Dicky Continental - Hostile Environment ft. Tia Zukara

‘Hostile Environment’ is the first single from the forthcoming Dicky Continental album ‘Queer The Pitch’ on Ramrock Red Records. Following the release of the first Dicky Continental album ‘UN’ on Acid Jazz in 2023, Rich Thair returns with his new LP that’s more lyrical, featuring various guest vocalists but still maintaining his experimental approach to beats, textures, melody and musical emotion. Musically, ‘Hostile Environment’ builds live congas and djembe over a Pirate Radio sample found on a dusty cassette which got Rich thinking about the Abyssinians and the Last Poets when he put the instrumental together, prior to transforming the track with Tia’s emotive voice and lyrics. The instrumental is more of a breakbeat head nodder with Rich’s characteristic dub tomfoolery.

Rich Thair is the co-founder and drummer of Red Snapper and Number and as Dicky Continental, recently contributed ‘Large Bongos’ to the Andrew Weatherall charity album, ‘The Flightpath Estate 2’. He continues to remix and reshape releases by other artists with all his musical projects recorded and produced in Buntys Studio, Swansea.

Tia Zakura is a writer and spoken-word poet from Cardiff, known for her distinctive ‘flowetry’ rhythmic vocal delivery. Blending wordplay with musicality, Tia captivates audiences on iconic stages including the Southbank Centre and the Jazz Cafe. She most recently took the stage at the Roundhouse, competing in the final of the UK’s largest poetry slam. As a branch of her poetic career, Tia’s debut spoken-word theatre production, Girl-Coded, opened at the Wales Millennium Centre in April. Tia says:

“After performing professionally as a spoken-word artist across the UK, often with improvised music by a live band, I was keen to lay down my lyrics to some interesting and dynamic music by Dicky Continental. The majority of my writing spans themes of politics and intersectionality. I am particularly interested in connecting the ‘big P’ in ‘People’ to the ‘small p’ in person. At the time of recording, I felt swarmed with political corruption, drowning in the constant media and news on my screen and TV. Everything was moving so fast that I felt stagnant, like I was just existing on this earth, not truly living. For me, the music inspired me to write lyrics that give a true reflection of our current state, but also reclaim the power of creativity, and the ways in which art can save us.”

Dicky Continental - 'Hostile Environment ft. Tia Zukara' is due to be released on the 7th of August via Ramrock Red Records.

www.dickycontinental.com