MYSTIC VISTIC: Nietzsche, Crass, and the imminence of death.
LONDON born, Australia raised, Bristol dwelling multi-instrumentalist JOHN E VISTIC today drops his hard-hitting EP, ‘Humanz are Bastardz,’ released via Deafendling Records.
The release follows 2021’s album, ‘Under the Volcano,’ and recent singles, ‘Das Ubermensch,’ and ‘Spiderz,’ with Vistic providing his unique brand of punk, good old-fashioned rock and roll, and alt country, with perhaps more than a touch of rage.
(Lead track from John E Vistic’s new EP. Video tribute to Kurt Cobain: ‘Gunz Germz and Steal.’)
“Maybe, maybe not,” he said. “There’s always been angry music, not all our music is ‘angry,’ but I suppose it vents frustration, fear, and loathing. We live in an age in which old sureties seem to be ending. Most of the Vistic songs attempt small but ragged forays into enemy landscapes. We live in the battleground of stolen dreams, alert to the imminence of death.”
With influences including The Jesus & Mary Chain, Bauhaus, Cramps, along with contemporary acts Idles, Metz & Fontaines DC, and having shared the stage with Mudhoney, Alabama 3, The Jim Jones Revue, and The Urban Voodoo Machine, Vistic has clearly drawn inspiration from far and wide.
“I admire Crass, but my influences probably come more from similar sources in books rather than directly from their music,” he explained. “Nietzsche and a bunch of dead philosophers, forgotten books, cancelled authors, tend to be my lyrical influences.
“I’ve worked with a lot of great people. Ali Chant recorded, and Paul Corkett produced our ‘Modern Love’ album – though I do wish we’d had more time to mix it, did eleven tracks including string quartet in two days – worked a lot with Stew Jackson, who is a Bristol legend obviously, Tristan Longworth produced my last solo album ‘Welcome Down The Night’, which is still probably my best quality recording, with an all-star cast including David Ryder Prangley.
“Our recent stuff has all been produced with Hugh Fielding, who I got drunk with at a wedding and is an all-round hero and party animal. Obviously, I love my band too. Danno on drums has been there since the beginning, Bex our newby on mind blowing saxophone, Rob on guitars who is a blistering soloer and Mark F, who has returned to the fold from his itinerant rock star lifestyle elsewhere to play buzzsaw bass.”
‘Humanz Are Bastardz’ was produced by Hugh Fielding (UNKLE, Ry X, Flyte, Dagny, X) and mastered by Shawn at Optimum.
Connect with JOHN E VISTIC right here: https://www.facebook.com/johnevisticrocknrollsoundsystem/
(Photo (c) John Morgan)
