James Brute

The intoxicating mix of acid blues, doom-wop and rock n’roll which infuses James Brute’s music may have its roots in that of his former band The Brute Chorus, but it belies a deeper, more reflective tone from this mature and confident songwriter. These are songs which take their time to settle into brooding soundscapes and wrap themselves around his trademark magpie lyrics.

The first single from a post-Chorus James Brute was 2014’s Bury Yourself – a high-energy a cappella stamp-and-clap affair which was picked up by John Kennedy at Radio X and described by the NME as sounding “like Tom Waits trapped in a sex dungeon”. The song garnered plays on X and 6 Music, and quickly became a favourite at the growing band’s live shows. Seen out in support of artists like Nadine Shah, Kingsley Chapman and the Murder, John J Presley and Furs, the band also headlined their own wild shows including some legendary basement parties under Hackney’s now defunct Railroad Café.

2014’s Lost Soul Music was Brute’s first release since 2014, and came with a growth in personnel to match the expansion in sound. Now a five-piece, James Brute is accompanied by Mat Martin (guitar, vocals & percussion), Dave Ferrett (bass, vocals & percussion), Johnny Manning (keyboards and percussion) and Findlay William Brown (drums). Brute’s lyrical agility, which pulls in equal parts from ancient history, mythology and pop culture, is ably supported by sonics ranging from simple gritty rock n’ roll to psych-tinged, swirling masses of sound, weaving the perennial Brute themes of love, loss and lust into bedtime tales of wolves and white whales.

As the band drag us through the songs backwards, James Brute’s voice and writing remain constant, as Virgil guiding us through a circling landscape of images both grotesque and beautiful.