New Music: Voka Gentle — Cheddar Man

Right from the Bulgarian-language choir singing ‘a clear star has risen’ at the intro, you know you’re getting something unusual on Cheddar Man.

Voka Gentle — William J. Stokes and twins Imogen and Ellie Mason — retrace music and Somerset history on Cheddar Man, using a striking concept to frame a very current concern.

The spiritual children of Art Brut, Captain Beefheart, and Stump, the trio regales the listener with a funked-up experimental story of the eponymous Mesolithic caveman finding himself pitched up in the modern day as sea levels rise as quickly as denialism.

Says the band about the song, which is out now via state51, “The Cheddar Man was discovered in Somerset in 1903, and his portrait was recently reconstructed using his DNA. It established that the earliest humans we can identify were essentially black with blue eyes. A hugely unifying concept. There’s really only ever been one of us.”

They add about the lyrics, “Cheddar Man wakes up and returns to Cheddar Gorge, where he was found, but finds it underwater. After all, when sea levels rise by between 0.5 and 1.1 meters by 2100, Somerset will be one of the first places to feel it.”

“Can’t handle the doom, so I think I’m going to go, crawl back into my cave, kick back, and scrawl a few pieces on the wall. We move ‘normal’ to where it suits us, and use long and soothing words like ‘unprecedented’ — words ’so long and soothing that we can’t remember the beginning of them by the time we get to the end. Whatever makes you feel better about rising sea levels, I guess.”

Be sure to watch the excellent and slightly surreal video for Cheddar Man. The song is streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify and SoundCloud. Head to BlueSky, Facebook, and Instagram for further listening options and all the latest updates from Voka Gentle.