IRON HORSE

Description

When YOUTH (bass player of Killing Joke) meets ALAN GINSBERG (renowned American poet)... “Iron Horse” by Allen Ginsberg & Youth is a new album that reimagines and follows Ginsberg’s epic poem, Iron Horse. The poem is a poignant snapshot of countercultural America in 1966, documenting a summer journey across the United States by train, through Ginsberg’s laser-sharp, detail-rich lens. The poem itself had previously only been published in a limited edition by City Lights Books in 1974. Recorded by Youth in the Andalusian mountains in Spain during the harsh lockdown of autumn 2021, the new album sees sounds woven into speech with Ginsberg’s narration of his encounter with young soldiers on their way to the Vietnam War and features an haunting vocal refrain by Siobhan Fahey. The ambient soundscape poignantly captures the ebb and flow of the poem and the rhythm of the train and transports us on a psychedelic journey through the darkness and beauty of the summer of 1966. The album sits somewhere between KLF’s Chill Out and the cosmic ambient drone of Ash Ra Temple and is a tribute to Ginsberg’s pioneering rebellious spirit, his poetry and his influence on the world and on youth itself.