Bandcamp | US | DL | 2025
From postpunkmonk.com – Chopper Franklin Back With A New Dark Dub Single “The Hexed”: We were in the middle of a thread last week when we got wind of the new single from one man musical gene splicer Chopper Franklin, so we’re directing our attention there today! I actually bought it immediately, based on the high satisfaction values with the last two Chopper Franklin albums of last year. But with my thrill-a-minute lifestyle [road paving, shopping, and a concert attended yet ultimately abandoned] last weekend, It fell to this morning in the hasty minutes before hitting the gym before I finally put the song on my personal device for listening.
“The Hexed Dub” is the lead off track from the upcoming “Darkness In Hymn And Dub Vol. 1” EP that will stand as a sequel to last year’s “Spaghetti Western Dub Vol. 1.” Right now Chopper’s band, The Heathen Apostles, are preparing for a long European sojourn this summer, so we’re told to look for that EP in the fall break before they head back to the UK for a pair of gigs to coincide with All Hallows Eve. It’s kind of Chopper to set this one free as a taster to tide us over until then!
The drums that kicked off this cut had the rim hits soaked in Dub while the bass pulled us under the surface of the song. A minor key piano rondo created a vortex of fatalistic energy. A portent of things to come. Then the Dark Siren herself, Mather Louth, began to weave her deadly spell with her backing vocals. Setting up Chopper, who plays the pawn in this game of woe.
He roared the song aloud like a man who knows that any aces he may have held were in games played in towns long abandoned and that the future at his door now holds only bleakness. Each line of lyric was laced with distortion and dark Dub. Slashing skanks of rhythm guitar offset the fiery but distant leads. Once Ms. Louth returned for lead vocals in the two final verses in the climax, Franklin’s low sustained guitar howled like a feral cat as minor key marimba teased us with its dark hints of Jazz.
It’s sophisticated in different ways to the Dub album of last year showing that Mr. Franklin has plenty of creative gas left in his tank for exploring the ways in which Dub can enhance his normal idiom of Gothic Americana in new and valuable ways. Meanwhile, if you’re reading this in Europe or the UK, why not make the effort to see The Heathen Apostles as they export some of America’s finest music to an audience that certainly values it.
