Pimp. A word with extremely strong connotations. A word describing a person or group of people which should really be used sparingly owing to it strength, and the extreme nastiness inherent within its accusatory tone.

Ana Patan is a supremely talented artist, and together with the legendary Jonas Hellborg laying down the bass track, she presents to us Silicon Pimp, a video recorded at NAMM Show in California a couple of months back.

Before we discuss the music itself, a short commentary following on from my first paragraph. There is a movement beginning to take form. I am extremely lucky to teach younger colleagues working for my government department who reject and put two fingers up to the corporate bollocks we are fed daily. But it is the cultural people, the songwriters, artists, and writers who, as ever, take hold of ideas and a zeitgeist and put it across to the public. Initially, it might be a small audience, but every major political and economic change starts like this, a movement which gradually morphs into an accepted norm where before it was dismissed as cultish or extreme at its root.

Thus, we have an intelligent artist railing against the new gods of Silicon Valley, those unaccountable vast corporations who are responsible for untrammelled falsehoods, dismaying levels of mental illness, and pedalling all the time the fiction that they are merely there to “enhance our experience”. They are pimps, they grow rich from the environmental, political, digital, and at times suicidal impacts which they ignore, all the while presenting themselves to us as “diverse bros”. Pimps. In terms of artistic license, they bleed the independent artists dry, their streaming services providing what could not even be described as a minimal income for those who provide us with such an important part of our lives – the joy of expressive music and art. Pimps.

So, to the music. A delicious guitar to start, that smoky voice, and a bassline to die for. The “Silicon Pimp” passage itself spits with anger and force. Read those words, and, hopefully, you will become an advocate for the creator, not the corporate pimp. This track is a delightful jazz rock guitar led jam, revolving, hypnotic, and damned catchy with its funky grooves.

Bring on the new album! And, as ever, please do support the independent artist by buying physical produce when you can.