When “We Are Among Spectres” opens Harry Stafford & Marco Butcher We Are The Perilous Men, you are immediately thrown into that murky world that often populates the music of blues greats like Bukka White and Son House, and those more current artists that are inspired by such greats in more ways than one, like Nick Cave or even Tom Waits.
Often, taking such a course with your music can produce bland, derivative results, if you don’t have it in you with your inspiration or musical knowledge. Still, both Stafford and Butcher obviously do and the results are a shining example of the goods such music can deliver.
Stafford is actually a veteran Manchester musician who was a frontman/founder of the groundbreaking 1980s (and still thriving) post-punk band INCA BABIES. At the same time, Butcher is a Brazilian-raised North Carolina-based trash blues guitarist.
The empathy between the two is quite obvious throughout, even though the music here was created by upholding their lockdown-inspired tradition of sending ideas back and forth between North Carolina and Manchester.
And yes, the music here has those deep dark overtones so suited for a thriller/horror soundtrack, the one that underlines the scary stuff. Don’t play this one too late at night. Actually, you should if you want to scare your demons away.
