemingly endless revisions. It’s the poetry of the northern working-class, balancing imagination with grounded realism. There’s a belief that something greater can be accessed and achieved, but it’s not the heaven of the Bible, no, it might be hidden in the bottom of an ashtray or “Where the cool kids go to die”.
Speaking of which, lead single ‘WTKKG2D’ sees Lee Scott ascend up to Happy Land alongside his fellow Cult of the Damned affiliates Milkavelli and Black Josh. It builds on much of ‘HAPPYPPL’, Lee Scott’s project with Trellion, although the perfusion of happy and sad and heaven and hell are common themes in his work, exemplified by this album’s ‘cross face’ cover art.
Morriarchi cultivates a healthy variety of beats across the LP, all formatted for optimum contemplation and confusion. Plus, Sumgii is credited with laying down live guitar parts, (as seen in the extended solo of ‘Ten x Twelve’), and Jack Chard handles the album’s synths. This isn’t a cut-and-paste UK hip hop project. For example, stand-out track ‘Dirty Diamond’ is a chilling and suspenseful tune that gathers gradually into the wail of a guitar and the blip of a radar, all while Lee Scott’s narrative runs wild.
The Runcorn rapscallion has dropped an album that’s as abstract as it is actual. Lee Scott and Morriarchi’s ‘Friend, Come to Me and be Saved’ is available in two vinyl variations, on cassette, CD and digital. Good God.
