Jonny Steele – devizine.com

If our ground-breaking heroes of boom bap, the Scribes bring the noise during live performances and bless any venue with crowd-pleasing positive vibes, yet are exceptionally proficient at weaving conscious lyrics when the studio record button is pressed, one third of the trio, Jonny Steele has a solo track out today (Wednesday 8th Nov) called X1 to Netanya, and it’s so topical and poignant you have to hear it to believe it…..

Yeah, so, they’ve sent me a lyric sheet with this press release, which I studied with fascination after the initial listen, breaking down each line in awe; this is a nugget of poetic genius, of the now, and this has guts and consciousness.

Under the stirring laid-back keys, soulful hip-hop backdrop produced by One Soul, X1 to Netanya sees lyricist Jonny Steele embarking on spoken word exercise providing a perspective on the perils of the ongoing crisis in Palestine. A dense piece of wordplay and lyricism that demands repeated listens but is content providing a clear and uncomfortable question of what actions we’re willing to accept from our government as we watch these atrocities from a distance.

The accompanying video showcases an isolated performance that highlights the self awareness of being able to wax poetic from the comforts of his location, armchair-theorising on the actions of governments whilst speaking into the ether. I’ll drop the video link below, which goes live at some point today. If you cannot view it yet, please do check back in, it will be two minutes of your life you’ll be glad you set aside.

Next time we can see The Scribes locally? The Winchester Gate Salisbury on December 16th, and then nothing confirmed until April 27th when they play the Vic, Swindon.