The Listening Zone

Performance poets have often been noted both for their left-wing political views and their close involvement with the alternative musicians of the day. Take the 'ranting poets', for example, who emerged in the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s - Attila the Stockbroker...and Seething Wells (now Steven Wells). But the association between performance poetry, music and politics goes back much further, of course. Dunlop shares his predecessors' inclination to exchange peformance poetry for music now and again. This recording contains a number of songs performed in a hoarse and bluesy tenor to his own piano accompaniment, the best of which is probably 'Falling Men'.

Chopper Drop Out' demonstrates that in the hands of someone like Dunlop, performance poetry can encompass a whole range of different styles, and crowd-pleasing entertainment is only one of them. Not all the material here is equally successful, but it displays an encouraging willingness to experiment, both in terms of writing techniques and of engaging with new media; and there are several pieces which deserve and repay close attention and repeated listening.

To read the full review by Edward Picot, founder of The Hyperliterature Exchange, see http://hyperex.co.uk/reviewmacdunlop.php.