Harnessing slow-burning arrangements into a composition with a glacial kind of power

Taken from Addie’s forthcoming new album, ‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’, it’s a song of a transfixing gravity that will bring to mind the works of Talk Talk or Kate Bush to halt you in your tracks. 

Co-written with Michael Timothy (Massive Attack), it also features expertly metronomic percussion from Jim McDermott (Simple Minds / The Silencers), guitars by Robbie Macinosh (The Pretenders / Paul McCartney), big piano parts and Hammond organs, plus the voices of a thirty-strong children’s choir from The Scottish National Youth Choir. Together, its constituent parts infuse to form something utterly spellbinding.

Touching on tolerance and comeuppance, judgement and karma, Addie explains of the themes at play in “Retromingent”:

“Whatever people do or do not do to you along the way, if you can’t let go of that (a total tsunami of utter sh**e), you’ll never get to where you should be going. So, I have a responsibility to think correctly and hold myself to standards, my future, heaven or hell, depends on it. People do what they do and will get their comeuppance. There’s a natural working order here that fulfils itself.”

Harnessing slow-burning arrangements into a composition with a glacial kind of power, the original edit of “Retromingent” actually nears the seven-minute mark. It forms one of the towering centre-pieces of Addie Brik’s upcoming studio album ‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’ (out 25 November, via Itza Records).

Taking its title from a Southern expression that pithily implies that “the path you’re going down isn’t going to work out”, ‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’ is the Georgia-born, Scottish-based artist’s first release since 2018’s acclaimed ‘I Have A Doctor On Board‘.

‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’ album is an album that documents the decline of Western society and culture. It’s a record that highlights the vilification of truth-sayers and whistleblowers, the corrosion of free thought, and the tide of dissolution our human liberties face in the 21st Century. Speaking about the album, Addie says: 

“I think Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato… the ancient Greeks blazed a very wise trail with the Golden Mean that influenced the best of what the West has achieved. The Golden Mean can right matters, which have gone too much in one direction, like betrayal or corruption; it’s about symmetry as opposed to chaos. The US Constitution, an inspired 4-page document, is still completely revolutionary. It states that man has unalienable rights, these rights are from Divine Authority and not from the State. It was written for ‘The one dissenting voice’. Whether it be society, music, architecture or education, the overarching thought should be: is it true, is it good, is it beautiful?”.

With its initial sessions arranged by Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, the album was recorded between Fernando Vacas’ private studio in Córdoba and her current base in Scotland during the lockdown. Featuring appearances from Scottish talents including Deacon Blue’s Jim Prime (who also happens to be Addie’s neighbour), Alex Rex of Trembling Bells, Robbie MacIntosh (Paul McCartney / The Pretenders), Jim McDermott (Simple Minds / The Silencers) and The Scottish National Youth Choir; it also features contributions from further afield musicians including Glenn Lewis (who added guitars from Melbourne), plus engineering from Bob Coke and bassist Stephen Harrison from Bob’s studio in Paris. Writing retreats on the Isle of Skye with resident artist Doc Livingston (Kings of Kaakon / Uncle Rocket) would also feed into the record’s inherent sense of spaciousness and quiet contemplation.

Produced by Addie Brik, it was mixed jointly by Tufty, Paul Stacey and Pierre Marchand, with additional mixing and Mastering by Mark Beazley (Itza Records).

At just seven tracks long, in some ways ‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’ is an album at odds with the expression that defines its title. Purposeful in the path it chooses to take and powerful in the stand it wishes to make, it’s a record that burns with a luminescent ambition and a calescent political intent that finds an artist at the top of her game.

https://addiebrik.com/