(((O))) : The God In Hackney – The World In Air Quotes

There was a constant tradition in British rock in its loosest form that would intake almost any other musical shape or form that would at the same time keep the main song/composition structure and melody line that was also called anything from prog to art rock.

It ranges from those ‘old’ artists connected to the Canterbury scene, through Beta Band in the nineties to bands like Black Country, New Road today (missing quite a few of them in-between).

Now you can add to that list The God In Hackney collective, which also takes that road, both old and new with their album The World In Air Quotes. You can dub them collective here, as the core of Andy Cooke, Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe, and Nathaniel Mellors is augmented here by American multi-instrumentalists and composers Eve Essex (Eve Essex & The Fabulous Truth, Das Audit, Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra, Peter Zummo, Liturgy) and Kelly Pratt (Father John Misty, David Byrne/St Vincent, Beirut, and Lonnie Holley among many others).

So what’s on offer here musically? Well, frankly, practically anything and everything, and if you would run the list of what sounds and genres The God In Hackney incorporate here it would probably be longer than a regular album review itself.

This being an amazing feat in itself, the even more amazing thing is that The God In Hackney pulls it all together, escaping all the traps of what Salieri said about Mozart’s music in ‘Amadeus’ –  “too many notes”.

Eclecticism, with all its advantages and no trappings.