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1.
Ancestors 02:21
start off the one set the punchlines for stun this time we do it for fun this time we’re aiming for the sun lets run Once more show the horrors what for top scores across the board we’re Legends without the lore Third time what the harm tho beats to wear your best garms to unbelievers, modern sinners, bring to you the new psalms yo check the cheek on him, check the charm, tho Check the charm yo an epic outro to the street tragedy club classics never heard of me Naija flow by way of the streets nothing but goat meat and malt between the teeth yah nothing in my hands but my dreams and fate got a few lines before my date with the pearly gates modern day keats writing sad songs in yeats full english on my plate, I’m long, not late, mate Forget what you heard, nerd Step in the fire get burned y wan versus Come school with those nursery verses We're doing wheelies in your hearses Hold on to your hats grab close your purses Drop the curtains No chartstopper here just heartstoppers breh headbopppers, kiss your teeth say yes brudda it’s that cloudy glass vision, that can’t be arsed wisdom that man to man facts meets pint plus chat fiction listen We’re coming with the mad concepts like no sex without consent, man’s a myth like loch ness, what’s next Modern West African hails from the tribe Edo check my flow ancesters barefoot on hot coal, I barefoot yellow lego clear with the words, no mumble rap it’s spoken word like grumble rap you know the type, man loves to chat the sisters uncut I doff my hat. hold tight staring into the sunlight while I journey further staring into my son’s eyes trying to know my father in a way a bastard but more about that after
2.
champion lunch like chicken and bread advice for life, don’t end up dead Black on black like a doberman Blood red eyes and golden fangs Blak inside like a cola can stepped out the flames as a colder man stepped out my youth as an older man Stumbled out the gate but im stronger now Struggle with the bottle but im sober now Blues cant hold me down Black on Black like afrobeats talk back get afrobeats no shirts under afroheats chewing stick on the afroteeth Walk through the hoods like a stallion walk through the woods like black lion like a black lion, 9ja panther Here for the beef no time for banter champion lunch like chicken and bread advice for life, don’t end up dead christian child on a stolen bike Underground no over hype Move sharp move like a knife So black you can taste the night Black on black like aunt Beatrice headwrap game like satellite dish Candlelight vigil, rice and catfish sermons with saints and bandits champion lunch like chicken and bread advice for life, don’t end up dead Speak to god as a praying mantis failed to launch but i nailed the landing land on roses, awful noises get on that get on that migrant voices Grip the mike with the OJ Gloves spit that venom that slows that blood chop that beef that teeth find tough asthma verse make the ears cough champion lunch like chicken and bread advice for life, don’t end up dead clear blue sky but the eyes are red Palm wine shutter but he walks alert Black on black on jeans and converse black on black no time for nonsense black on black like after sunset vinyl clean but the needle’s rusted mamba ate all the snakes Take the first bus out the sunken place Blak on black like a thunder God Shango shango thunder god No President just bloody coup Crude oil in the pepper soup Crude Oil in the soil, staining the root Old witch doctor with the single tooth Good in braid look good in weave She don't need no man to teach her God is good and the devil deceiver . I Don't believe in either
3.
Not My House 03:00
they wanna touch man crown they wanna push man around I’m from naija, I’m from hackney I am not fine and i am not dandy breh They say go back to where you came from they say dont rise above your station I got an oyster I don’t belong in one station Better be careful what you say son Chineke me Not my house I bring the gold Not my house I put on the show Not my house Na so you wan show Not my house I’m from naija, I’m from hackney top marks in the school of hard knocks slap a nazi with a red passport Dont cook what your mouth cant chop it’s all fun and games til you get slapped up Somebody tell this breh tell him I’m not his breh tell him to watch it yeh Finity frere ferr feer Tell him we domt compare this is my house Fuck you yes this is my house take off your shoes when in my house Watch how you do when your in my house this is my house I just arrived this is my house I got ma jobs this is my house I got a good house get out of my house they wanna push man around Dont talk to man about reason you dont want to see man as human Got no decorum no restraint no kumbaya nah we're aint the same We aint the same nah were aint the same White black brown nah we aint the sam Stop and search nah we aint the same Drop that search nah we aint the same Who gets the handcuffs we aint the same Who gets the warning we aint the same Who gets the handouts we aint he same Who puts the work in we aint the same Who gets to work less we aint the same Who gets the success we aint the same You drop the bomb hes wrong in the brain i drop the bomb yeah we all the same
4.
Got it locked like a door, no handle In my room with my socks and sandals Cocoa butter on my knees and ankles Im that one black guy I’m Lando New kind of dish new kind of mash new kind of bangers Here with usual suspects, the blacks the vanguards never show no pain never show no fear never show no anger Skys all clear, I’m up in air mans still in the hanger Called god last week ring ring ring ring one click god hanged up and I heard my name in the wind, had no choice had to stand up And I rhyme off beat, yeah I don’t rhyme neat I’m Jazz, I’m standard Black man like me could be dead on streets with both of his hands up only asked for my due, only reached for my own don’t want no hand outs only asked for my due, only reached for my own my share my portion I should come with a warning sign should come with a caution those devils my devils are back in the ring I got in and fought em though Im Sunny sometimes Im a english git, more in tune with autumn Got my english lip, less with the ain’ts and more with the oughtas I know my verses know my rascals know my chaucers no fear of shadows and shapes no fear I was made from monsters Restless morning restless evening stress is constant Constant mayhem constant chat bare lack of substance Might is right and rights on the up whats wrong with my compass We’re all in the Shit who’s making contact All alone on the gaff, on my own in the gaff, nightmares on the sofa Drowning the doubts, mixing the suicide with the soda In my room i can feel all the walls closing in so I go to my local And I head underground, in my hand is a loaded Oyster lean back with the vex but if brought the vex then I press my thrusters Cowboy at high noon, both sides of the hips is a loaded holster We’re the lanky sort but if it’s fighting talk we’ll talk it trust us been here for a few biding my time, patience of vultures And I paid my bit, thousand miles every step I walked em I got all that I need what I need what I need that clear head focus And I walk through the valley and the trouble all around but I can’t take notice they can’t fuck with you and yours when you know yourself and you know this Got it locked like a door no handlle In my room with my socks and sandals Cocoa butter on my knees and ankles Im that one black guy im lando Good golly olly good god dam Finest garm can’t top man I’m blessed so can’t cus man on the final stretch, can’t stop man Good golly olly good god dam Chillin with chill and lamb Capitalism is a wholesale scam No friends extended fam Good good good grief god damn word on the wall lines on the sand
5.
Curdled milk morning cold coffee dawn grey hours keep pouring Panic in the yawn Pain in my neck and worry in my step Can’t put a finger on the reasons Im upset Look away from the news the telly turns me vex arguments with missus its been months since we had cold cold sex Much less loving I Watch berocca hit the water Madly fizzing into nothing I know that you’ve been feeling less than perfect You wanna throw your hand up in the air give up give up give up - you will make it thru the day of this I'm certain Somehow Bad days and dead chat Heartbreaks and setbacks no sleep and old stress nightmares and cold sweats gnash teeth til sore gums play games til sore thumbs been a while since to called mums fell out, been a war on And how I tell myself things’ll get better if I just hold it down Tenser and testy since the brexit Would London miss me if I left it these thoughts bare left me in a puddle I called my ex begged for a cuddle I know that you’ve been feeling less than perfect You wanna throw your hand up in the air give up give up give up - you will make it thru the day of this I'm certain Somehow both my hands are losing ones depression is a nuisance, man Stand in front of mirror asking asking who’s the man, who’s the man I'm looking left to right I'm looking set to right I'm only opponent is me I'm mashing my silly self up lashing out at helping hand Looking weak i cant stand Don’t want to see no therapist ‘just let me be I’ll handle it Anvils on my shoulders My confidence’s a smouldering wreck thoughts turned against me bastards threw me off deck. I know that you’ve been feeling less than perfect You wanna throw your hand up in the air give up give up give up - you will make it thru the day of this I'm certain
6.
Everyday 04:14
Working late in the weekend working Enemies cast aspersions not a patch on this version Lurking darkest corner lurking stand tall even when when Im hurting beethoven to them curses Everyday every hour Struggle with a smile Everyday every hour I’m hustling on Ogres Orc amongst these ogres keep my talking trim inside voice is vulgar Vultures meat too tough for the vultures circling can’t touch me road block can’t block me Everyday every hour Struggle with a smile Everyday every hour I’m hustling on Blimey Atmosphere's so icy Most of them don’t like me A happy ending’s unlikely Angers Slave to the pain and anger Black man like me Black man like me Cut down with both of this hands up Hanged up Called god and he hanged up Heard name in the London wind No choice I stand up Constant Restlessness is constant Nightmares on a constant Shadows cast above me Soda Suicide with that soda Sometimes I wish it were over But I still got a verse in my holster It’s all vex behind the curtain Fire behind the mountain No time for none of that doubting
7.
You be doing this things you be doing this thing you be you be you be doing this thing to your self Its three am bredda don feel right been blaming other people for the problems in my life Come the Morning cursed with a 666 bredda got a bloody headache panadolly can’t fix And the GP’s telling bredda watch your health you ain’t a young gun not alot of gunpowder left Naaaw I'm a child of the empire my pride I won't repent come the evening brother is indulging himself awwww You be doing this things you be doing this thing you be you be you be doing this thing to yourself Come save me from my bad habits Come save me from my bad habits Saw this thing in the mirror can't stand it If I carry on like this gonna panic Iiiiiiii can’t keep playing with fire i can’t keep spinning my tires Yeah I’m gonna drive us all off the cliff yeah I’m gonna toss us all into the water I wide eyed as I plunge in the drink won’t do the right thing even though i oughta
8.
The Jar 03:47
i don’t know what you’ve told i don’t know what they’ve been saying pay no mind to all that chatter cross my fingers hope to die I don’t play any games I just play my part Won't be misbehaving maybe just a little unclean maybe just a tiny but rowdy maybe stamp on heart like rick james turn everything to ash with big flame Maybe I cause commotion Maybe I won't answer phone I didn’t mean to act this evil it’s just the way that I act with people I can’t help it I can’t help my nature Deviousness is part of my soul Deviousness gonna swallow me whole Sticky fingers gonna go for the jar Sticky fingers always aim for the jar Lemme take you out see what I'm of take you out clear this mess up take you out, nothing major Be on my best behaviour I might act unseemly less the gentleman and more the fiend It’s been 0 days since my last big disaster if that’s what you're after Maybe I can't take commitment Maybe my heart is too crowded Maybe I will build up this web maybe i can't run with three legs maybe go out in a blaze and glory Ubersupernova at the end of story I can’t it I can’t help my nature I didn’t mean to act this evil it’s just the way that I act with people I can’t help it I can’t help my nature Deviousness is part of my soul Deviousness gonna swallow me whole Sticky fingers gonna go for the jar Sticky fingers always aim for the jar i don’t know what you’ve told i don’t know what they’ve been saying pay no mind to all that chatter cross my fingers hope to die I don’t play any games I just play my part Won't be misbehaving maybe just a little unclean maybe just a tiny but rowdy maybe stamp on heart like Rick James turn everything to ash with big flame Maybe I cause commotion Maybe I won't answer phone
9.
Now is the fucking time now is the time now is the fucking time The icebergs are knocking on the pubs policemen gripping on their clubs white noise drowning out the dub white rage drowning out the love Black dogs frothing at the mouth’ summer but the birds head south stallions chomping at the bit Don’t like this kinda future one bit I see the black boys dead on the telly I see the black boys dead on the telly I see the black men crawling on the belly I see the black men crawling on the belly I see the devil, with the phone taking selfie he got his arms spread wide who will test me Don’t like this kinda future dislike Now is that fucking time, You say you want a revolution but the rent is rude can the revolution set you up with brand new shoes Is it a revolution if you heard from the news Are there many revolutions can I pick and choose
10.
Save Me 03:33
brand new day brand new day brand new Wakeup i stretched out my legs cracking my shoulders and necks stand up and puffing my chest trouble i dust off my chest Today I am doing my best tomorrow I figure the rest shadows ain’t cornered me yet x 2 comb out the knot in my head Maybe I won’t take my meds tea with the butter and bread Step out and see what I get Bus 38 to the west end See what the hustle will bring me They said it simple was easy London is making me weezy Save Me I can’t help myself So don’t follow me son I ain’t king solomon now dunno where I goin And if you ain’t stumbling You ain’t doing it properly now This great ship is rudderless But that don’t bother me none I built my path to hell with my own intentions

about

Enigmatic electronic duo LV and Joshua Idehen, one of the most crucial voices in UK club culture, return with Ends, the third and final chapter in their decade-long collaboration. Their first release, the critically acclaimed Routes in 2011 (9/10 – Clash Mag), was celebrated as a masterful London album, “an ode to the city’s dark corners, its citizens and its transport service,” says Idehen, a night bus ride through the city that criss-crossed garage, dubstep, UK funky and astral soul.

Ends picks up that inner-city thread but finds the three musicians weaving through a metropolis in turmoil, a post-Brexit landscape where nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment are on the rise. It’s an Original Pirate Material for the Black Lives Matter generation, a dizzying, uncategorisable rush of tough polyrhythms, sound system energy and electronic music that pulls both from the shadowy corners of the club and from the futuristic reaches of pop, underneath pulsing meditations on race, mental health, identity and alienation.

LV are Londoners Will Horrocks and Si Williams, who emerged during the mid-2000s as dubstep was intersecting with techno, UK funky and garage, and put out scene-defining releases on respected labels like Hyperdub, Hemlock, Keysound, Soul Jazz and Brownswood. Their electronic music never conforms or sits still, snatching from dub, hip-hop, dancehall and bass, as brightly lit as a motorway on a slow shutter speed. They’ve worked with South African rappers on Hyperdub’s Sebenza release and their track ‘Imminent’ was recently reworked by The Comet Is Coming.

Joshua Idehen, meanwhile, a British-born Nigerian, is the Poet Laureate of the UK jazz/electronic scene – a chameleonic artist, singular voice and, as he puts it, “ranter”. He releases sublime electro-pop as the trio Benin City, has contributed vocals to music by Dan Le Sac and Mercury-nominated albums Channel The Spirits by The Comet Is Coming and Your Queen Is A Reptile by Sons of Kemet. More recently, he formed Calabashed with Alabaster DePlume, a spiritual jazz crew who were recently named a 2021 one-to-watch by NME.

Together they’re a formidable trio, and they’ve come a long way since a chance meeting in 2009 turned into LV soundtracking Idehen’s poem Early Mob with an eerie drone. The recording found its way to Keysound, who immediately commissioned what later became the 38 EP, and soon after that, their debut album Routes. In the decade since, LV + Joshua Idehen remained prolific, and they returned in 2014 with the album Islands, also on Keysound – more assured and adventurous in style and solidifying their reputation within the London electronic scene. “If Routes was a wander into the unknown,” says Idehen, then “Islands was a deeper journey down backyards, alleyways and introspections.”

New album Ends is in some ways far darker, certainly more world-weary, as it wrestles with the uncertainty and polarisation of life today. As Idehen puts it:

“Ends is about Ends, East End, Hackney, where I saw a swastika scratched into a Post Office, and a week later a young Muslim boy turned it into a window, ‘Hackney is my house, innit. This is another window now’. It’s about Morden, the end of the Northern Line where I stood a little too over the gap, contemplating the end of my life. Ends is about endings: marriage, my idea of myself as a ‘Nice Guy”, my belief of Britain as Good and Nazism Is Never Really Coming Back, end of my certainty that things are guaranteed to get better. Ends is about closure.”

The album is a celebration of their friendship but also an interrogation of growing older in a city that’s beginning to seem unfamiliar: “Will London miss me if I left it?” asks Idehen on ‘Somehow’, one of the central songs on Ends and one that feels particularly timely, as people continue to feel alienated from their hometowns during the global pandemic. “I’d grown into a less certain, more weary reflection of who I thought I’d be now,” says Idehen. “I realised, I’ve got to talk about my depression; I’ve got to talk about this horrible timeline we’re stuck in; I’ve got to make some medicine out of all this turmoil, all this defiance and rage.”

The idea was to bottle it all with immediacy, get it down quickly in the heat of the Brexit referendum and Trump’s inauguration. “Let’s do something raw, we said,” Idehen remembers. “Quick, in and out. No faffing about, no editing vocals or changing beats. Let’s make the purest LV and Joshua Idehen record in a single month, we said,” adding with a smile: “This third album has taken five years.”

Ends is worth waiting for. All that attention to detail has resulted in an album that is like little else in 2021, sticky soul one minute; intergalactic Afrobeats the next. Lead single and the first track Idehen wrote for the album, ‘Ancestors’, sets the tone of the album and sees him at his most Mike Skinner – “Naija by way of The Streets” – and underlines his gift for witty wordplay: he’s a “Modern-day Keats writing sad songs in Yeats,” he says, “Full english on my plate / I’m long, not late, mate”. The exceptional ‘Somehow’ pairs that urgent spoken delivery with a galloping broken beat rhythm and gentle keys – it’s a galvanising tune, buzzing with restlessness, urging you to keep going when it feels like times are tough.

Elsewhere, Idehen explores his identity on‘Black On Black’, a tough, metallic celebration of Africanism, black pride and Idehen’s memories of growing up in Nigeria – “afrobeat, chewing sticks, bus drivers smelling of palm wine at New Benin Market”. Then there’s ‘Not My House’, a relentless slice of digi-dancehall sorcery, with a flawlessly slinky beat, as Idehen intones in delicious AutoTune, like a ragga MC, about his dual identity, Nigerian and East Ender. The track evidences Idehen’s gift for delivery: “They say go back to where you came from / They say don’t rise above your station,” he sings, referencing that well-known racist rhetoric, then deadpans: “I got an oyster / I don’t belong in one station.”

‘Now Is The Time’, meanwhile, is about Idehen’s annoyance with his own “armchair activism”. It’s about my “anger at how divided the left sometimes seems, at how capitalism co-opts every progressive advancement and how cynical it has made me,” he explains, and how he felt “torn between doom-scrolling, protesting and voting, and watching everything spiral all the same.”

Other songs on Ends are more inward-looking, where Idehen is grappling with his own dark thoughts. ‘The Jar’, with its sticky, squelchy soul, bravely grapples with his own toxic masculinity; he wrote ‘Somehow’ about depression while on his way to visit his therapist; while ‘Lines In The Sand’ explores the suicidal thoughts that Idehen fought back during a difficult patch a few years back, when his musical projects failed to launch, as well as the helplessness he felt about police brutality and the pursuit of young black men in America. He still can’t listen back to the song yet, but adds: “I’m glad it’s out there."

Ends is a truly innovative album, 10 years in the making, from three artists with something to say – a vibrant, multi-hued manifestation of Idehen’s exceptional, singular voice and LV’s superb, forward-thinking production. It’s about finding a way through these most testing of times, and about coming out the other end stronger. “The irony is I chose to be an artist because I thought it would be easy,” says Idehen. “A decade later it is the hardest of all the jobs I've ever had. It has cost me many friendships and a marriage. But the hardest ends come before better beginnings. Darkest before dawn and all that.”

Tracklisting
Ancestors
Black On Black
Not My House
Lines In The Sand
Somehow
Everyday
Doing This Thing
The Jar
Now Is The Time
Save Me

Written By Kate Hutchinson

credits

released July 6, 2021

Lyrics: Joshua Idehen
Performed by: Joshua Idehen
Produced and Composed by: Will Horrocks and Simon Williams
Backing Vocals: Shanaz Dorsett and Orchid Vishkaiy
Mastered by: Transition Studios
Artwork by: Ivan Hadzhivelikov (concept), Yonko Patev (art)
for Stretch

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LV London, UK

South London duo LV, made up of Simon Williams and Will Horrocks have been at the forefront of UK electronic productions since 2007, beginning their musical endeavours together around 2000 while at university . Formerly a trio, including Gervase Gordon (Okzharp), LV have again and again shown an inventive flare for distinctly unique sounds. ... more

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