Album Review:  Billy Nomates – No (Invada)

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A fresh and feisty young artist, Billy Nomates steps up to the world with a debut album of Stand-Up Rap Beat Poetry. This is the sound of the suburbs, streets and supermarkets.

Tor Maries grew up in Leicester, and presently revolves between Bournemouth and Bristol. Watching the Sleaford Mods gave her the inspiration and impetus to move towards her own take on Pop and Street Rap, British style.

Is Billy No Wave? Arising in New York City in the late Seventies, reacting against Punk which itself was reacting against the constipation building up in Rock music. Avant-garde, atonal, simple drone rhythms and more diverse elements threaded in. Funk, Jazz and Mutant Disco. It was an anti-movement Movement. Flashed briefly and then became incorporated in the artistic explosion throughout the Eighties.

Well, let’s see. Modern Hart starts with a simple bass punk riff, overlaid by a soothing droning synthesizer. Spoken word with melodic chorus.  A young and slightly pissed-off Laurie Anderson.

Hippy Elite is cynical and abrasive rapping Beat Poetry. Walking down the street and I want to save the whales too/ But it’s a fucking Wednesday afternoon/ So a canvas bag and a smile is the best I’ve got for you/ If I can only quit my job/ I’ll join the hippy elite.

Back in my day I had nothing/ We lived in Happy Misery. Simple bass guitar again, minimalist like the Young Marble Giants of yesteryear. When the bass and synthesiser combine, the sound echoes the smooth English Funk of Heaven-17, rather than the harsher Public Image Limited. More Dance than Pogo.

Supermarket Sweep is observational humour, angry and hilarious. The story of sad Barry, a bed-sit dwelling social pariah going nowhere. Clean-up in aisle seven/ Barry spilled his guts out again/ He’s all over the cereal/ And people are starting to complain. Jason Williamson of the Mods makes a cameo appearance and fooking tells us how all the supermarket Barry’s feel. Maybe the monotony is here to stay/ In every dead-end job/ In every town.

FNP is forgotten normal people. Simple rhythms again. Melodic singing on the chorus echoing Laurie Anderson. Life is too expensive/ If I can’t own nothing/ Nothing can own me/ All I see is forgotten normal people. This is effective socio-political commentary without being polemical. The acute observation of the everyday life and you can listen to these songs whilst reading Dostoyevsky’s Notes from The Underground.

Mudslinger bounces along on an infectious groove. Billy’s voice has some electronic treatment and there is a chorus. She has a fine natural voice. The music again is simple rhythm riffs with keyboard drones and textures of the Martin Rev type, without the sinister dissonance.

Fat White Man lays down a loose and slack-stringed Funk bass rhythm. The atmosphere is ominous and sinister. The Natural Born Killers movie is unwinding in her head. Fat white man/ With a fat white car/ And a fat white wallet. No subtlety here.

Wild Arena is stripped right back with a Mama heartbeat rhythm box and Billy gets a chance to show off a versatile singing voice. As she does on Escape Artist as well. The bass loosens up and a danceable Chic-Disco bop.

The fluid rhythms and the witty melodic singing with a hard edge can be found on an obscure, but worth searching out compilation of music called Mama Kangaroo, Philly Women Play Captain Beefheart. So, the willful atonalities and cranky attitude of Don Van Vliet are wound into the inspiration behind the Billy Nomates debut.

Sympathetic production from Geoff Barrow has resulted in an infectious momentum that’s maintained throughout the whole album.

Billy Nomates is quite striking in her originality and assuredness on debut. These strange days are bringing great talent to the fore.

Rev Orange Peel

Click here to watch the 13th Floor interview with Billy Nomates.

Rev Orange Peel
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