Richard Dawson “gets medieval” (sans the pliers and blowtorch) on new album Peasant, shares video for “Ogre”

Richard Dawson "gets medieval" (sans the pliers and blowtorch) on new album Peasant, shares video for "Ogre"
(Nope; no pliers or blowtorches in the deluxe edition, either, unfortunately.)

It might not have occurred to you listening to either The Magic Bridge or the more recent Nothing Important, but there’s definitely a medieval quality to the Newcastle, UK-based Richard Dawson’s music — despite the seemingly-modern personal tales that progress on tracks like “The Vile Stuff.” Lyrically, that particular song was conjured out of a childhood trip that involved a shared alcoholic concoction; but musically, it was one recorder part shy of conjuring images of Dawson and co. dancing around a fire in shoddy, 11th century linens. (The fact that Dawson is English doesn’t hurt the whole “Middle Ages” mystique either — if he was born in the United States, we’d probably be happy to lump him in with the same sort of “freak-folk” movement inhabited by the likes of Akron/Family…not that they wouldn’t appreciate the company.)

Instead, let the gulf get wider; Dawson’s newest album Peasant, out June 2 on Weird World/Domino, explicitly contains narratives that center around Bernicia (or Bryneich), a Roman-removed Anglo-Saxon kingdom from the early medieval period of roughly 420 - 780 A.D. (I confirmed some of this on Wikipedia, I swear).

The video for album track “Ogre” is our first taste of what this far off land looks and sounds like, and, as alluded to before, it seems like a natural evolution. It’s worth pointing out that Dawson professes a metal influence on Peasant as well: “I was thinking about heavy metal a lot when I was making this record - there’s a lot of Iron Maiden in here.” But regardless of your preferred textile, you can pre-order the album now on your preferred 21st century format of CD or (limited edition) vinyl and view the clip and complete tracklisting below.

Peasant tracklisting:

01. Herald
02. Ogre
03. Soldier
04. Weaver
05. Prostitute
06. Shapeshifter
07. Scientist
08. Hob
09. Beggar
10. No-one
11. Masseuse

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