Shooting The Messenger
TITLE: Shooting The Messenger
FORMAT: CD and download album
ARTISTS: Nick Toczek & Signia Alpha
LABEL: Mutiny 2000 Records
DOWNLOAD RELEASE DATE: 1 Jan 2020
CD RELEASE DATE: 14 Jan 2020
Shooting The Messenger is the first album of the new decade. It sees writer and spoken-word artist Nick Toczek joining forces with Signia Alpha, a musical project led by multi-instrumentalist and producer Matt Webster and featuring a host of first-rate guest musicians. The seventeen-track result is unique mixture of Nick’s poetry, lyrics and avant garde stories all set to jazz-tinged funk rhythms, post-Beat beats and atmospheric grooves. Tight and syncopated guitar, bass and drums are mixed with floating saxophone, melodic flute and splashes of mandolin.
From Bob Dylan to Ian Dury, Woody Guthrie to Patti Smith, Jack Kerouac to Linton Kwesi Johnston, Lou Reed to John Cooper Clarke, and David Bowie to Eminem and other rappers, setting spoken word to music has an honoured past. The current revival is exemplified by the most recent work of Nick Cave, Kate Tempest and countless Grime artists.
Shooting The Messenger is available in CD format via Nick’s website (www.nicktoczek.com) and 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.
In November 2019, The Voices In His Head, was the download debut single with Signia Alpha. which received significant radio plays, and continues to do so. The second single from the album is a re-mix of When We Men Talk (featuring rapper Dee Bo General), released in March 2020, and the third single, No Messages, is due for release in April 2020.
A second album with Signia Alpha is currently being recorded with a third to follow a year or so later.
Check out and enjoy Shooting The Messenger… replete with stunning artwork by the legendary early 20th Century cubist artist Gianfranco Carlotto.
Album review in R'n'R Magazine Vol.2, 80 (Mar-April 2020)
Album review in Vive le Rock! 72 (May 2020)
Link to album review, International Times, Don't Shoot This Messenger
