Link to our Facebook
Link to our Instagram
Link to our TikTok

Live Review: Morly 'Drone Poem (In Defense Of My Muse)'

4 August 2015 | 2:45 pm | Katie Rowley

One autumnal day in 2013, Katy Morley stepped into a machine with a box of old instruments and a pair of borrowed headphones. In Spring 2015, Morly came out

In a week where Amazon tried to buy the sky so that they can control a separate air space for their delivery drones, Katy Morley’s, aka MORLY, second single ‘Drone Poem (In Defense of My Muse)' is a timely release.

I doubt she’s referring to Amazon as her muse, but I could well be wrong. Morly told Fader that the poem was inspired by Nick Cave’s 1996 rebuttal to MTV when he declined the ‘Best Male Artist’ award. It’s a song about respecting and valuing one’s art, and how easy it is for one’s relationship to music/art/poetry can be compromised for commercial success.

‘Drone Poem’ hums and buzzes, drone-like, slowly and gracefully changing notes and culminating in a wash of lo-fi electronic fuzz. Morly layers her humming vocals like a choir, into a deeply meditative song. The track is the only one to have any singing on the whole album, and it really feels like she has thought about every word and its meaning here to make them count.

Plug into the latest music with our FREE weekly newsletter

The single is minimalist and disquieting, and sounds like it could sit amongst a contemporary art exhibition. Morly is not scared of stillness or silence and in fact she encourages us to listen out for those empty spaces, like the musical equivalent of a Harold Pinter play where what is not said actually says more.

The presser says that one autumnal day in 2013, Katy Morley stepped into a machine with a box of old instruments and a pair of borrowed headphones. In Spring 2015, Morly came out. Her debut EP, In Defense of My Muse, is an exploration into rhythm, flow and spaces in between informed by her choral background. It’s set for release on August 14 via Cascine.

Words by Katie Rowley

SEE ALSO: