THE PALPITATIONS: ‘FEED THE POOR, EAT THE RICH’.
Rock band (and Covid19 frontline NHS) The Palpitations release; ‘Feed The Poor, Eat The Rich’ . A pandemic anthemic debut EP and challenge injustice.
TheZineUK have twitter-pestered for more of The Palpitations‘ eloquent articulation, so it’s sweet to tell more with this news.
Photography: Aidan Dale
On the front line of the NHS battle against Covid 19, doctors and rockers, The Palpitations showcase a cohesive story to transplant the listener directly into the hospital corridors, painting emotional vignettes of love and loss – all the while, soundtracked by intense, emotional vocals and layered musical dynamics.
The band feel it’s essential that people know what is really happening at ground through the eyes of doctors – not politicians or their propaganda main stream media. “From our own point of view, we want to raise a message of social justice through our own music.”
The EP stands up to the message.
‘Siren’: is layers of sound building in dark-gazing waves of guitars and vox that ebb back and forth for menacing verses. An 80s Manc alt-punk tinted aura that spills into ‘Lights Out’ which was recorded over a gruelling period of six months at Musicland Studios in 2019, with producer Ian Flynn (who has also worked with more faves from TheZineUK doc including MOSES, Dutch Mustard and Fake Turins).
Death cult chilling, ‘My Carnivore’ is “a vignette of isolation, lust and loss during quarantine. Inspired by horror movies” as gothic guitar and rhythm seesaws of madness reflect our warped new reality.
‘Feed The Poor, Eat The Rich’ was mastered by John Davis (The XX) and pulses ambition. These are finely crafted and executed compositions from a band who play from the heart.
The original release date for the EP was set at the start of the pandemic. The band were genuinely doubtful as to whether they would survive and took out life insurance, because protection for doctors has been so poor.
walk it like they talk it (The Palpitations supporting Weekend Recovery earlier this year)
The Palpitations needed to exist.
They were formed in 2018 by two disillusioned young doctors who bonded over their shared stressfully harrowing experiences working in A&E. They made music as a therapeutic outlet, telling stories about grief and trauma in the hospital.
This debut EP “Feed The Poor, Eat The Rich” is a narrative product of life’s dystopian reality weaved into a backdrop of angular guitar and pulsating basslines.
Influenced by Detroit punk and South Korean horror movies, the eclectic outfit pride themselves on playing gigs in tailored black suits. Like a rock music jigsaw, each song forms an overall chapter of the cohesive bigger picture.
As do their actions.
Having gained local notoriety for sweat-soaked gigs, The Palpitations hit the national press, and an international stage when they protested outside Downing Street in April 2020, and started legal action against the “government” for failing to protect healthcare workers.
With two frontline doctors treating coronavirus patients on a daily basis, and having witnessed the results of systemic inequalities and injustices, The Palpitations are leading lights in the exciting newer wave movement of guerrilla protest through alternative rock music.
Talking of which, can you believe that any artist should have to put up with this shit. In 2020?
Rock music needs to address racism – The Palpitations
Articulate, literally and musically, The Palpitations are the subject of an ongoing documentary. We need to know what happens next:
https:/instagram.com/thepalpitations
https://twitter.com/thepalpitations
https://facebook.com/palpitationsmusic
Words: Caffy St Luce