Planet England [EP]

by Robyn Hitchcock / Andy Partridge

2019 CD EP from the British rock icons. It's a veritable Clash of the Titans of English Pop music... a musical meeting of minds to rival King Kong Vs. Godzilla but, sadly, with no Ishiro Honda to chronicle an event of such magnitude and, with both participants being English, the actual meeting was less the cause of earthquakes and tsunamis, more a case of... Tea and a chat, followed by some - typically for both - fine pop song writing, recording, mixing, a celebratory glass of wine and a trip to a restaurant for a curry and a pint of beer... all traditions as English in their longevity as the day they arrived on these shores from somewhere else... English (and British popular music generally) has consistently proved capable of absorbing, refreshing, renewing and placing a distinctive twist on a melange of sounds and influences from almost anywhere in the world while managing to preserve, in many cases, a distinctly local, but not parochial, flavour. So, from two of the country's finest songwriters, come the first recordings from their recent collaborations and while there are logistics to be overcome - Swindon to Nashville so a boxed set is probably some while away - the resulting EP represents a unique Anglo/American (at least in terms of geographical location of one of the participants) take on things.