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The Pilgrim, Their God and The King of My Decrepit Mountain
ReleaseProduct
The Pilgrim, Their God and The King of My Decrepit Mountain
Artist
Display Artist
Tapir!
Label
Heavenly Recordings
Catalogue Number
HVNLP220DIG
Release Date
January 26, 2024

South-London-based 6-piece Tapir! have announced details of the release of their album, 'The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain', which is out on Friday 26th January 2024 on Heavenly Recordings.

The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain follows a three-act structure – released by Heavenly Recordings as three four-track EPs – telling the story of a solitary traveller, an ambiguous red creature known as The Pilgrim, on a journey across a mythical landscape of eerie forests, stormy seas and unholy mountains populated by beasts, injured birds and idealised eidolons. A fantastical offbeat fable carried along by Gray’s crisp, heartfelt vocals and the band’s instinctive, idiosyncratic melodies, the project at times feels like the musical equivalent of the paintings of Henry Darger, Henri Rousseau or Philip Guston.

Artwork by Ike Gray. Black vinyl LP and CD standard editions.

•

‘From atop a green hill, The Pilgrim did hear a call from the distance. Their people are near. Towards the tall mound The Pilgrim must set, carrying only this sack, into the Nether…’

And so begins Act I of Tapir!’s debut album, The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain, a multiform record that owes as much to folk art and folklore as it does to alt-folk experimentation.

The South London six-piece – Ike Gray (vocals/guitar), Will McCrossan (keys/drum machine), Tom Rogers-Coltman (guitar/saxophone), Ronnie Longfellow (bass), Emily Hubbard (cornet/synth) and Wilf Cartwright (drums/cello) – describe Tapir! as a ‘boiling together’ of different mediums: at once musical, theatrical, mythological, artistic, collaborative, narrative-led and, above all, something to be enjoyed and shared.

The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain follows a three-act structure – released by Heavenly Recordings as three four-track EPs – telling the story of a solitary traveller, an ambiguous red creature known as The Pilgrim, on a journey across a mythical landscape of eerie forests, stormy seas and unholy mountains populated by beasts, injured birds and idealised eidolons. A fantastical offbeat fable carried along by Gray’s crisp, heartfelt vocals and the band’s instinctive, idiosyncratic melodies, the project at times feels like the musical equivalent of the paintings of Henry Darger, Henri Rousseau or Philip Guston.

Gray and McCrossan formed Tapir! in 2019 and after playing just one show at their beloved George Tavern, East London, the UK soon went into lockdown, forcing them to continue the project online, developing songs that combined off-kilter acoustic guitar and Randy Newman-esque storytelling with the reliable propulsion of their Elektron drum machine.

What was to become the world and storyline of The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain would be pieced together gradually over the next year or so, and similarly the band would slowly recruit more members – and more and more friends to help build The Pilgrim’s world, its costumes and its sets – as the national lockdown lifted.

The collective, collaborative ethos of Tapir! stems in no small part from the inclusive, non-judgemental, anything-goes spirit of the George Tavern. A Grade II-listed pub and grassroots venue owned by artist Pauline Forster in a remote corner of Shadwell, the George has a long history of providing a home for theatrical and musical experimentation. Steered since 2019 by the tireless, open-minded vision of booker, venue manager and friend of the band Francis Albrecht, the George is now positively thriving in defiance of repeated threats of closure over the past decade, with ‘different arts springing out of it,’ says Gray.

When Honeyglaze drummer Yuri Shibuichi saw Tapir! live at the venue, he encouraged them to record their songs, and the band stress it was his enthusiasm (soon coupled with the increased attention after they won a place on the Green Man Rising stage in 2022) that led them to take the project more seriously. Without Yuri, The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain might never have come to fruition. Shibuichi’s playful, carefree production (always urging the band not to overthink) perfectly suits Tapir!’s unassuming, handmade, DIY nature.

Nonetheless, the LP hangs together like a strange but familiar fairy-tale. Each of the three acts opens with Little Wings’ Kyle Field – another influence turned collaborator – narrating a few lines of The Pilgrim’s story in his warm Californian burr over field recordings and atmospheric instrumental passages. Over the course of the LP’s forty-five minutes, melodic motifs reappear like a trail of twinkling breadcrumbs, while lyrically the simple tale – essentially ‘just a journey up to the top of a hill,’ albeit with a death, a storm and shipwreck along the way – centres on themes of ideology, idolatry, and what Gray calls ‘the fine line between belief and conspiracy.’

With The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain, Tapir! have proven they are more than technically adept at transporting the listener to another realm. You could read the whole album as being an escape from the trappings of the modern material world, a sidestep into a pre-industrial, pre-internet wonderland where creativity and community reign supreme. The narrator of ‘My God’ might suggest to us ‘Maybe it was Maybelline that put you at a loss/That’s my God’, but for Tapir! it is imagination itself that is king.

Tapir! on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music

Digital Tracklist

Disc 1

  1. 1 Act 1 (The Pilgrim) 1:39 Buy

    Act 1 (The Pilgrim)

  2. 2 On A Grassy Knoll (We'll Bow Together) 4:19 Buy

    On A Grassy Knoll (We'll Bow Together)

  3. 3 Swallow 4:12 Buy

    Swallow

  4. 4 The Nether (Face To Face) 3:56 Buy

    The Nether (Face To Face)

Disc 2

  1. 1 Act 2 (Their God) 2:07 Buy

    Act 2 (Their God)

  2. 2 Broken Ark 4:34 Buy

    Broken Ark

  3. 3 Gymnopédie 3:50 Buy

    Gymnopédie

  4. 4 Eidolon 3:30 Buy

    Eidolon

Disc 3

  1. 1 Act 3 (The King of My Decrepit Mountain) 2:04 Buy

    Act 3 (The King of My Decrepit Mountain)

  2. 2 Untitled 3:33 Buy

    Untitled

  3. 3 My God 3:21 Buy

    My God

  4. 4 Mountain Song 7:19 Buy

    Mountain Song

Tapir!

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