Having recently remixed space rockers Traams for FatCat Records, Elijah Minnelli now releases his debut LP on the respected indie imprint. Since 2019, Minnelli has built a serious reputation as an avant dub auteur via a series of sought after singles, largely on his own label, Breadminster Community. In the process he’s built a world of lore around the fictional town of Breadminster, which has given his work layers of curiosity / mystery. Minnelli’s sound, in the past, has also been equally unique, blending Eastern European and South American elements with reggae.

Perpetual Musket is a concept album, concerned not only with continuing the Breadminster mythology, but also making a peaceful protest. The record is a veiled commentary on our war torn globe, the plight of its refugees, austerity and corrupt, greedy “trickle down” economies. The set’s title alone suggests a state of constant, eternal conflict, while the sleeve notes talk of “a population better fed than dead” and Minnelli is pictured sporting a suit of armour made from slices of bread. The tale is told, the message shared, through simple words: a children’s nursery rhyme, a Shakespearian ditty (from Twelfth Night), and covers of folk songs – some centuries old, which only adds to a sense of sorrow – as in will we never learn.

The music is also pared back. Bluesy, moody, mediative, and confined, mostly, to bass, percussion, and melodica. I guess Minnelli wants the listener to reflect on the lyrics and how they relate to our situation right now. On Vine & Fig Tree, the legendary Little Roy sings of a utopian equality and swords repurposed as ploughs. In a place where there is no use for their violence. On Soulcake, Minnelli shapes a sorta dancehall from funkily filtered percussion and plucked gypsy / Romany strings, while London DJ / MC Shumba Youth finds his pockets full of poverty: “If you haven’t got a ha’penny, God bless you.”

Rhythms, though, are generally a tender trot, a calm canter, and the cumbia cross pollination is gone. Save the odd bit of guira scratching. The melodies are like sad sombre sea shanties, and the album is dedicated to the crew of the Mona Lifeboat, the 8 men who lost their lives during a rescue attempt in The North Sea, of the coast of Dundee, in 1959. Peggy Seeger’s contemporary song on the subject is versioned here by veteran roots vocalist, Earl 16, and it’s hard not to connect its sentiments to those people currently trying to ensure the safety of the displaced and desperate who set off for the UK in small boats. Another guest is Joe Yorke, who together with fellow Bristolian Yaksha, last year cut the haunting, similarly themed single, Rocking Ship. His take on Shakespeare’s Wind & The Rain – apt since the bad news certainly seems to “raineth” everyday – is the album at its most electronic / digital, most bottom-end heavy, and its accompanying dub shakes with Jah Shaka soundsystem fury.

Elijah Minnelli’s Perpetual Musket can be ordered directly from FatCat Records.