Orange Vinyl
In the world of Smote, going further out means going inward. Less a metaphysical journey into inner space, more a physical journey into the ground itself, converging with its roots and vibrations. What’s more, a journey right to the heart of its principal architect’s daily experience.
Daniel Foggin has spent the majority of his adult life working as a landscape gardener, frequently pursuing his trade in conditions of either baking heat or freezing cold and, as he puts it “more often covered in mud than not”. Yet the primal, meditative aspects of this work, the act of communing with nature, its histories and its depths have fuelled his art on a profound level. As Daniel himself relates; "I think the music is a direct reflection of this feeling that I haven't quite managed to define yet, it is dirty and hard but there is an overwhelming comfort to it."
Smote’s fifth release for Rocket Recordings, and their deepest, most fully realised to date, Songs From The Free House is testimony to this. Forged from repetition and mantric intensity and possessed of formidable psychic fortitude, this album prove that the only retro-chic Smote indulge in is liable to go back several centuries. The megalithic monomania of last year's A Grand Stream set a formidable precedent, and Smote's live shows in its wake have gradually built a reputation as visionary seers building audial monuments by cranked amplification and atmospheric intensity alike. Yet these five gnostic serenades offer portals and paradigms anew.
Continuing Smote's exploratory mission into heaviness in all its forms. Songs From The Free House sees Foggin exploring a variety of new avenues. Therefore, whilst listeners might align the pantheistic forays into drone-based abandon with previous travellers like Earth and Om, the influence of folk songs and legends, as well as electronic music make their presence felt. "I've been listening to heavy electronic stuff like Puce Mary and The Body" adds Daniel, "Stereotypically guitars are often seen as the instrument for "heavy" music, but the sheer force that's available from electronics is something that will crumble most guitar centred music." Elsewhere a more melodic vocal based structure is writ large amidst these rites and revelations, particularly on The Linton Wyrm, which proceeds from devotional chant to a potent conclusion, also inspired by Foggin's everyday surroundings.
"The Lynton Wyrm is a story from the borders!" notes Daniel. "There was a roofer working on the farm where I worked and he told us the story. Allegedly a knight called John De Sommerville turned up and shoved a spear with burning peat on the tip down the wyrms mouth, it then retreated back to its lair and thrashed around so much that the hillside collapsed, which is an explanation for the abnormal geography in the area. There's a church that we could see from the farm, above the door of the church there is a stone tribute to Sommerville. It's a special area for me so I find that's where my mind goes when I'm making this music."
In terms of locating this album in place, this new foray also differs from Smote's past work in terms of its recording - although once again Daniel played and sang almost everything on this record (bar guest appearances from Sally Mason of the Smote live band on vocals and Ian Lynch from Lankum on Uillean pipes) his recording Songs From The Free House in Blank Studios with Sam Grant (Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs) marked a journey from the DIY minimal approach of yore into more widescreen visions without compromising the singular intent within. "It was a pretty significant transition going into Blank and having Sam at the controls", reflects Daniel, "It takes a lot of fatigue out of the process when someone else takes the reins. I think the album reflects the process; the songs are less free but also less exhausting. The satisfaction is there in bucket loads, but you don't have to work as hard as a listener to get there."
Wrought from the earth, transposed to the ether, and now shared with the world at large, this album marks a transcendental journey where Smote render ancient and modern indivisible. Just as traditional music is passed down through generations, Songs from the Free House is where the primal collides with the eternal.
