Margate-based “Hyper-Country” artist Jack Goldstein navigates systemic erasure on his staggering new single, “Falling Off The Earth.” Sifting through the wreckage of the 1980s American farming crisis and recalling trips to his sister’s farm, Goldstein constructs a narrative around the brutal collapse of traditional rural livelihoods. It traces a devastating line from physical displacement to a sprawling, cosmic detachment, leaving its subjects abandoned to a wildly indifferent universe.
It starts softly. The main melody drifts into view with an airy melancholy, carrying an eerie, subdued deliberation. Then the ground drops out completely. As Goldstein pulls you deeper into this earthly tragedy, the track balloons into a chaotic, sweeping wall-of-sound crescendo.
Distorted neo-psychedelia and blistering indie-rock noise threaten to swallow everything whole, yet the central vocal manages to float above the panic with total serenity.
Amidst that apocalyptic noise lies a jarringly beautiful anchor. Goldstein incorporates a cassette sample of his late parents’ brass band, dueting with his own history to bridge the space between tangible soil and the spiritual realm. As the distortion finally recedes into silence, you have to wonder when relentless modernization finally rips us from our foundations, what are we supposed to hold onto next?
