Here’s the fourth single taken from ‘Shooting The Messenger’, the seventeen-track debut album from my on-going working relationship with Signia Alpha. This city-themed double A-side is my personal favourite. I hope you like it.
The album’s been gleaning some excellent reviews in the UK music press. The March/April 2020 issue of Louder Than War said that ‘it could be just what the spoken word and jazz fans have been waiting for.’ Two more reviews – in the current issue (72) of Vive Le Rock! and in the March/April 2020 issue of R2 are reproduced below.
The credits for the single are as follows: This City Eats - Nick Toczek on vocals, Matt Webster on drums & keyboards, Stephen Andrews on guitar and Jonny Botterell on bass.
Watching This City At Night - Nick Toczek on vocals, Matt Webster on drums, bass & mandolin: Chris Walsh on flute and Keith Jafrate on saxophone.
Writer and performer, Nick Toczek, has published four dozen books – the most recent being a poetry collection, Voices In My Head (Caboodle Books, March 2020), a book of the best of his popular dragon-themed poems for children and adults, Dragons Are Back!, (Caboodle 2016) and Haters, Baiters and Would-Be Dictators: Anti-Semitism and the UK Far-Right (Routledge 2016). In July 2019, he also released a collection of songs, The Bavariations Album, in collaboration with German musician and songwriter Thies Marsen (‘stunning, innovative album’ – RnR Magazine; ‘passionate vituperations set to music’ – Vive Le Rock!).
Signia Alpha is the musical pseudonym of producer and multi-instrumentalist Matt Webster. There are guest musicians on many of these tracks. These include, on When We Men Talk, jazz saxophonist Keith Jafrate and bassist Mark Cranmer.
Recent singles by Signia Alpha have included the acoustic Anyway (featuring former Slammer vocalist Paul Tunnicliffe), cover versions of The Clash’s The Guns Of Brixton and The Stranglers’ Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, and several experimental instrumental tracks.
No Messages is available on download from the following stores: Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Tik Tok, Google Play/YouTube, Amazon, Pandora, Deezer, Tidal, Napster, iHeartRadio, ClaroMusica, Saayn, Anghami, KKBox, MediaNet and Instagram/Facebook. It can equally be downloaded from the website www.nicktoczek.com.