Manchester goth rock legend Harry Stafford (Inca Babies) and punk vet Marco Butcher (The Jam Messengers, Chicken Snake) have joined forces, and announce the release of their blistering new track, Termite City, off their upcoming 12-track album, Bone Architecture.
“Termite City is a celebration of the dirty city that always keeps standing no matter what people throw at it,” says Stafford. “Bombs, Riots, Scottish Football fans, Demolition, bad planning. People love this city and will do everything to protect it and despite their cynicism, they just can’t help themselves but be proud. Show a little love. A city is a termite tower with thousands of people all working to make their way in it. This termite Tower is Manchester; termites even build cathedral mounds.”
Stafford’s solo output moved from punk to a more bluesy element in recent years, which led to this collaboration with Butcher’s sonic backdrop. Originally from Sao Paulo, Marco Butcher now lives in Winston Salem, North Carolina, professing the American underground of blues, jazz, rockabilly, and screaming punk blues.
Despite the distance between them, Stafford and Butcher are musical kindred spirits. Their collaboration organically sprouted during lockdown. Kevin Davy, a trumpeter in London, added jazz tones into the mix, resulting in a No-Wave flavoured bonanza harkening back to the likes of James Chance and the Contortions.
“Jazz supremo Kevin Davy plays trumpet on this track and it is one of his finest pieces of work ever, and one of the best collaborations I have had the fortune to put on my record. The cat can blow,” says Stafford.
“There’s something about collaborating that is pure magic to me, cause you’re not sharing ideas at the same time and you’re in the moment. There’s something about the not knowing what the other will bring . . the surprise factor. The fact that music is very elastic and not always the way ya listen to it in your mind but something else, something cooler, greater,” says Marco Butcher.
The DIY video for the song features Stafford riding through England’s northern capital, rife with fisheye views from a termite’s viewpoint.
Bone Architecture is raw and unforgiving forage into urban punk blues, blooming with fuzzed-up jazz and garage trash rock. The LP includes reworked older material, brand-new compositions and even a dirty blues version of the Pink Floyd classic Arnold Layne. Not long ago, the duo released the single There’s Someone Tryin’ To Get In.
Termite City is available everywhere online. The Bone Architecture LP will be released on September 3 via Black Lagoon Records, both digitally and on CD, now available for pre-order.
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*Photo by Allie Jade Butcher and Harry Stafford.
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