Speaking About ‘don’t Be Another’, Skinny Pelembe Says: “new Life And The End Of It. You Could Find A Place To Hide Behind Your Palms, Eyes Shut, Digging Out The Past, Like Some Lost Scavenger. Or, You Might Find Yourself In A Better Place If You ‘straighten Out Your Spine, Shoot For Something Good, Promise You Won't Cry, And Be The Ties That Bind.’ I'd Actually Just Finished The Album The Night Before, Me And My Manager Zoomed Around London Blasting It Out And He Suggested I Try And Write A Track For Another Bigger Artist. Why Not?
“Anyway, Got Dropped Off At Home, Got The Gretsch Out, Put Pen To Paper. 20 Minutes Later It Was Fucking Written! Verses, Chorus, Bridge, All Of It. Fell Right Out The Sky. Easy. Way Too Easy. And Too Good To Share. Like A Terry’s Chocolate Orange. One Of The Best Songs I've Written So Far. Fuck Giving This One To Anyone Else!”
Hardly The Same Snake Is Skinny Pelembe’s Second Album, Following 2019’s Dreaming Is Dead Now, Which Was Released On Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings To Widespread Acclaim.
“I Never Considered Myself A Singer Before Now,” Says Skinny Pelembe. Hardly The Same Snake Is The Sound Of The Johannesburg-born, Doncaster-raised Artist Finally Finding His Voice – Both Literally And Figuratively. In Practical Terms, That Involved Finding The Courage To Bring His Gravelly Baritone To The Foreground, But It Also Meant Figuring Out The Artist He Truly Wanted To Be. As He Puts It Today, “this Album Is What I Would Have Created First Time Round Had I Rated My Own Voice.”
The Idea Of Forging Your Own Path – And Shedding Skin, So To Speak – Is Integral To Hardly The Same Snake. Begun Pre-pandemic And Completed In The Spring Of 2021, The Album Was Re-recorded Twice Due To Skinny’s Dissatisfaction With Early Experiments And Desire To Flip The Script On The Winning Formula He’d Established With His Debut.
Determined That The Collection Shouldn’t Sound Like A Band Record, But Equally Mustn't Feel “too Button Push-y”, Skinny Assembled Songs By Sampling Instrumentation Originally Recorded Live, Including Chopped And Looped Versions Of The Brilliantly Complex Beats Played By Malcolm Catto Of The Heliocentrics. It Was A Painstaking Process That Paid Off, Resulting In An Album Fathoms Ahead Of Its Promising Predecessor, And One That Honestly Reflects Skinny’s Creative Evolution. Its Sound Is Far-reaching And Technicolour; Gloriously Genre-agnostic, Incorporating Jungle-inspired Rhythms, Saloon-style Pianos, Low-slung Indie-rock And Afrobeat-meets-8-bit-riffs.
Lyrically, Hardly The Same Snake Is A Defiantly Outward-looking Record Contemplating Family, Religion And Major Life Milestones, From Parenthood To Death. Where Previously Skinny Relied On Dream Diaries As His Primary Lyrical Resource, This Time He Took Notes At Design Exhibitions, Using These Unfiltered Observations As A Jumping Off Point For Songs.
The Album Opens With The Ominous Stream Of Consciousness ‘same Eye Colour’, Considering The Respectable Face Of Corruption – From Florsheim-clad Hustlers Operating In The Name Of Organised Religion To The Politicians That Betrayed The Windrush Generation. ‘deadman Deadman Deadman’ Is Weighed Down By Ideas Of Legacy, Hinting At The Fleeting Nature Of Life Via Its Laundry List Of Professions, While ‘like A Heart Won’t Beat’ Contemplates Mortality, And ‘don’t Be Another’ Grapples With Ideas Of Familial Responsibility. It’s A Fascinating Glimpse Into The Mind Of An Artist Who Is Unafraid To Dive Into The Political And The Personal With A Raw Intensity That Leaves The Listener Feeling Inspired.
The Album Culminates In A Choral Dedication To Skinny’s Childhood Hiding Place, Performed By Doncaster Choir Rainbow Connections. Listen Closely Enough And You’ll Even Find A Secret Code To Crack. A Rare Moment Of Tranquillity, For Its Author The Song Provides A Vital Space To Reflect On The Lives He’s Lived And The Artist He’s Evolving Into. Because If This Superb Second Album Proves Anything, It’s That It Doesn’t Matter How Much Skinny Errs On The Side Of Self-deprecation – He Remains One Of The Uk’s Most Fearlessly Original Voices.
